Softening Into Alignment with Renee Green

In this episode of Healers Talk Healing from Miracles Ultimate Wellness Resources, Lynne Herod-DeVerges and Nina Ganguli welcome back Renee Green for a beautiful conversation about softening into alignment.

Renee shares how yoga can help us slow down, listen to the body, and move from forcing to allowing. Rather than focusing on performance, flexibility, or getting a pose “right,” she invites us into a more supportive experience of breath, awareness, safety, and inner connection.

Together, they explore how the body holds tension, how breath can bring us back into the present moment, and why alignment begins when we stop pushing and start noticing what is happening within.

This episode is for anyone who has been feeling tense, overwhelmed, disconnected, or tired of forcing their way through life.

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Transcript

Recording Started

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Oh, there you are. Okay. I was talking to Emmett. Oh, okay. He of course. What why did he call me? I'll I'll listen, I'll give you three guesses, and the first one's the only one that really counts.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

When are we doing it again?

SPEAKER_02 0:30

No, no, that that's not it. Okay. I always want to know when he's doing stuff for us.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Oh, if he can have the recording.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Yep.

unknown 0:42

No.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

And I told him, I said, I don't know. I'll have to discuss it with my board.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Nope.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

That means you and me.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

The answer is no.

SPEAKER_02 0:53

I said, you know, I said, it is your intellectual property for everything you put together. I said, but the recording itself is our intellectual property. And so what I told him was, which I'm I was thinking I want to do anyway, because a lot of people who have signed up are not able to be there because it is Father's Day, but I reassure them they have they'll get the replay if they register. And so I'm I'd like to extend the replay for this one up to three days. I know that's not what we normally do, but it gives people more time to watch it.

unknown 1:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

And some people are traveling. So that's the reason for that, too. Okay. But um, it's not something we're advertising. Oh, I'm recording all of this.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

There you go. Okay, so oh my gosh, we are back for our third conversation with Renee Green. And it's everything that you've shared and talked about has been so incredible. And it's all going to lead up to this wonderful workshop that will be on July the 19th. And we'll talk a little bit more about that as our towards the end of our conversation. And you know, we always do a little pre-lab preamble. I was gonna say pre-lamble. Um, my brain pre-lamble.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

My voice is pre-scrambled. Okay, go ahead.

unknown 2:27

Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Right, because you know what you gotta you can't take ourselves too much too seriously in in serious times, right? And it's kind of what we were leading into about just the the world that we live in, the the energetic pace that we're moving in. And uh, you know, of course, I'm gonna make it a little woo-woo, which is like the density of the frequency that we are in. It does impact us, it impacts us on all the levels, right? Mind, body, soul. It is what we are in constant conversation about here at Miracles. And one of the things, you know, that you are passionate about, Renee, is it is having us kind of, I would say, free ourselves from the shackles of the density. I think I'm downloading because I don't even know where that came from. Or it's just the drama queen and me, um, one or the other, right?

SPEAKER_02 3:31

Maybe a little both.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Maybe, maybe it's a little bit of both, but how you know yoga can help us uh get to that place where we do feel lighter and we can walk through wherever, whatever, however, things are going. And so I wanted to ask you more about how you feel about that.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

I think that for me with with yoga, it's practicing from within, slowing down to feel more. You know, in in our society, we're um always doing. And I think um with yoga, it's more experiential, it's about experiencing, not doing. And we're all we're taught to achieve, go, go, go, go. But with yoga, it's about noticing, not getting somewhere, but noticing where you are, from forcing to allowing, from thinking to feeling. You know, our bodies already know how to find alignment, and really I think it just needs space to speak to us.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

I think so. Yeah, it is, and I I like that, and I have remembered what you've been saying about in every moment, let your body listen to your body, let it share how it wants to be and the places that are comfortable so expansion can happen. I stuck in my head. I hope it's stuck in all of our our listeners' heads too, because it really does make a difference in how we move. It also makes a difference on how our spirits show up for us in a body that is also expanding.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

