SPEAKER_02 0:07

Welcome to Making It, a podcast where dreamers are catching their dreams. This is your host, James DiMarco. Sit back and get inspired to make it happen. Welcome everybody to Making It Dreamers Catching Their Dreams. I'm your host, James DiMarco. So, my guest today is Michael Patrick. He is a professional coach, licensed massage therapist, as well as yoga instructor. I've known Michael for a while now. We met at Kropala, where I was on a retreat, and so was he. And Kropala is in Massachusetts. Michael is a trained Kropala yoga teacher. But Michael has some great insight and tips into making your dreams come true when you are in a season of transition and you wish to move out of whatever you're in with a career or with your life, and how you can navigate that and jump into what you're really passionate about. And the best thing about Michael is that he has lived that himself. So he has much insight into instructing his clients on how they can pursue a new life. So welcome, Michael.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Thank you. It's great to be here, and thank you for the nice introduction.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

My pleasure, Michael, and I follow you on Facebook. I've known you, but weekly you put out amazing tips for people, and you have Sunday evenings that we could touch on later with your 10-minute, you know, refresher for the week. But first, tell me about your history as a chemist moving into a new field and a new season in your life many years ago.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Yes, this was an interesting journey and certainly one that I'm glad that I have made. So I have been an analytical chemist. I have a master's degree in analytical chemistry. And I worked for 22 years in that field. And um I had some really great opportunities. I worked in biotechnology manufacturing cyanine dyes. So these are cy dyes that are fluorescent dyes that are used by researchers and drug companies to study cancer and genetics and to develop new treatments. So they help to visualize things in cells that you just can't see with your eyes. So they're they're an aid for understanding how the systems work. So that was a really wonderful experience for me. Part of that time I got to go work over in Wales in Great Britain for three years as a part of that. And then I worked in academic research, also doing uh research with fluorescent dyes, and some of that branched out into biomedical research and also cardiovascular engineering. So it was a really great experience for me in doing that. And all of the programs that I was working on, all of the projects, they all benefited people in some way. And the thing is that with science and with research, that you can have things that benefit people, but it takes a long time from the initial idea to the research, the development, and then the other aspects of it that go into really finally reaching somebody who needs that. And I wanted to have something that would give me a little quicker payoff personally, you know, in terms of satisfaction. And that's when I became interested in massage therapy. And it was always touch was always a natural thing for me, a way of expressing affection with, you know, family and friends, and certainly as I got older, and it just seemed like a natural thing for me to do. So while I was working full-time as a researcher, I went and got a second degree in massage therapy and associate in science. And I originally started my first company then. It was called Massage Therapy Professionals, and it focused on taking chair massage to businesses, events, different things like that. And I would contract with other massage therapists, many who were my classmates, and we would go do chair massage jobs. And I did this while I was still working full-time and as a chemist. So I basically had one and a half jobs for 10 years, and I, you know, it was good and it was exciting, and I originally planned to use the chair massage business as a vehicle to leave the science career. But as fate would have it, I met a research professor when I was working, and he was interested in cardiovascular fluid dynamics. So basically the way the blood moves through the heart and the veins and arteries and so on. And that really got me interested again in science. So I kind of thought, well, all right, I'm already doing this one thing with massage, and yet I still want to stay here and keep doing this research. So that's when I decided to change my business from a model where working with chair massage, working with a lot of different people, maybe just one time, to working with my own clients and the same people over and over. And that's when I formed centered presence. And I shifted a little bit more towards table massage at the time. And as I was coming up with that name, I wanted to have something that could expand beyond massage therapy if that was something that I wanted to do. And I didn't know for sure, but at the time I thought, well, let's focus on what I get out of massage therapy, which is being centered, which is being present, and being grounded. So that basically was what I had for my business name, pretty much like an intention. Like that's how I want to be, and that's how I want my clients to feel. I want them to feel centered and present. So a lot of different things happened in between, but then it got to the point where I had to shift out of research because of the way the funding and everything went at the university I was working at. And I moved into laboratory safety, and I was able to take my background as a chemist to help people's well-being for them to be able to work safely and also to work with chemicals safely. And I did that for about three and a half years, and then I realized that there was something that was calling me to do more. And I, you know, I still had my massage clients, maybe one or two a week I would be working with. And what made things a little bit different for me is that I did exclusively on-site massage therapy. So that meant that I didn't have an office, so no overhead for me, and I would travel to where the clients were, to either their residences or their workplaces or some sort of event. And that was a way that I was able to do what I wanted to do and also to keep costs down. So when I was realizing that I wanted to do more, I got interested in coaching and I went through a coach training program, and this was certified by the International Coach Federation. Damien Goldvarg was the leader of it. And this was also at Easton Mountain Retreat Center in upstate New York. And so I got trained to be a professional coach, and they also had a segment that focused on LGBTQ coaching concerns, mainly around sexuality and spirituality. So this was a really great thing. Part of that whole experience included me receiving professional coaching. And as I went through the professional coaching, I was trying to figure out how I would make this transition. And through the course of coaching, it dawned on me that, you know, I was actually on my own pathway of personal growth. I would get into the body through massage therapy. And then as someone who went to yoga classes, I got more into my spirit and to my spiritual side through the practice of yoga. And that actually changed me a lot. And I realized that the life that I had around me didn't match who I was becoming inside. So that's when I also realized that coaching was helping me to make what was inside of me match to what I was creating outside of me. So it's more of an inside-out approach. And when I saw that whole pathway of get into the body through massage, grow through yoga, and then set up your life, create your life through coaching, that was it for me. It's like the light bulb went off, and I realized that what I needed to do was to totally leave my chemistry career and then focus on these things. So that's when I um decided to quit my job, leave my career, and go for my Kropala yoga training. So I basically finished my coach training and then quit two weeks after that and then went into full-time self-employment.

