Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Episode #9 – Yoga in Belize with Michelle Shanti Williams

Welcome to Episode #9 of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast! This week, I welcome Michelle Shanti Williams onto the show. She is a yoga teacher from Belize who is the founder of Om Shanti Yoga Belize, Rhythm of Change, and the International Yoga Festival in Belize.

Michelle is a dynamic women, who seems to have the keys to synchronicity and serendipity. Her yoga path has been a fascinating, and beautiful one— full of community and collaboration.

Michelle’s nonprofit, Rhythm of Change (ROC), teaches yoga to women in prisons, children in Belize’s school system, and to youth at detention centers. In fact, it all started when Michelle was invited to teach yoga on the streets during Belize’s monthly sacred day for peace among gangs, called “days of healing.”

Michelle is a global leader in yoga, and she speaks often about the necessity of seeing yoga as an integrative practice, as a technology for humanity for our evolution and to bring us together in unity.

Inhale. Exhale. We’re about to dive in.

Tell me more about Michelle…

Michelle is a Conscious Community Leader, Philanthropist, Self Transformation Coach and a sought after Writer and International Public Speaker who has written articles on Yoga & Wellness for various Belizean and international publications.

She is a Master Yoga,  Meditation, and Breathwork Teacher deeply rooted in the Himalyan Yog Vedantic Tradition trained in the Himalayas, India (Vedic & Tantric Transcendental Wisdom, Tantra, Kriya, Naad, Himalayan Kundalini, Laya, Hatha Vinyasa, Bhagavad Gita)  Michelle is also an Usui Reiki Master, a Vedic Thai Yoga Therapist and a Jyotishi.

She is the founder of Om Shanti Belize, a five star rated Retreat and Wellness Center and  Yoga Alliance Registered School for Yoga and Wellness . She is also the founder of Rhythm of Change Belize (ROC), a non-profit organization dedicated to sharing evolutionary tools of progressive action (yoga/meditation) to communities throughout the country. In 2016, She founded the Belize International Yoga Festival (BYIF), a conscious family friendly gathering featuring local & international presenters, many styles of yoga, healing services, and healthy vegan + vegetarian food. BIYF is also the annual Fundraising event for Rhythm of Change Belize (ROC).

Michelle is dedicated to guiding individuals on the path of stress management and prevention, healing, self-mastery and purposeful living.

What to expect in Episode #9 of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast

Michelle and I open the conversation by talking about how Michelle first encountered yoga. While it was first in a gym environment, it wasn’t until later that she felt called to travel to the root-source of yoga in India. We discuss how yoga is a technology for humanity. As she says, “It is really that practice of evolution, that technology of humanity, once we as individuals evolve, then our community and the collective as a whole evolves.”

Michelle upholds that yoga is an integrative path, and that all modalities of yoga are actually one— the path of yoga. She did her 200hr and 300hr Yoga Teacher Training Certification at Shiva Yoga Peeth in Rishikesh, and she did continuing yoga education at Sattva Yoga Academy under Anand Mehrotra, a spiritual master who teaches Himalayan Yoga, Vedic, and Tantric traditions. 

Community is at the forefront of how Michelle works, thinks, and lives. She believes that the largest issues facing the global yoga community today is “spiritual dictatorship.” She acknowledges that religions were created to create unity, to gather people together and to acknowledge the divine, and now, while we can still be “rooted in a tradition,” we also need to have “deep respect for other traditions.”

What is needed is collaborative work, work that is heart-based. Once things are heart-based, everything falls into place. “When we can relate from heart to heart, all our differences becomes irrelevant. They actually become a beautiful learning curve, to learn about somebody else’s believe, and to appreciate it it, is what yoga is really about.”

Ready for more? Tune in to the episode!

For the skimmers – What’s in the Yoga in Belize episode?

• Yoga as an integrative practice
• Yoga is a technology for humanity
• Jnana, Vidya, knowing the correct knowledge of humanity
• The pressing issue of spiritual dictatorship
• Deep respect of all traditions
• A call for heart-based collaborate work
• What it’s like to teach yoga to gangs and at youth detention centers
• Manifestation and synchronicity

Favorite Quote From Michelle Shanti Williams 

“What yoga does, through the practices of our tradition, it gives us the tools to strengthen where we need strengthening, and the tools to support. It gives us that insight of what practices we need to incorporate to really be able to maneuver through life elegantly.”