So right, slow slowing down, noticing the tension, noticing our habits, you know, walk around like this all the time, noticing our breath, you know, are we short in our breath or are we really relaxed in our breath? Um, noticing where we're holding. Sometimes I'll be sitting there and I'm we're supposed to be in this relaxed place, and I'm I'm all I'm like, oh wait, I can just let go right here, having that awareness of the pause.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

There's something so wonderful that you said about it being experiential. It's it brought back to mind a conversation um that I was having with my daughter, and she actually asked me, she said, Well, what do you need to do in order to be? Right, because we are doing machines, and even though we're human beings, and I thought it was a an interesting question because I couldn't find the right what I felt was the right answer, because everything was a doing. Well, you need to sit and you know be present. And she says, Okay, so what do you how do you be present? I'm like, Oh my gosh, now um we're going into that space of like you're two years old and you're gonna ask me the never-ending questions. And it was, it's it's funny. Look, my mic just disappeared. Sorry. For for those who are watching, you know, we've got these backgrounds and this thing happened. So I apologize if it's distracting. But the question is the experience and the allowing I think we have to look at that. It's still some sort of action, but a different one that's not in the result, is not some sort of performance, it's not performative. Yes, and that's the answer I just got now. Maybe I'll go back and tell her that it's not performative. It's it's and I think that that's so important um on the mat because we do well, I will say what I've experienced and what I've seen other people experience, and things that I'm just noticing now is that the conversation about when we get to the mat, it's not about performance. I was uh on, of course, on social media scrolling on something, and this uh a yogi came up, and he had been um challenged with his class because they you know, he would interrupt them when he would see that they were performing and not allowing. And that's very unusual for a lot of people because you know, we do come to the mat thinking it's some kind of performance, some kind of workout, some kind of something, whatever that something is. And in our conversations, what I'm what I'm taking in and what I'm opening up to is understanding that when you get there, there's no specific result that you're you're you should be looking for. It truly is you get there and kind of go with the flow. And we all talk about go with the flow, but I don't know if we actually know what that means. So I am going to hand it back to you to cut to create for us once again. I'm sure we've discussed it in the last couple of episodes, but for those who haven't heard it, maybe just helping us work on like what does go with the flow look like? Like on the court, on the mat.

SPEAKER_00 9:05

You know, it it's funny because we kind of touched on it a little bit last time, is that it is letting go of the shoulds. What should I be doing? You know, your daughter's question was, what should I do? What should I be feeling? You know, and it's it's more of you asking yourself, what am I feeling? What am I holding on to? Why are my shoulders up like this? What am I holding on to? And can I ask for softening? Can I relax into this? Even if there's a tense situation, what in myself can I relax into to hold this? You know, we in in yoga you're you're doing a warrior pose, you're holding that warrior pose, but what can you do to soften into it and just let the pose be what your body says it is? And maybe it's what support do I need to be in this pose? So Mr. Iangar created all of these wonderful props for us the blocks, the bolsters, the straps, and all of these things and the backbenders, and we won't go into all the things, but um, but do I need some support? And when we take that off the mat, do I need support of someone else, something else? You know, it you don't have to do it all yourself. Um, even though you're the one doing it, maybe you need that block, you know, you need that that tool, um, your computer, your microphone, whatever it might be, to to make it so you can do something with ease in your body, not just the physical part of your body, but the mental emotional part of your body.

SPEAKER_02 11:07

I like that. And also when you when you ask the question, where am I holding? I think what you said earlier is also so we hear it all the time, but yet it is very profound. Are you holding your breath?

unknown 11:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

The breath is, you know, life. So let's start with the breath.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Right. And and alignment is the awareness, the awareness of our breath, the awareness of the sensations within us, of our presence. It's all it's all right there. And when you have that awareness, your alignment comes with ease. You stop shooting.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

I love that. Stop shooting, shooting all over the place, right?

