In this episode of A Modern Healer’s Journey, Tammy Bennett, OMD speaks with Kelli Hastings, also known as “The Yoga Lawyer”, and author of the book, “Rotten Minerva”. Hear from Kelli about the benefits of yoga – on the body, mind, and spirit, as well as benefits that can enhance your career. She also speaks at length about the time she spent in India, and how her grandmother’s stories inspired the title of her book.
Transcript
00:00:00:10 - 00:00:27:05 Speaker 1 Good morning, everyone. This is Tammy Bennett. I'm a doctor of Oriental medicine and my show is called A Modern Healers Journey. I'm talking today with Kelly Hastings, who is also known as the yoga lawyer. I wanted to ask you, Kelly, about what inspired your book title, which is called Raw Minerva. 00:00:27:05 - 00:00:45:15 Speaker 2 I mean, the full title is Minerva be an Unruly Warrior and embark on a spiritual quest, but Rotten Minerva, for sure. And my grandmother inspired the title because she used to write stories about a young heroine named Minerva. And it was, you know, she was always kind of getting into trouble, but had a good heart and it was rotten Minerva. 00:00:45:17 - 00:01:11:10 Speaker 2 She would use it to, like, teach me life lessons. But there's, you know, multiple layers of symbolism because Minerva's the goddess of war and wisdom. And then, you know, life is a little rotten. It's not all love and light. When you're embark on the spiritual path and it's okay to have, you know, some unruly tendencies or negative tendencies that you bring with you, it's part of the full gamut of living this life. 00:01:11:10 - 00:01:16:01 Speaker 2 You know, you have to have both the darkness and the light. You can't get rid of one for the other. 00:01:16:01 - 00:01:18:01 Speaker 1 That's the whole yin yang symbol. 00:01:18:23 - 00:01:23:05 Speaker 2 Yes. Yeah. Which is very prominent in Oriental medicine for sure. 00:01:23:11 - 00:01:48:23 Speaker 1 It's interesting because when I started reading the book, there were I started highlighting like crazy. And I figure out I wanted to talk about so many things. And, you know, I have time constraints. We could do a deep dove another time, but I was really taken aback by your balls to go. Go on. So tell me about the whole you know, what? 00:01:49:00 - 00:01:59:07 Speaker 1 What was in your mind before, why you decided to up and go? And if I remember correctly in the book, the first time you went was your son born yet or was it the second year? 00:01:59:07 - 00:02:19:07 Speaker 2 So he came with me all three times and he was not even two years old the first time we went. We took three trips over the course of about three years and the last trip he was almost five. So he started it like one and a half, almost two. And then the last year he was four and a half ish. 00:02:19:20 - 00:02:21:11 Speaker 2 So very young every time. 00:02:21:12 - 00:02:23:18 Speaker 1 What what made you say I'm going to India? 00:02:25:04 - 00:02:41:15 Speaker 2 Well, you know, it's not as crazy as it seems, because I was deeply involved in this yoga practice, ashtanga yoga. And my teacher would take regular trips to India like she at the time was taking trips almost every year. So I had kind of an end. She's like, You should come with me. I'm going to go to India. 00:02:42:11 - 00:02:53:03 Speaker 2 But it's because of the style of yoga that we practice originates in the small town in Karnataka, one of the southern states of India. So we went to Mysore. That's where they hosted this yoga. 00:02:53:08 - 00:02:59:18 Speaker 1 And so tell me then let's go backwards in time and tell me how you got into yoga practice at first. 00:03:01:11 - 00:03:22:11 Speaker 2 Well, yeah, let's see. That's well, at the time my brother was very sick. He had Hodgkin's lymphoma, and this was maybe 27. So I started to get into yoga. It's like 29. So I was searching for answers. Basically, I studied religion in college. Even though I majored in math, I had enough credits for a double major in religion. 00:03:22:11 - 00:03:41:12 Speaker 2 I was very into just studying spirituality and religion and I did study some yoga in college, not the physical postures. Yoga's so much bigger than that. But we read Autobiography of a Yogi, which is this great story of the spiritual yoga path. And so my interest was piqued. And then when my brother got sick, I just started looking inward for answers. 