Connect with Michelle

https://www.facebook.com/Omshantibelize

www.omshantibelize.com

www.yogahealsbelize.com

https://www.instagram.com/belize.yogafest

https://www.facebook.com/Belize.YogaFest/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLC4m7LntDb_-pEho6ZQ3cQ

Want more?

https://wildyogatribe.com/thepodcast/

Everything you need is just one click away! Check out all the resources here: https://linktr.ee/wildyogatribe

Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Episode #9 – Yoga in Belize with Michelle Shanti Williams

 

Lily: 00:00:06

Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast. I’m your host, Lily Allen Duenas. Together we’ll talk about the world of yoga and we’ll talk to people from around the world. Join us for authentic conversations about the global yoga ecosystem, and we’ll cover yoga philosophies and methodologies, along the way. Inhale, exhale, we’re about to dive in. 

Lily: 00:00:41

Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast. Today I am welcoming Michelle, Shanti Williams to the show. She is from Belize and she is a conscious community leader, a philanthropist, self transformation coach, and the founder of Om Shanti Belize, which is a five star rated retreat and Wellness Center and Yoga Alliance registered school for yoga and wellness. She’s also the founder of Rhythm of Change, Belize’s, a nonprofit organization dedicated to sharing evolutionary tools of progressive action, including yoga and meditation to all communities throughout Belize. In 2016, she founded the Belize Yoga Festival, and I also want to mention, she’s a master yoga, meditation and breathwork teacher deeply rooted in the Himalayan Yoga Vedantic Tradition trained in the Himalayas in India and Vedic and Tantric Transcendental Wisdom, Tantra Kriya, Naad, Himalayan, Kundalini, Laya, Hatha Vinyasa. She is truly a stellar stellar guest and I am so honored to welcome her onto the show today. Thank you Michelle for being here.

 

Michelle: 00:01:56

I’m very grateful that you reached out to me and I’m very honored to be here and to share a little bit of, you know, yoga happening in Belize and my experiences on and so forth. So I’m incredibly grateful, and welcome, and big hugs from beautiful Belize. 

How did yoga come into your life?

 

Lily: 00:02:16

Thank you. So to kick off our conversation, I would love just to ask Michelle how yoga came into your life?

 

Michelle: 00:02:27

If you consider 50 like gym yoga, I, when I was in college and university in New York I was, I started yoga in that way. And I think we actually had yoga in school here, I believe, but just Asana, physical yoga. It was actually introduced to me in the most profound way. In a treatment center for depression that I went to and I stayed at for about a month. And that’s when I was introduced to yoga in the most transformational way, although it was very simple. It affected me in such a profound way that meditation and Reiki and acupuncture, all these modalities that are actually… healing modalities that actually offer hair on track. And so that’s when I realized that it had to be a part of my life, just to maintain that mental stability that I learned for most of my adult life. And so that’s really when I was introduced to it. Unknowingly, you know that there was a lot more depth, even from then than I, that I had yet to experience. And so, yes that’s was, that’s how yoga was introduced to me, and it’s been part of my life, and it’s been my life, actually, since then.

I would love to hear more about where you were trained and who your teachers were?

 

Lily: 00:04:04

You’ve been trained in so many amazing different paths of yoga and modalities of yoga. I would love to hear more about where you were trained and who your teachers were?

 

Michelle: 00:04:14

Oh sure. Well, when I decided I wanted to be a yoga teacher, it was my mom who actually recommended that I… if I’m going to study Yoga I needed to go to the birthplace and so I ended up going to India and doing a 500-hour day in a school in Rishikesh. And then I came back tonight and I opened and it was a Hatha based practice, and I opened on Shanthi, but it wasn’t really until I was inadvertently introduced when I was doing my 300-hour in Rishikesh.  I was introduced to Anand Mehrotra and sat for yoga, and it took about five years after that, before I actually went and was trained by him. So I have to say though, that you mentioned that it’s different paths but in actual fact a non-teaches, and the cipher practice which is the humanity in your pedantic tradition, that they’re all one path. It’s just an integrative approach that we use, so they’re all parts of yoga to help us be as integrated human beings as we possibly can. And so, it involves all the modalities that are in my bio. It involves sacred rituals; it involves Jyotish Vedic Astrology. There are all of these tools that God really gave us to evolve, and to become, and to really step into our true potential. And it wasn’t until I you know, I had the honor of immersing myself in this ancient practice with Anand, and his teachings that I realize the true meaning of yoga and how yoga is really supposed to be practice, and it was at that point that there was another leap in my evolution, huge leap forward. The wisdom through yogic holy texts the Bhagavad Gita, the Vedas, it’s all part of the beautiful science called Yoga. It seems like different modalities, but it’s all it all, it’s all path leading to one, really, one path, and that’s unity. That’s unity, that unity consciousness, that’s compassion, that’s unconditional love. It’s just what yoga is.