SPEAKER_02 10:17

So that's miraculous, this journey that you just described.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:22

You know, it's all tied to helping people, even in your chemistry, what you were doing in your research. It's almost like you were destined to be on this path, which I do like to uh tell people that whatever you're really supposed to be doing, it eventually finds you. But but it seemed like it was in your DNA already. As you evolved as a person, this is how it appears to me. As you evolved as a person, those other traits to be even greater in helping people kind of evolve with you. And you just said something where your inner environment and your outer environment, who you were becoming, didn't match anymore. That's really powerful because you realize that.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Well, that's that's a really good thing. Of course, I felt wonderful, and I also felt a little bit okay, what have I just done? But I did something. So journal writing has been part of my experience for a long time, just to help myself bring clarity to what I'm thinking, and to have things that are inside just to get them out so they're not swimming around in my head. So what I did was the very next day after I quit. Of course, I had a nice, you know, wind down, say goodbyes, all that sort of thing, wrap up that chapter. But then that first day that I had after I quit my job, my job as a chemist, and left my career, I sat down probably for three hours, and I just like reviewed what that career in the past 22 years in it meant to me. And how did it change me? And where am I now? And where am I going? And what do I want for myself? So I basically gave myself an entire day to just pause and to reflect. And then the next day, um I had a chair massage client. So it's like I got to start my full-time self-employment with doing a chair massage right after I had my day off. So it was a nice way to do it. But journaling is definitely a good way to get in touch with what's inside.

unknown 13:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

And one of the most important that has to do with the would you say values to write your values down? Did that help you at all?

SPEAKER_00 13:29

That could, yeah. Um I I think more important, it's to get into touch with your own desires. What is it that you desire? And sometimes it looks like, okay, I don't want this anymore. I know I don't want that. I know I don't want this other thing, but what do I really want? And sometimes for people, they're anticipating that they're going to have very specific answers, and they don't have specific answers at that point, but you can have general answers. So this would be things like, well, I want to have freedom, I want to be, you know, my own boss, I want to direct my own life in such a way that whatever's going on in the broader parts of my life, I have the ability to say, I need to focus more on my personal life, and my business can be on hold for a little bit, or it could coast for a little while while attend to these other matters. So, and kind of like people want to jump right into what the specifics are, but really the transition is really going from like negative specifics about your current situation to kind of general negative specifics, you know. So things like, you know, like if you're really mad at your boss or you're really frustrated with your work to kind of step back from that specific situation and really look at it. Well, what is it that you don't like? Do I like not going into an office somewhere, or do I like not like other people directing my work? And try to make it very general about what you don't like. And then being able to take what you know you don't like in broad terms and flip that around and be like, okay, obviously, if I don't want somebody directing my work, that means that I want to direct my own work. And and then just be content with that at first, and then as you spend more time focusing on the general things that you want or the broad the things that you want in a broader sense, then the little details will start to fill in. And a lot of times people want to have everything mapped out right away so that way they can say, okay, well, if I know this is the career or the job or the situation that I want to do, then I'll feel better about it and I can head in that direction. This is really the practice of aligning with the new direction that you want to go, and everything starts out broadly and then gets more specific as time goes on and as details start to fill in.