SPEAKER_02 12:04

We're gonna have a t-shirt that says stop shooting.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Yeah, that's it's I wanted to ask you a question about the experience because when you are talking and you're sharing, um, because I have not really experienced yoga in that way, but uh, I've been to um some more somatic kind of uh uh experiences. And when you experience yoga in this way, do you notice that people are releasing more like like releasing emotions and uh do those type of things happen there in that experience?

SPEAKER_00 12:46

Absolutely. Um, I I let everybody know when you know when they're moving through a class, you know, some people myself included, I get that little quiver lip, you get that look, you know, you're you're about to we'll call it break. I don't know what you're about to release. Um, and I just always try and remind everyone from the beginning that when your body is open to release, that you could really release, you can cry, you can need to run to the bathroom. There's you know, all different things that can happen when your body is willing to align inside.

SPEAKER_02 13:26

That's wonderful, and also when you're allowing your body to do what it wants to do, what it needs to do, yeah, when it feels safe. When it feels safe, yeah. My my inclination is to still hold on to it. Like, I don't know, is this the right place? Is it okay? And you're right, it's about safety. Do I feel safe doing that here? But even to the extent of being in the room by myself doing it, it there it it's such a habit. And then the mind still says, Are we safe? Yeah, just because of you know, whatever's taking place mentally, emotionally, and the answer is, oh yeah, you can relax into it, and that's where your words have uh just continue to be so golden for me, really.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

Yeah, I it's it's so interesting how when the the body is open and everyone opens differently and they find that safety that you can really feel the ease in your own alignment.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

I was just just thinking about what a different experience that would be for people that are are are you know experiencing work uh through you and how you do your work. Like I just I'm still kind of in on wrapping my brain around it because I'm just feeling like it's way more somatic than people know and understand, and know that there is there can be this deep healing that happens as you're because I was thinking about, you know, okay, I'm standing in a position, right? And the things that and the thoughts that go through my mind as you're guiding us to to to lean into it and release or accept or process what is happening in your mind is just a reflection of how you really process things that you're doing in everyday life. Absolutely, right? Like your brain's not gonna think differently just because you're holding a pose, a warrior pose. Your brain's gonna do what your brain does when it gets frustrated or feels stuck, and you know, all of those things always end up in our body, right? Because the body always they say, right? The body never forgets and keeps score. I think that's the saying, the body keeps score. And I honestly, I'll I'll be frank, I never thought of yoga as a somatic practice, but it it is all about our our breath, it is all about our alignment.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

Um, you know, and I think that when you stop pushing, when you stop getting somewhere, you start to release the holding on, and you start to release the the fear of not being safe. Yeah, you bring more ease into your body.

SPEAKER_02 16:28

That's okay. Stop shooting on the front and in the back. Don't push. Well then you're gonna have a whole line of t-shirts for us, a whole line, and at the bottom it will say Renee Green, Yoga Master, yes, yes, this is excellent. So then how do we uh going back to the question that Nina's daughter asked, um, how does someone go about even where they are right now? So they're listening, you know, they're watching to the podcast at this moment, what is it that a person can do right in this very instant that would allow them to have an experience that can help begin them to move into alignment?

SPEAKER_00 17:33

Funny that you should ask that because I'm gonna give you I'm gonna give you that tool right now. Oh so right where you are, just you know, a little piece of of what it feels like to take this yoga practice off your mat. So right here where you are, notice where your shoulders are. Are they up? Are they back? Are they are you holding on to that? Just notice. Maybe you close your eyes, maybe not. Notice. Do they really need to work quite that hard? Can you let them fall just a little bit more? Now notice your jaw.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

Wow. Okay, so of course I I I gotta share what I noticed. One three things I noticed when you um you talked about the shoulders, my shoulders were down, but I could feel such that that even though they're down, there's still so much tension between my neck and my shoulders. And and as you were speaking about uh, you know, is your tongue on your roof? I'm like, she knows that and then it's like it was like an effort to keep it not against my the roof of my like is I'm my brain obviously is now going to like ask and analyze 50 different things, and it's like does my mouth does my mouth do this all the time? Am I like uh you know what I'm noticing inside of is is how much I question everything. Like, does this happen all the time? Am I doing it again? Am I doing it right? How do I not have my tongues be at the roof of my mouth? You know what I mean? And I get that that's why it's called a practice because I'm noticing, oh, then that must be some level of tension. And the other thing is how much I don't breathe. Yeah, yeah, we hold our breath all the time. I'm just listening to and I'm not breathing, I'm not even stressed out, but I'm not breathing in the moment and allowing whatever the breath to do its job inside of my body, and in that little short exercise, I can't imagine what it's gonna be like being with you for 90 minutes, but in that little short amount of time, how many things I noticed.