Can I ask what school you were at in Rishikesh?

 

Lily: 00:06:47

I love getting to talk about the path of yoga that transcends the Asana, that is just something I love getting to shed a light on. And I’m glad we’re dipping into the different modalities as being just the steps on the ladder to ascend and to connect and to go deeper, and I did some yoga courses in Rishikesh as well. That’s a second home for me. Can I ask what school you were at in Rishikesh?

 

Michelle: 00:07:18

Shiva Yoga Peeth. I actually did 200 or 300 hour. Yeah, Shiva Yoga Peeth, and then, I did other courses and training in the United States. So I was constantly wanting to learn more. And, ironically enough, I had set up my yoga school already. And I decided I wanted to go, and I had taken some of Anand’s classes at the International Yoga festival in Rishikesh, and that was kind of blown away and I’d actually recommended people to go to his school, and so I decided to go for a break for me and then that’s when I realized that it was really the connection with the teachings, was really profound and I had some really, really beautiful experience as well. So yeah, the first one was Shiva Yoga Peeth, and then of course Sattva Yoga.

Yoga is a technology for humanity

 

Lily: 00:08:15

Wonderful. So, I’ve heard you talk, I watched your recording at the Belize International Yoga Festival, and you said that yoga is a technology for humanity. I would love for you to explain to our listeners more about what you mean by that?

 

Michelle: 00:08:32

Well, if you’re looking, if you look at yoga in the way I speak of as an integrative practice. So it’s using not just one technique in isolation, but using it as a whole. If you believe in Jyotish Vedic astrology which is kind of like the blueprint of our past life or present life and the potential that we can express in our future. What Yoga does is through the practices of our tradition, it gives us the tools to strengthen where we need strengthening, and it gives us the tools to support. So it gives us that insight of what practices we need to incorporate, to be able to really maneuver through life elegantly. In that respect, it is really that practice of evolution that really that technology of humanity. Because once we as individuals evolve, then our community and the collective, as a whole evolves. And that’s where it’s important to understand, yoga, beyond releasing tension, beyond helping with, you know, stress reduction, those things are valid and it does do those things meditation and all those things. But to really step in, and to have that insight of your potential in life, and knowing the tools and the practices that will really help you. Like I said, to help strengthen and to help support is valuable and in that respect, it really is the technology of humanity in all the texts it’s there so the, and also, you know, Ghana knowledge that Vidya, the the correct knowledge of humanity, knowing what that correct knowledge is. And so that’s exactly what I meant. And I’m so happy that you asked me that question, because sometimes I wonder if people understand, like, understand what it means to understand the depth and the beauty in what yoga is, that beautiful gift from God. What yoga really is. So I’m so grateful that you asked me that question. 

What do you think is the most crucial issue facing the global yoga community today?

 

Lily: 00:10:48

I’m grateful as well for all that you’re doing for your community and for the community at large to shine that light on how Yoga is a science of inner transformation, like, “Oh, I just love that” and I thought it was so eloquent and so surprising to to hear it you describe it as the technology for humanity to kind of take that word and bring it to take the word technology and bringing it into the yogic field. I felt it really resonated with me, so I’m really grateful for that explanation you offered Michelle. So, this might be a tough question, but I was wondering what you think is the most crucial issue facing the global yoga community today?

 

Michelle: 00:11:33

One of the things that I see clearly is this competitive nature of traditions. That tradition isn’t valid enough or that tradition isn’t old enough or that tradition is rooted in certain things and I think one of the things that yoga teaches us and it’s at the most fundamental and simplistic way is unity. So, it’s, I think one of the things that we were faced with now, because yoga is becoming more and more relevant, and because the different aspects of yoga, becoming more and more relevant, beyond the Asana, there is this element of innocence spiritual dictatorship or, you know you…I’m a so and so and so. So I know better. Sometimes you know I teach it to my students and anon always says that, you know the person that knows the least is actually the person that knows the most. And so I think there’s an element of being rooted in a tradition, but also having deep respect for other traditions that maybe do things a little bit different, but it’s on the same path, it’s all on the same path. And that actually includes Christianity. It includes the Islamic faith. It includes Hinduism, in my tradition, Christ is a master, you know. He’s part of our tradition and so I think beyond the obvious. yoga, yogic traditions, I think it’s dealing with thinking your spiritual path is the path, and just being open. 