SPEAKER_02 16:26

So it's a really deep dive. Everyone out there has to do a deep dive into their core, their core being. Like you said, if you looking at a situation that you're in and you need to flip it, but you really need to understand the why part, that's that's kind of, I feel like, what you're saying. Is that correct? Why you want to do something different or why you don't like where you're at or the job or the situation.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

Yeah, and and that's really just kind of an entry step, because if you spend all of your time thinking about what you don't like and why you don't like it, and going on, that's a way to keep people stuck as well. You know, I hate my boss, I hate this, you know, and it's just perpetuating more misery. But if you're able to use that as a springboard to say, well, I know I don't like this. What is it that I do like in general terms? And then that's how you can get momentum going in a positive direction. And that's when things feel like they start to loosen and loosen.

SPEAKER_02 17:34

It's almost like law of attraction. Things just start to attract to you that you're aligning with this new way of being, this new life.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

Exactly. But you can only do that if you are first of all aware of what's inside of you, what's in your core, what your real true desire is. And remember, things start off generally. So for me, a big thing that I wanted was freedom. The whole reason I went into self-employment was freedom. That was a number one for me. I wanted to be the one who was in charge of my own life. It's like I don't want to be in charge of other people, I don't want someone telling me what to do. I just want to be the boss of this one here and you know, align with what is inside of me. And some of that comes from the fact that everything that I do now in my professional life, all of these different techniques and practices are things that I explored so that I could make my own life better for me. So I got into yoga because I wanted to feel better. I got into bodywork because I wanted to feel better. And I got into coaching because I wanted to feel clarity. I wanted to have some answers, some direction, some way of knowing that I can create a life that I want to live. So once I knew that I had all of these things working for me, then I would go and do whatever I need to do to be able to offer those professionally. So that's uh that's really why I have such a fire for what I do, is because it's part of my own lived experience.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

Yes, you are the perfect example of my podcast, uh uh Making a Dreamer's Catching Your Dreams. When you're young, you're you're more fearless, at least I was. As you're older and you're have more responsibility, that's that's when it becomes more scary. It's almost like the more the more you uh the more you learn, the less you know. But I want to talk about the fear part because a lot of people have that fear, uh, and you brought a fire. And I wanted to focus on this is how people can also get that fire back and that passion and desire to have a meaningful, enriched. Life, spiritual life, and also a work life. Now, your your path, you were in such a stable job, probably had a good paycheck. And I think a lot of people who really want to live their passion and be free, have their own business, be single if they're in a marriage that they need to get out, always worry about the money. So, and everybody's situation is different, but it seems to be a universal theme. So that fear to make these leaps sometimes is dependent on whether you have support of others and also financial.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

Part of what happened was the realization that there was this fire in me that, like, once I realized that my own pathway of personal growth was massage yoga and coaching, that that was what I needed to do to bring that out to other people. And once I had that realization, you know, you couldn't stop me from it. And I was going to figure out how I would do this. So part of what happened was because I was already a massage therapist for 10 years, I knew that business. I knew it really well, and I'd been doing it for you know all of that time. So I knew that I could just simply ramp up more massage, and that would be a way to keep things going. But at the same time, I was actually starting two brand new careers, one in coaching and the other in yoga as a yoga teacher. And so looking back at it, I was pretty insane that you know I quit my job, my full-time job, and went into full-time self-employment while starting two new careers at the same time. But you know, the the fire was just that strong. So part of what needs to happen is being able to reassess what your needs are when you move into a new career. And if I was trying to maintain that same lifestyle that I had when I was still a chemist with the salary that I was making, um, in deciding to take a pay cut, then I needed to do a few things. I needed to reassess what it was that I was doing. And one thing that I did too that helped me was I wrote myself a check from a credit card basically as a cash advance, so that those first few months that I was not working my old job as a chemist and just getting things started, that I didn't have so much pressure. So I basically kind of took out a self-funded loan for myself. And that helped me take that helped take some of the pressure off of getting things started up. And, you know, it's it's taken a while to pay that back, and you know, I have done different things to uh you know consolidate debt and so on. Uh but it it was something that I needed to do at that time. So these things that happen, sometimes you just need to put it in context and say, okay, well, maybe writing a check for myself as a cash advance isn't the most financially wise thing to do. Uh but given the situation, is this my path of least resistance? Do I keep working in a career that I can't stand anymore and keep putting my dreams on hold? Or do I take some other course that maybe has its own pitfalls with it, but is still an improvement over what I was doing? And, you know, as I found, you know, things really did start to take off. And, you know, I was really busy. Uh, you know, and and some of it is the passion of startup energy, where you know, people want to get on board, they want to be around the enthusiasm, and and you know, having a story saying that, yeah, you know, I left this career of 22 years, did something totally different, and you know, now I'm working for myself. I mean, that has a lot of momentum that goes along with it. Sure.