00:03:41:12 - 00:03:43:08 Speaker 2 And that's what brought me to yoga. 00:03:43:12 - 00:04:05:15 Speaker 1 I think that sounds very similar to what a lot of other that I've seen over 10,000 patients in my lifetime as a healer and a practitioner of Oriental medicine. And I talked to a lot of people because the nature of what I do, the initial part of what I do is to listen and pay attention and understand them from a physical, emotional and spiritual standpoint. 00:04:05:15 - 00:04:25:22 Speaker 1 I think a lot of people don't realize that aspect of traditional Oriental medicine, and we have to be really good listeners. And I hear people say, I, I'm, I'm searching inward, I'm looking for them for answers comes up all the time. And that's why I was hoping that you could share that with other people. What your your journey was. 00:04:25:22 - 00:04:35:02 Speaker 1 So that first trip to India, what was it like? What was it like when you, you know, your feet hit the ground and what were your senses like? How did that all play out for you? 00:04:35:02 - 00:05:05:20 Speaker 2 I mean, it's a bit of culture shock traveling in general. You know, people travel, you know, that it takes you out of your comfort zone and it's a lot more present moment awareness when you're traveling because you're not used to the environment. So it like immediately brings you in a more meditative state. And my experience in India was like that on overload because it was such a cultural shock, a cultural difference from what we're used to in the West, you know, so immediately you're just in the moment because you're overwhelmed by how different everything is. 00:05:05:20 - 00:05:07:16 Speaker 2 You're not in your head. So just that. 00:05:08:23 - 00:05:09:07 Speaker 1 Yeah. 00:05:09:20 - 00:05:17:09 Speaker 2 I've got a baby that I'm worried about. Yeah, totally. So it immediately brings you into the present moment, which is, you know, where meditation, where yoga. 00:05:17:09 - 00:05:31:02 Speaker 1 Happens and when you did you first obviously you checked into a hotel and so on and so forth. Did you then not stay at at a yoga retreat? I mean, what was your. 00:05:31:07 - 00:05:47:21 Speaker 2 No, no. I stayed with it. My first trip I lived with I stayed a family, like with an Indian, a Brahman class family. I rented a room in their house. And then my second and third trip, I rented my own apartment. We stayed for two months each time, so we rented a. 00:05:47:21 - 00:05:53:13 Speaker 1 Place a whole lot easier. So define ramen for the folks out there. What Brahman means. 00:05:53:15 - 00:06:16:14 Speaker 2 So it's like the priestly class in India there, you know, there used to be this caste system in India doesn't exist anymore, but there is still the remnants of it a little bit. And so it was a family that that engaged in Brahmin religious practices and was they were a higher income type family. They had a really nice big house and they rented a room out of it to yoga students. 00:06:16:14 - 00:06:23:18 Speaker 2 And I was I took advantage of that. I think there actually had maybe two rooms because I remember there were other one or two other yoga students there, too. Okay. 00:06:24:00 - 00:06:42:08 Speaker 1 So there was a part in your book where you talk about a man with no legs. Yeah. Is smiling all the time and you're. Yes, you write really beautifully about that. But could you share the heartfelt experience that you had with that situation? 00:06:42:08 - 00:07:00:12 Speaker 2 Yeah. I mean, it was just kind of a metaphor of like how India is in a lot of ways where they're just so much more appreciative of everything, it seems like, because they have less maybe and maybe not everywhere in India, but where we were there was this coconut stand and the yogis after practice would go and get coconut water there. 00:07:00:17 - 00:07:17:13 Speaker 2 So it would be kind of a hangout spot. And every day there was this man there no legs. He had two bricks that he used to walk on his hands like no wheelchair or anything. Happiest smile on his face every day, so happy. And I'm like, Why is this guy so? Do you like, look at him. He's like just sitting in the dirt at the coconut stand. 00:07:17:13 - 00:07:34:01 Speaker 2 But, you know, it just makes you realize that there's more to life than all this material crap that we think is so important in the West and that they had obtained an inner peace and happiness that eluded me at the time. You know. 00:07:34:04 - 00:07:40:17 Speaker 1 Did it hit you that hard at the moment or did it take a little while for that to process in your brain? 