 

It is my opinion that spiritual path, or let’s say religions was really developed to create unity to gather people together to really acknowledge the divine but along the way you know and as our ego mentality steps into place if there is that same you know there is that constantly those concepts that come into play now where if you’re not a Christian, well then you’re doomed if you’re not a Muslim, then you’re doomed if you’re not that they see that you’re doomed. And I think, in actual fact that is that is the biggest problem that we’re facing right now. And, all religions have yoga in it, you know, all religions. I feel fundamentally comes out of yoga, and so that really is. I think that’s the one of the bigger crises that we are dealing with right now and I think once that is eliminated. I think we’ll be living in a much more heart based world, and all the things of, you know, that’s occurring within our human existence will kind of become will be depleted, but that I would definitely say that once we hold on to something and think that it is the only thing. It separates it divides doesn’t it and that’s not yoga.

 

Lily: 00:14:45

That’s such a good point, anything that seeks to divide and to isolate, I think is so counter to the path of yoga and counter to what can benefit all of humanity right now or forever, but I think right now especially, we’re learning in this global community and in crisis right now, how much we do need unity and we need to stand together and we need to not just feel like we are one tree, just one tree it’s like we’re in a forest of trees. So I think that that’s really a powerful message to pass on to our listeners, the importance of looking outside of yourself.

 

The global community calls for unity

 

Michelle: 00:15:27

Yeah, I mean it’s, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a path but when you speak ill or you don’t feel the other path can be inclusive and then it definitely causes problems. But you know, I have a beautiful story to tell. And when I started I was actually appointed the coordinator for the International Day of Yoga in 2015 by the Government of India here in Belize, and I had already gathered the following, but I’d also gotten some really significant pushback from fundamental Christians and some Catholics. I was born a Catholic and I go to church with my mom, a church that is run by Jesuit priests, and so I went to the priest that was running the program and I said, “Father Matt, I need your help”. And he’s like, “what’s that?”, and I said, “I’m planning the International Day of yoga and I really want you to help me promote it”. And he’s like, “Sure! What do I have to do?”, and I said, “Okay, great”, I said but I just need, and you need to know that there’s some pushback. He was so funny, he said to me, “you tell those people that there are Jesuit priests that are also Buddhist monks”. And I was like, “oh my gosh”, this is what is meant to be like. And then I told him, because it kind of surprised me. I didn’t think he was. I always knew he was going to support me but I didn’t know that there was going to be that level of support. And so I said, “but you need to know like I chant Vedic mantras and I need some shout”, everybody connects with God in a different way you connect the way, is good for you. 

 

And every single priest that has been there since then has been as open, or even more open. The other day that I was in mass with my mom, you know, they were he was, Father Zipple was talking about, you know, the connection between Hinduism and Christianity and how the paths, kind of our parallel and different things. So I think once you have that perception. And once you’re on that level of consciousness, that’s when we can change things. That’s when things can happen. And so I’m super grateful for that. And you know it was a huge success with 500 people in a room, when I didn’t even know that many people knew about yoga back then. So those are the inspirational stories that I like to tell, and those are the stories that that remind me every time it becomes difficult that there is, there, there are people out there that are supportive of you and supportive of yoga, and like I said, even though they are, they’re Christians they’re Jesuits, they’re open and they see the connectivity, and they see the benefit in the collaboration and the love between people of different paths, because it all leads to the same. When I was brought up, you know, one of my biggest concerns. There is that story that helps to kind of bring about light to that, that there is work being done, collaborative work, work that’s heart based. And that’s it. Once your heart bases, all the other things fall apart. Once it’s right in the heart, everything else becomes irrelevant, because you know, like yoga teaches, Satchitananda, is the truth of our existence, the truth of our consciousness is bliss. It’s bliss and it’s nothing else at once, and the bliss comes cosmic consciousness comes from the heart, and when we can relate from heart to heart, all the other intricacies and differences become irrelevant, and they actually become a beautiful learning curve to learn about somebody else’s belief and to appreciate it in a way like that is, is what yoga is really about.