SPEAKER_03 24:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:26

And that's that's stirring that fire up and uh getting it going. Is there anything you could recommend though for individuals at home uh listening who really have a lot of hesitation, trepidation? They have these obstacles, they've looked at they've made their list, they've looked at their needs, they're trying to balance it out. How can they not give up if they might not have the chance to write their own check and self-fund it through a credit card? You know, what could they do to keep that passion and fire and dream alive without giving up, knowing that maybe one day it will happen uh when the time's right?

SPEAKER_00 25:11

Yes, absolutely. So the thing is it really depends on how you talk to yourself. And wow, it could be that you say things such as, I know I want to move in this direction, things aren't ready yet, but I can still head in this direction. I could still keep thinking about what it is that I want. I can think about how I want to feel, I can daydream about how I want to set things up. And it's almost in a way like you're starting to live that life that you haven't created yet. And in doing so, that is actually what is creating it. So it's it's really aligning with your dream. And you can tell very much how you feel whether you're aligning with your dream or not. So if I feel fearful or unworthy or worried or maybe even angry that this is taking so long, um, that's not moving in the direction of my dream. That's moving away from it. That's that's focusing more on this isn't happening instead of heading in the direction of it happening. A lot of times we wait for the evidence before we can feel good, but really need to feel good and head in the direction of it, and then the evidence catches up with it. Part of what happened was the realization that there was this fire in me that, like once I realized that my own pathway of personal growth was massage yoga and coaching, that that was what I needed to do to bring that out to other people. And once I had that realization, you know, you couldn't stop me from it. And I was going to figure out how I would do this. So part of what happened was because I was already a massage therapist for 10 years, I knew that business. I knew it really well, and I'd been doing it for you know all of that time. So I knew that I could just simply ramp up more massage, and that would be a way to keep things going. But at the same time, I was actually starting two brand new careers, one in coaching and the other in yoga as a yoga teacher. And so looking back at it, it was pretty insane that you know I quit my job, my full-time job, and went into full-time self-employment while starting two new careers at the same time. Um, but you know, the the fire was just that strong. So part of what needs to happen is um being able to reassess what your needs are when you move into a new career. And if I was trying to maintain that same lifestyle that I had when I was still a chemist with the salary that I was making, um, in deciding to take a pay cut, then I needed to do a few things. I needed to reassess what it was that I was doing. And one thing that I did too that helped me was I wrote myself a check from a credit card basically as a cash advance, so that those first few months that I was not working my old job as a chemist and just getting things started, that I didn't have so much pressure. So I basically kind of took out a self-funded loan for myself. And that helped me take that helped take some of the pressure off of getting things started up. And you know, it's it's taken a while to pay that back, and you know, I have done different things to uh you know consolidate debt and so on. Uh, but it it was something that I needed to do at that time. So these things that happen sometimes you just need to put it in context and say, okay, well, maybe writing a check for myself as a cash advance isn't the most financially wise thing to do. Uh but given the situation, is this my path of least resistance? Do I keep working in a career that I can't stand anymore and keep putting my dreams on hold? Or do I take some other course that maybe has its own pitfalls with it, but is still an improvement over what I was doing? And, you know, as I found, you know, things really did start to take off. And, you know, I was really busy. Uh, you know, and and some of it is the passion of startup energy, where you know, people want to get on board, they want to be around the enthusiasm, and and you know, having a story saying that, yeah, you know, I left this career of 22 years, did something totally different, and you know, now I'm working for myself. I mean, that has a lot of momentum that goes along with it.