SPEAKER_00 21:07

Yeah, yeah. And and that's you know, yes, we are doing poses, we are practicing, we are we'll say learning different things, but more than anything, we're learning about our own bodies, and that's what the practice is.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 21:26

That's just uh that's fabulous. It it is, and I noticed the same thing, and even now as as you and Nina are talking, just my shoulders like Nina, they felt I felt as if they were down, and then it's like, oh wait, but can they go down some more? Should I push them back? Should I move, you know, pull your shoulders back, put my chest out. I'm like, no, just relax, just allow it to go wherever it goes. As a result, Around the um from one shoulder to the next behind me where my the neck and the back meets. I am like, ooh, we do I need a massage. Absolutely. It is so tight. I'm like, yes, I can feel the difference. My shoulders are more relaxed, but my neck and that upper back area is something else, which is for me, I'm again my brain going, oh, that's just an extension of the fact that you haven't relaxed your your shoulders and you're always like, you know, sitting or leaning in a certain way, and you put more tension on it and just breathe and let it go. Right. So I'm I'm actually thinking and kind of feeling like maybe I just need to do nothing but just do nothing and just breathe. Do that hour as a practice, 30 minutes as a practice, so that I get in the habit of just breathing.

SPEAKER_00 23:07

Yeah, well, I I have to say though, try and start a little smaller than an hour, 30 minutes. Okay. Go for five minutes.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

And that's that's huge to if you can sit for five minutes and just focus on your breath, right? Then if you want to go a little longer, but get through that that five minutes, do that a few times and um yeah, feel into that.

SPEAKER_01 23:32

Yeah, because five minutes feels a lot longer than you think when you're you're you know when you're yeah, when you're when you're you're beginning. Well, I have this thing, this little thing that I do every morning on my face, and it's for five minutes. And I swear every day about two and a half, I'm like, is this done yet? What is this five minutes so long?

SPEAKER_02 23:55

Do you have use the timer?

SPEAKER_01 23:58

It's on a timer, so yeah. So that's like I know, like maybe it's not TMI, but I use uh like um one of those uh uh light therapy things on my face. So it does different things, and so in the morning I do it for five minutes, and yeah, without fail, I at about two and a half minutes. I'm like, is this done yet? This is long. I don't know if the timer's working. Yeah, then looking at it and I'm like, Well, there's no time, like it thank like it doesn't have the the countdown, but I know that I'm sitting in about two and a half minutes, and it's it's fascinating our concept of time, and it's fascinating how different it is when you are present because then it's like it doesn't move because I've I have experienced being present, not that often, to be honest, but I have experienced that, and that's you know, it's wonderful when you can let when everything is let go, there's no noise, right? There's no noise, and yes, it was in enhanced by something, the no noise part, but I would love to be able to experience it without anything other than my own body and just experiencing it from that perspective, and so I am inviting everyone, everyone who is listening to this to join you. I'm saying you and us, we will be in the background, but mostly you, Renee, um, on July the 19th for your workshop. And the name of the workshop, I'm looking it up right now to make sure I have it right, is Softening into Alignment, a Hatha Yoga Experience. And I would love if you could just share a little bit about what people can expect when they spend like 90 minutes with you.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

Well, really, it's I'm gonna give you the shortest answer here, and that is sometimes the most aligned thing that you can do is to stop forcing yourself and to be into the space that you're in. Yeah, I don't know what to say after that. There is so there's so much to pay attention to, but there's not because it's all within you, you already have it right there, and you know you made a good comment about um the time, you know, like the five minutes seems like forever, but when you go inside and you become aligned, it's like wait, that was only one minute.