00:07:40:17 - 00:07:55:13 Speaker 2 He was more of a symbol for everything that was happening in my brain was processing because it wasn't just him, but he was such a good metaphor for it because it was so the, you know, just looking at him, it's like, what? Why is he so happy? But it wasn't a similar was everybody like time is just different. 00:07:55:13 - 00:08:24:07 Speaker 2 They're two they're not in a rush and the they just see life as divine. It's completely intertwined with their their life. Like there is no Hinduism in India. That's what Westerners call their religion. It's just a part of their life that's completely integrated into their culture and everything. So they don't see it as separate and they see the divine and everything, and they're not so concerned with like the fast paced capitalist lifestyle that we have in the West. 00:08:24:07 - 00:08:44:19 Speaker 1 So knowing that and then the the next thing in my head that struck me in the book that I wanted to ask you about, because the man with the no legs really hit me. I had an experience not that long ago where I was driving down one of our main thoroughfares here, 1792, and to make a left turn is a guy panhandling. 00:08:44:19 - 00:09:10:21 Speaker 1 And he had this sign and it said, no drinking, no drugs, married, 40 years, have a home, had heart surgery. Need help? Here's my pay pal account. It was weird because I'm not I mean, the panhandling situation here in Florida is pretty interesting because there's a lot of it and it's not like that. I mean, there is not, you know, a strong desire to want a sign and all this information. 00:09:11:23 - 00:09:29:14 Speaker 1 But he was smiling like big sweat, like smiling not to try to draw people. I think he was just genuinely happy that he was alive like he was. Yeah. Yeah. You maybe had a heart transplant. Yeah. So the deal, I wanted to go back and talk to him. Then he was there a couple of hours later, so I'd like to track him down and figure that out. 00:09:29:14 - 00:09:37:02 Speaker 1 But I thought about that when you talked about that in your book. Think you hugs from is on. 00:09:37:09 - 00:10:03:01 Speaker 2 Yes I'm the hugging soulmate. Yes. I met her the first time in India too, but she comes to the US or she did before COVID and her darshan. That's the yoga word for divine beholding. And it's just when spiritual teachers will kind of reach out to the public and allow people to come and be in their presence. And so she gives hugs as her darshan. 00:10:03:01 - 00:10:22:22 Speaker 2 So thousands of people will come and line up for hours and she just hugs each one. That's her practice her. And she's a spiritual teacher in India. And I had an amazing experience. She came to Mysore, which is the town in India. That's my second trip and I was very drawn to go see her. I kept seeing pictures of her and I was like, I'm going to go do this. 00:10:22:22 - 00:10:42:12 Speaker 2 And it was we waited. I brought my son. He was, I think, two and a half at the time. And we waited 16 hours or something crazy to get our amma hug. But when she came to America, it was a lot more fast pace. You know, they had it set up a lot more streamlined, but she gave out free food. 00:10:42:12 - 00:10:53:12 Speaker 2 Everybody that was there and everybody got a hug. And it was a very uplifting and spiritual experience. So you could feel the energy of it. And it was life changing for me to get my family. 00:10:53:12 - 00:11:14:10 Speaker 1 The other day we were talking about your energy. You were here having acupuncture and we were talking about kidney energy. And did you experience the same feeling, the physical feeling, when you touched her as you did similarly with acupuncture? Can you even describe it? I know that's a no ask. 00:11:15:14 - 00:11:34:15 Speaker 2 No, no. I mean, you know, there's subtle energies that you can feel if you're open to it. And for her, it was more like a whole body upliftment. And, you know, there's a lot of little coincidental things that happened where you just feel like the universe is there with you and and on the joke, you know, type of thing where you're like little things just for you. 00:11:35:04 - 00:11:51:21 Speaker 2 Like, for example, my, my son was very young and, you know, I'm trying to convince him to wait all this time for this hug from this woman. And so he's like, why are we here? And I was telling him, well, I'm a helps people. You