 

I would love to hear more about your Rhythm of Change and your projects?

 

Lily: 00:19:42

I love that story, it is such a light based story, a celebratory moment of when there was pushback and when there was something uncomfortable and you were moving through it and I love that you just went and you said, I need help. Those words are so powerful in any part of our past, to ask for help and to seek that out. I’m really glad you did. But I do want to ask something now, Michelle, I’m so excited to talk to you about it, about Rhythm of Change. I can’t wait. Rhythm of change seems like such an incredible nonprofit. I love what you’re doing in the prison system in Belize with the women who were in prison. It seems like you have ambassadors from Rhythm of Change, doing work in schools and with, I think with it, with people with diabetes that even like I would just love to hear more about your projects, if you don’t mind telling us about it.

 

Michelle: 00:20:39

Rhythm of Change really was born out of the  community. Out of the blue one day a friend of mine asked me to go and teach yoga, to, a day of healing, and it was actually called Days of Healing and it was, it’s a day, every month, that brought, like all the gang members in Belize together for one day of unity and one day of healing to try to end the gang violence that was taking place in Belize. And I agree. And so I started to teach yoga on the streets in Belize City in all these gang areas. I just go to some mats and place them on the street and during the days of healing the kids would come and we’d do yoga and they loved it. And then it became a little bit difficult because it became more of a party and so I had to go to the same priest and I said to him, “Can I start teaching in your school because I’m having problems with keeping it under control on the streets?”, and he said sure. So we started to do an after school program that became very, very successful. They were seeing a lot of behavioral changes, academic changes in the students. 

 

And from there, people spoke and then we had Ministry of Human Development contact me to start doing yoga in the Youth Hostel, which is like a detention center for kids with behavioral problems and then we started, and then I started to do it there and then from there the prison heard and then it went on and on and on and on. I started to work with the females really, by chance, because I was at the prison doing some work with my friend of Nasa Shabads to renovating the female section, and I told her I said, “you know I really want to get in here and work in the prison”, there’s some, they won’t. they have a fear of me coming, and working, and she said let me fix that and it turned out that the ceremony today she kind of declared it without the authorities even knowing that “Michelle will be starting yoga here” and everybody was like looking at it, that’s how it kind of just started without any really thought. But at the end it just progressed and then people saw the work, and they wanted to get involved, and then everybody that came, all that, I used to have a lot of guest teachers that would come on to them Shanky and they would come with me to do different projects because for a long time it was me doing it really by myself, and then they would get involved and they would stay for a period of time and help. And then it just grew, and then the Government of India, offered Rhythm of Change some scholarships to send the lesions to India to learn yoga, and then part of their exchange would be to work with in programs in Belize and so I, that’s when I started to get help, I would permanent help I would have different yoga teachers at the hospital, some doing at the prison some of the female section, some of the schools, and then I would still be doing it but that’s how we kind of got people involved. And then, you know, I think it’s just I would wake up one day and think, I need this, I need that, that’s when I woke up one day and thought we need a festival, I need a fundraising event. So the Belize Yoga International Festival came to mind and I went to register it and I came back and my mom was like, “what? where’s this gonna happen?”. I said I don’t know what is gonna happen yet but it’s gonna happen and if somehow it will fit into place, and it did. 

 

And so, you know we evolved from there and then more of my Sanga learned about it, the more they wanted to become involved and so we had some people doing fundraising in Italy to do just to fundraise because I wanted to be able to pay the teachers. And now, you know, we have a breathwork program with the females that was done by a sister of mine in Rishikesh. Lisa, who is the founder of Transformational Yoga, so she’s got that going, and then one of my students who now has a yoga studio in the capital of Belize, and it’s also a Rhythm of Change Ambassador, she’s just finished a program for seniors that we’re going to incorporate, these are all virtual classes that they can access with a big screen, simply because of the COVID. 

 

And then you know we know during the COVID like in October, I woke up and I thought we need to do something for the kids that are doing these virtual classes, they need something. And so, I by chance had the number of the CEO of the Ministry of Education in my phone and I texted her one morning early and I said, if you… do you need this, and she came back and she said yes. And so we went from that to. Well, if we were going to start a program for the kids. We need to get the teachers to buy in, and then people just came into my life, the executive director Rob Narayana, just kind of walked up the cafe of Chanky and basically said, “Hey, I’m a teacher and I’m also a positive psychologist and I’d really like to teach at your center because I’m visiting”, and then she visited and then she ended up working with Rob and now she’s the Executive Director and it just, everything fell into place and then she actually prepared a complete program using yogic techniques for the teachers, for professional, personal and professional development that the Ministry of Education will actually use as continuing education hours.