SPEAKER_02 30:31

Sure. And that's that's stirring that fire up and uh getting it going. Is there anything you could recommend though for individuals at home uh listening who really have a lot of hesitation, trepidation? They have these obstacles, they've looked at, they've made their list, they've looked at their needs, they're trying to balance it out. How can they not give up if they might not have the chance to write their own check and self-fund it through a credit card? You know, what could they do to keep that passion and fire and dream alive without giving up, knowing that maybe one day it will happen uh when the time's right.

SPEAKER_00 31:16

Yes, absolutely. So the thing is it really depends on how you talk to yourself. And it could be that you say things such as, I know I want to move in this direction, things aren't ready yet, but I can still head in this direction. I could still keep thinking about what it is that I want, I can think about how I want to feel, I can daydream about how I want to set things up. And it's almost in a way like you're starting to live that life that you haven't created yet. And in doing so, that is actually what is creating it. So it's it's really aligning with your dream. And you can tell very much how you feel whether you're aligning with your dream or not. So if I feel fearful or unworthy or worried or maybe even angry that this is taking so long, um that's not moving in the direction of my dream. That's moving away from it. That's that's focusing more on this isn't happening instead of heading in the direction of it happening. And a lot of times we wait for the evidence before we can feel good, but really need to feel good and head in the direction of it, and then the evidence catches up with it. So, you know, once I made that decision that I was gonna quit my career in chemistry, ramp up the massage therapy, you know, get my coach business going, and then train and become a yoga teacher, that really set me in the direction. And I felt like at that time it was almost like I was gonna burn it all down. You know, the life that I had before, I was it was like I was gonna burn it down with the fire of this new thing that I have. So, really, you just need to give your attention to what it is that you want to create and why you want to create it. And if you are not having the details of how that's gonna happen or when it's gonna happen, or who's gonna do it, or uh any of these other things that often get people feeling upset or getting them feeling like something's not possible because it's almost like they're getting too far ahead. When that's happening, you you focus more on what you want in general terms and why you want it, you know. So for me, it was freedom. Every time I was working a job and I wasn't feeling free, I would focus on this new thing where why do I want this? Because I want to have the freedom. I want to have the freedom to set up my life in the way that I want to.

SPEAKER_02 34:18

So you actually go ahead. I was just gonna say, you actually sound like you were your own coach. You're you're advising others to be their own self-coach when they need it, to train their thoughts to be in alignment with what they really want.

SPEAKER_00 34:37

Yeah, and you know, this actually was happening kind of organically while I was going through this period. And it's my understanding of it all now that is really making it clear for me and for others on what actually needs to happen. And some of that is uh just my own path because I like to know how things work, like that's the scientist mind that I have. So I was getting coaching and these things were coming out of me, and as a result of it, the momentum was building. So later I really started to study and understand and and really just be a student of life and know for myself how these things work.

SPEAKER_02 35:28

So let's go through then the tips. Um, you talked about that you did journaling, you were just talking about self-talk as well. Yeah. What what else do you um advise your clients and coaching that they could do on their own?

SPEAKER_00 35:44

I think really meditation, yoga, those sorts of things, anything that will get you into the present moment. So one of my favorite affirmations, I am here now. I am here now. So it's me, it's focusing on me, not what's going on in the outside world, this space that I'm in, this very place, not everything else going on in the world. And now, this moment, I'm not in the past, which I can't do anything about, and I'm not in the future where I don't have my resources. There are too many unknowns in the future. But here, now, in this moment, is where I have all of my personal power. And the thing is that the more present I am in the now, and the more aligned I am with my desires and my dreams, then that is actually what creates the future. But if I'm sitting here now and I'm all worried and upset about all these unknowns in the future that I could do nothing about now, then it's basically working against myself. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 37:00

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:01

And and you you posted that because you had one of your Sunday night classes, uh, and I messaged you that that mantra stuck with me, and I started saying it. I am here now, I am here for myself now. Uh, it's very soothing because we don't always, I sometimes have expectations that I want other people to be here for me, but we we are the ones that have to be here for ourselves. I said that in my very first podcast. At the end of the day, you have to be your own advocate. So that really struck with me, and I continue to say it. And a lot of the self-help gurus out there have been talking about the power of now for years, but I like your mantra because it goes right to the point of I am here now and I am here for myself now. Because if you can't be here for yourself, no one else can.