SPEAKER_02 26:54

Yeah, I I've experienced that in meditation. I meditated once for five hours and thought that only 30 minutes had gone by. Absolutely, that's exactly it, very much like that. But I can't tell you if my body was relaxed or not, it probably was. It hasn't happened like that since, but I'm working back to it or toward that, you know, beautiful. And doing the work that you're talking about is one of the ways that not only I, but I believe people can experience what I call bliss. When Nina just said, what can we expect? And my comment and what came into my head was, oh, you mean besides bliss? That's all we need to know.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Well, really, this this workshop is for anyone who's tired of feeling like they have to push their way through life. Because it's not about being flexible, it's not about how much yoga experience you have or you don't have. It's it's about listening within, finding your alignment.

SPEAKER_01 28:09

And I and I think, you know, with everything that you shared in our conversations, recorded and not recorded, uh, what I'm learning is you know that it's first of all, it's different for everybody. You know, how how you show up and the experience is gonna be different. Um and even presence is different for everyone. Right? It's it's just whatever and what to tie in with what you said, Lynn, which is that bliss, that that pure, that pure space of bliss. I don't know any other word for it. I I imagine that it's just like weightless.

SPEAKER_00 29:01

Yeah. I think that that is that's a beautiful explanation. Thank you. I'm going with that.

SPEAKER_02 29:11

Yes. Absolutely, absolutely. And that's what I that that's what I call heaven. Being in a state of heaven, I guess. Don't push. Don't try to control, no shittes or shitting, but simply simply being, whatever that means for you. It's a quiet space, it's a full space, it is an aligned space, it's everything that uh Renee has been sharing with us. And I really I really like what you were saying, Nina, about the fact, yeah, everyone experiences it differently. And when you don't push or try to experience the way you think it should be experienced, then you can move into it. That's the flow. At least that's how that's that's how I interpret it.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

I think that if our listeners and our our watchers, watchers, audience, I don't know, my the words are not coming. Whatever they however you meet us, however, you come to the table, listening, watching, laughing alongside us, uh, you know, if it if you are looking for that place where you can feel safe, where you can let go, where you can begin to learn how to connect to the self that you are, that unique self that you are, to come into the place of weightlessness, then join us. Like, why wouldn't you? That's I don't know. Like, why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you just come on down for like 90 minutes for yourself and no one else? Take this time for yourself. The information is obviously on our site under live workshops, but also in the show notes, and you can find more information if you haven't, you know, still want to know more about Renee. It's she's also on this on the site, but really click the link, buy now. It's a small investment of $20. I don't know, you know, why not? I think it's like two coffees. Well, two coffees at Starbucks, and you know, and and take this time for yourself. I'm excited. I'm excited for July the 19th. And we meet at 2 p.m. Pacific time, 5 p.m. Eastern time. And for some reason, if you're saying, Oh, oh, I want to, but I'm busy that day, still register because you will get the playback. So don't stop yourself because you don't think the timing is is right. If you really want to participate, you still can. Uh, the only difference is you're you just it won't be live, but you will get, I promise you will get just the same amount of benefit. So, and with that, I think this is the best place to end our time together. Renee, it has been such a pleasure speaking to you. I learned something every time we had conversation, every single time. I do believe we need shirts that say stop shooting yourself. Yes, and we can walk around and be like, hey, stop shitting yourself. Exactly, exactly. And absolutely, yeah, and until next time, everyone. Bye for now.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

Bye for now. Thank you so much, Renee. It was a pleasure, and so looking forward to this workshop. And everyone in my crew, I will make sure they're there because they need this as much as I do.

SPEAKER_00 33:15

Well, I'm very excited. Thank you for having me on. I can't wait for the workshop. It's going to be so much fun and so relaxing in alignment. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 33:28

Yes, thank you. All right, we'll see you all soon at the workshop.