 

Teaching yoga on the Streets in Belize

 

Along the path when I was teaching yoga on the streets, and actually in the prison, and in the youth hospital, I wanted to get more of a grounding on how to teach a technique of how to teach children’s yoga, to make it really fun. And so I went into a course in in Miami, years ago, and I got to be good friends with Ann from Asana Alphabet and so when I was looking for our curriculum for the Ministry of Education, I call Ann and I told her what I wanted and she said, I’m going to do it and I said, but I needed to be Belizeanize and I needed to include Belizean animals I needed to include Belizean locations I need you. And it all came into place. So now we have a full curriculum that’s going to be uploaded for schoolchildren from Deep South villages, all the way to North villages, East, West, to be able to access during their school hours and I’m lobbying for the Ministry of Education to make it a daily thing every morning, you know for half an hour, they do some sort of yoga. So that’s where we’re at now, you know, and the more it evolves, the more people come into my life. That will help me in a certain way, and I’m going to cry usually when I say this because it has been such an incredible journey. You know, sometimes you don’t even plan anything, it ‘s just an idea that comes to mind and you express it and somebody manifests it for you. So that’s been my journey, so far.

 

Lily: 00:28:01

That is incredible and the word manifests, that’s how I feel when listening to you talk. It’s like one thing, it’s just, I mean we all have those thoughts right where something comes and we’re “oh that’s inspiring, oh yeah I love that idea. Oh”, But you, you actually send the text, or it seems like you, you push it into the universe in a way that outcomes a woman who says “oh you know, I’m a positive, so that’s a psychologist yoga teacher’ and then now she’s the executive director like that amount of serendipity, it just feels really like you’re on the right path, like what kind of affirmation is that? That’s amazing.

 

Belize International Yoga Festival

 

Michelle: 00:28:42

Even last year’s festival because of COVID, you know. We had to do it virtual and I was like, I am not like a virtual person. And somehow, you know, people research stuff to be able to get it done, and we and we got the financing, out of either nowhere because so many people were saying that, you know, so many of our sponsors were like “we don’t have the money this year but we got it, and we got it done and its online right now, still we had 44 people from 44 different countries submit a video, a yoga class”, you know, as well as our Belizean yoga teachers. So it was truly a Belize International Yoga Festival which is an eight, and I looked at it the other day, and I think we have like over 100,000 views, so just those things, you know, where it’s like okay, I’m not gonna let a year pass this is last year without us happening and I think it’s even more relevant now than ever to have these practices offered to people and we made it free. So anybody could log in and, you know, join a class and join a discussion and, yes, it’s been a beautiful journey so far. I look back with, with all of the talent that has supported me, the talent and the interest and the sincere wish to be a part of something that is beyond any of us really.

 

Lily: 00:30:14

That’s amazing. And yeah, it’s a perfect word, and Michelle, you said that you made it free and that you just checked on the views, 100,000 viewers, amazing. Is that something that my listeners could also check out on your YouTube channel or something?

 

Michelle: 00:30:29

Yes, we have it on… I have to check because I think we have all the classes uploaded to our YouTube channel; Belize International Yoga Festival, something that definitely could be available for people to access. 

 

Would you like to talk a little bit more about your wellness center and your yoga teacher training school?

 

Lily: 00:30:43

Fantastic. So we talked about Rhythm of Change, we haven’t talked a ton about Om Shanti. Would you like to talk a little bit more about your wellness center and your yoga teacher training school, I’d love to hear more.

 

Michelle: 00:30:58

The Yoga Center is, I teach primarily Sacral yoga classes, so it’s an integrative approach to teaching yoga. We incorporate everything, you know, mantra, breath, Sufi practices, I mean it’s a multi dimensional, the practices. And I also offer, we have a holistic spa, we offer traditional massages, I do Reiki, we do foot reflexology. We offer, you know, natural treatments like food facials and hydrating hair treatments, and then I also offer Jyotish readings. Also we’re offering retreats through My family’s hotel. We have a boutique hotel so we’re offering retreats there. Their hotel’s across the road, we have an organic farm that feeds vegetables in Martha’s Cafe which is my mom’s caFE. So we have everything here for people to come to retreats to do teacher training. So it’s one of those places where you can really come to heal and to Learn practices that you could take back into your everyday life that will help you like I said before maneuvering to life elegantly. One of the things that we say is that I’m not going to teach you to be elegantly stressed. I’m going to teach you to realize how to maneuver through life, elegantly. You know, that’s what practices do, they help you to transcend. And so that’s what I’m shanties about, it’s that beautiful offering of breath renewal, you release, and return to your best self, because ultimately we have the best self waiting to say hello again.