SPEAKER_00 38:00

Right, exactly. So that was actually something I I had been practicing the I am here now mantra. And uh there was a time when um I was involved in my elderly mother's care. So my mother, uh, when she turned 90, she just started to need more help. And I was a caregiver uh with her, and she's 98 and a half by now, by the way. So um it's been a long journey. I went in also to this whole area of caregiving and you know, work-life balance as it relates to that, and that's a whole nother thing that a lot of people in middle age are going through with elderly parents. So this actually came out of my own practice where I would do the I would say the I am here now mantra just to get myself in there. And then realizing that as a caregiver, that there's a lot of yourself that you're giving away, a lot of myself that I was giving away, and I wanted to take some of that energy and bring it back to myself. So I started to add on to it, I am here for me. And it became a really nice rhythm because then what that's doing is setting the intention for me to be in the present moment, connect with all of my resources, and then instead of giving those resources out to other people, give them back to myself and really showing up for myself. And it's funny that you mentioned that we expect other people to be there for us, or at least we hope that other people would be there for us. And it was actually other people not being there for me that made me realize you know, dude, you're on your own. You know, it's up to you to do this. And I'm like, okay, I've got the power that creates worlds inside of me, and you know, through my inner being. Through my connection to the universe, what if I turn that more towards myself? You know, and and and it has a really incredible um effect. So yeah, that's a that's a mantra that I go to all the time. And you mentioned um a little bit about my Sunday evening thing. It's called the well-being moment. And this is something that is very different. This I created actually during the pandemic when a lot of people were at home and they were working from home. And it was a short little thing where I did a check-in. It was on Zoom, it was live, and um I would check in with people about where they were emotionally. And I use as a tool in my coaching and also in my life, the emotional guidance scale that uh was made by Esther and Jerry Hicks, and it's in their book, Ask and It's Given. And I love that book. Yeah, I mean, a lot of what I know now has come from my study of that helped me achieve my dreams early on. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So we do a brief check-in where they are in the general emotional scale, how they're feeling in their body, and then on the spot, I put together a short little session that may draw from breathing techniques, gentle movement, uh uplifting processes, like appreciation, and you know, different things right there on the spot. And the idea is that if people are able to practice different techniques when they're feeling a certain way, that when they're feeling that way, they have something that they can already draw on and they can soothe themselves. And I've been recording these sessions, just my screen, and I'm planning to uh make a library of them available on you know different topics. So it's a thing where sometimes we soothe and we relax, and other times we you know move and energize. It just depends on where you are, and all of this has moved and evolved into well-being sessions, which is really what my focus is now. You know, massage, yoga, coaching, those are all parts of well-being, but I've created this thing that draws on breathing techniques, movement, guided relaxation, and really processes that help to uplift. And I've applied these well-being sessions to all sorts of things, like uh caregivers. So caregivers often feel neglected themselves. So this is a way for them to bring their attention back to themselves and really connect with the the whole of who they are so that they have something to give to somebody else. And I've also worked with uh people in recovery, like physical recovery from surgery. So I had a guy who had open heart surgery, and of course, he had his medical team that you know did all the electrocardios stuff and physical therapy and all of that. But he found this really helpful to do these weekly sessions with me for just a short time because the way that he said it is that after he had his chest cut open for the open heart surgery, that he said he felt like he forgot how to breathe. So we would check in, you know, every week we would check in how was he doing physically, how was he doing emotionally, and then we would just do whatever was appropriate for where he was to just reconnect with his ability to breathe. So that was about a year that I worked with him every week. And you know, these are short sessions, and they are tailor-made to the person who's who's doing them. So this is a way that actually brings together all of what I do. Instead of massage, I'm doing it more like self-massage where I teach people how they can soothe themselves. Soothe themselves.

SPEAKER_02 44:18

That's yeah, that's so important. You have a large toolbox, you have a large toolbox to share with others.

SPEAKER_00 44:25

Yes, absolutely. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 44:27

Now, your your your sessions that you do, the well-being uh individuals could sign up uh with a link you post on Facebook. Um, and as far as in-person or Zoom for private sessions, uh how would they reach you as well?