 

So what’s a good way for listeners to learn more about you or reach out?

 

Lily: 00:33:00

Oh, that’s perfect. So I’m sure that some of my listeners and Michelle will want to know how to get in touch with you or to at least learn more or to tap into the resources or check out an online course, you have so many offerings. So what’s a good way for them to learn more about you or reach out?

 

Michelle: 00:33:19

The best ways to contact me through the website so you go to omshantibelize.com, and just send me an email via that or if you want to send it to be direct, you could either send it to [email protected] or [email protected]. So you’ll reach my sister for myself directly, and then on our website you also see our cafe and our hotel are cottages. So you see the big picture, we were located in the City on the Outskirts by the water in a historic area the Fort George, historic Fort George area by the lighthouse, but we are certainly this oasis of nature and tranquility, right there and then,

 

Lily: 00:34:08

Of pure magic, and I will link to everything, all of Michelle’s websites and the Rhythm of Change website, and the social media platforms in the show notes, and on my website at wildyogatribe.com and all my social pages so make sure that you check out Michelle’s online presence and make sure you get connected because it sounds like she has probably a million and one things in the works and a few more up her sleeve, so you definitely want to stay tuned to Michelle.

 

Michelle: 00:34:40

Thank you so much, thank you so much, yes. It’s so, we should constantly be creating that is the Shakti within us, you know that creative element that Dharma quality, Dharma quality that is that resonates and once we tap into that, there’s that flow that takes place and if you, it’s just that creative force that is undeniable. It really has nothing to do. That’s the best part about it.

 

Lily: 00:35:09

Well thank you so much, Michelle for joining me on the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast. It has been a joy to have you here. 

 

Michelle: 00:35:16

Thank you so much, Lily, thank you so much. It was such a surprise and it’s been such an honor. I feel so blessed to… for you to have reached out to me. I’m very thankful and I’m incredibly grateful for the exposure that you’re giving us. My mom and I and our business, Rhythm of Change, and even the Festival, are very grateful. Whenever you’re in Belize, please look me up and I’d be happy to host you and take care of you.

 

Lily: 00:35:41

You can count on that. If I’m in Belize or if I’m making travel plans over there, you will definitely hear from me. I think we would really just benefit so much from getting to sit and have a fruit juice together and talk and teach and all the fun jazz, so thank you again, Michelle.

 

Michelle: 00:36:02

Thank you so much.

 

Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Outro

 

Lily: 00:36:07

Thank you so much for tuning into this episode on the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast with Michelle Shanti Williams from Belize. I hope that you enjoyed learning more about all of the amazing offerings she has at Rhythm of Change, the Yoga International Festival at Belize and her own Shanti Yoga Teacher training at school and Shala. So what I thought was most moving was talking to Michelle about her yoga as an integrative practice, not doing yoga in isolation or not just picking and choosing one thing or two things just to focus on but really integrating it into your life. Also her definition of yoga as a technology for humanity, I find so inspiring. And of course, talking to her about synchronicity, which I think is just sweet and special and beautiful and I feel really honored to share those stories with us today. So thank you again for tuning in and being well. 

 

Lily: 00:37:06

Feel like getting social connect with me, and the Wild Yoga Tribe on social media, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Head on over to the wildyogatribe.com to tap into some pretty awesome resources. Meditate with me on Insight Timer, a free app on Apple and Android devices, and join me for a yoga class on YouTube. Jazz up your week and get a bit of yoga in your life. Remember to hit subscribe so that you never miss an episode. And if you feel called, please share this episode with someone that you think could benefit from it. Leaving a review would also be so appreciated. Thank you again, dear listener for being with me. May your day be light and bright. May you be peaceful and happy, and lead on the right path, free of suffering and free of sorrow. Be well dear one, be well.

 

 

[End Transcription 00:37:57]

 

[Music Outro 00:37:57]

 

 

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