SPEAKER_00 44:45

They would just go through my website, centeredpresence.com.

SPEAKER_02 44:49

Okay, centerpresence.com.com.

SPEAKER_00 44:51

I have an events page, and then also there's you know a contact page, and you know, it I find it's really helpful to have you know a phone conversation just to talk about things. I, you know, I in terms of yoga, I do online yoga, virtual yoga, and I work with people locally. I'll go to their house, and I work a lot with people who want to have a specialized yoga experience. So, first of all, Krapala yoga is slow-paced, it's gentle, and it focuses on personal growth and transformation through the practice of yoga. And I love to work with beginners, older people, somebody who just can't go down the street to their yoga class and feel like it would be something that they can access. Um, so I work a lot with beginners, I work a lot, you know, like I had a guy who had a problem with his back, and you can adapt yoga in so many different ways. And the nature of Krapala yoga is such that you you focus on being safe, you focus on taking personal responsibility for yourself, and also observing yourself without judgment. So maybe you know there's a physical limitation that somebody has, and we modify the poses, we use props, and it basically meets them where they are.

SPEAKER_02 46:25

You got me hooked on Kropala yoga.

SPEAKER_00 46:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:29

When we when when we met there, if I if I was going to be a yoga teacher, that's what I would teach, because I took classes when I was there. It was amazing and it was spiritual and it was transformative. And I think uh a lot of people are unsure of yoga, but that could be something in everyone's toolbox because it does help you practice uh um mind discipline as well as being in touch with your physical awareness of your body. Um, and and magic can happen, I think, from that.

SPEAKER_00 47:02

So absolutely, and and even just kind of in a practical term, if I'm focusing on where my hands are going and what I'm doing, at that time I'm not thinking about my other problems in life. So I get a little bit of reprieve from taking my mind off of the problems and occupying myself in a physical present way. And you know, one of the things that I go into a lot is that one of the best and easiest ways to become more present is to be more aware of the sensations that are in your body. So, like right now, you can just feel your feet against the floor, you can wiggle your toes, and you can imagine that footprint. And you might even be able to feel some heat coming out of your feet that's being reflected back from the floor. And it's those things that are happening in real time, like you are breathing now, you are feeling now sensation, you are experiencing sensations now that brings you to the present. Yeah, it's it's all about the present.

SPEAKER_02 48:15

Yeah. So I wanna I I thank you for this amazing interview um because you had given um much of yourself, it's the experience that I wish to share with everyone based on my experience of how to transition into other areas. And um, I I still stumble and fall, uh, but your mantras have helped me. So I wanted to end the this podcast with my favorite mantra. Um, and uh maybe we could just have everyone listening if you're in a safe space. If not, keep your eyes open. But let's do this mantra I am safe. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 48:55

So you lead us. Okay, sounds good. All right, well, come to a comfortable position, whatever that may be. If you are in a situation where you need to keep your eyes open, please keep them open. If not, you can certainly relax. And just check in with yourself and notice the points of contact that you make with any solid surface. So if you're seated, that would be your uh rear against the chair. If you're standing, your feet against the floor, and then take a breath in and expand and exhale and settle into that solid surface. Keep the breath going steady and even, nothing fancy to do, just keep the breath steady and even. Inhale and exhale. And this is a good time to bring to mind the first mantra, I am here now. And sometimes it's nice to say that to yourself and coordinate it with your breath, where the I am here is on the inhale and now is on the exhale. And as you let that go, let yourself settle into the present moment. Give yourself permission to let the past go and to not worry about the future, but just be here in this moment and continue with I am here now and add I am here for me. So we take our presence and we redirect it towards ourselves, and this has a way of amplifying all that we are and allowing it to be even bigger. I am here now, I am here for me. I call that the self-care mantra because it brings us back to the present and it brings us into our full power. And you can keep the breath going and then take one more inhale and let out a nice sigh. And then go on with whatever it is that you're doing.

SPEAKER_02 51:18

Thank you, Michael. And Michael can be found at centeredpresence.com. You could also find him on Facebook. Thanks again, Michael.

SPEAKER_00 51:29

Okay, thanks a lot. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_02 51:40

Thanks for joining me on this episode of Making In. I'm your host, JamesDamarco, tweet dreaming. And I'll see you next time.