know, she if you need something, you can ask for it and pray to her and then you might get it. 00:11:51:21 - 00:12:06:22 Speaker 2 And he's like, oh, like Santa Clause. And I was like, Oh yeah, kind of like Santa Clause. He's like, So we're going to get presents. And I was like, No, I don't know, maybe. So I was like, Oh, like, Oh, crap, we're going to get this hug. And he's expecting a present. And so he went up with me and we got the hug. 00:12:06:22 - 00:12:26:01 Speaker 2 And then, you know, it was just very like all body release of energy. And I was starting to tear up and felt like I was going to cry, like she had us for like a good minute. We went up together and then we got up and her walking away and she's like, here and she hands us a little presence and he's like, presence. 00:12:26:01 - 00:12:39:12 Speaker 2 And it's just like a little bag. And it had like candy and flowers in it. So we got his omnipresent and that felt like a huge coincidence, you know, like she was somehow new or. Yeah, the universe through her answered his wish for. 00:12:39:18 - 00:12:43:06 Speaker 1 More non coincidence as you do. And I guess yes. 00:12:43:22 - 00:12:50:15 Speaker 2 This all coincidences are meaningful. I feel like there's no on meaningful coincidences. 00:12:50:15 - 00:12:54:14 Speaker 1 So he sounds like a really special person. He's how old? Yeah. 00:12:54:22 - 00:12:56:13 Speaker 2 Well, now he's 12. 00:12:56:21 - 00:12:58:12 Speaker 1 And I know he practices martial arts. 00:12:59:17 - 00:13:02:00 Speaker 2 Yes, we both do. 00:13:02:00 - 00:13:22:16 Speaker 1 How does that. So some people will have a disconnect as far as like martial arts. Yeah. And yoga practice and prayer and how all that, you know, like fist violence or kicking and things like that come out of all that. Can you speak to that briefly? Because I want to say a little bit about that. 00:13:22:23 - 00:13:46:14 Speaker 2 Sure. I mean, lawyering is a big dichotomy, too, with yoga, maybe. But here's the thing. Yoga is everything, you know. And everything can be a yoga. There's actually a lot of similarities with ancient martial arts practice and ancient yoga practice, you know, like focus on the breath being in the present moment. So I find a lot of that in there, but nothing is excluded from from yoga practice. 00:13:46:14 - 00:13:58:01 Speaker 2 You know, yoga means union or being in that state where your body, mind and soul are unified and your thoughts are calm. And so you can bring that presence into any activity. 00:13:58:01 - 00:14:12:23 Speaker 1 So how does that apply to law at this point in your life? As you walk in, you get your Zen, you feel the room, you how does that all work? Well, I do. I'm taking my lawyer and real lawyer and pushing it up in my head. So give me the real scoop. 00:14:13:00 - 00:14:34:06 Speaker 2 SNOW That is part of it. When you're a yogi and you can be a yoga, anything, you know, yoga doctor, yoga bus driver, like we need more yoga in every profession. So it's a little bit tongue in cheek to say I'm the yoga lawyer. And it actually started from my colleagues when I got back from India, the first trip just to kind of dash me and be silly. 00:14:34:06 - 00:14:52:10 Speaker 2 They started calling me the yoga lawyer like, Oh, you went to India, you're the yoga lawyer. And I was like, you know, I kind of kind of like that name. Maybe that'll be my brand. So that's kind of how that happened. It's a little bit tongue in cheek, but it's a reminder that, yeah, yoga is a part of my life and it's integrated into everything I do. 00:14:52:21 - 00:15:12:18 Speaker 2 So practicing law as a yogi just means you are more aware of the subtlety of things that are happening. I do try to feel the energy in a room, in the room, and and also just to recognize with compassion that everyone that's involved is a person that has their own life experiences and that we're all trying our best. 00:15:12:18 - 00:15:34:08 Speaker 2 And so when we have to be at odds, we don't have to be equal to each other. You know, we can make our arguments and and separate it from the person. You know, you don't have to be angry to have a legal discourse. You can respect the other person's point of view while passionately advocating for your client's point of view. 00:15:34:08 - 00:15:38:22 Speaker 1 Does that steer you in a direction with certain types of clients? 00:15:38:22 - 00:15:48:12 Speaker 2 Yeah, my my law practice, because I've been doing it I've been practicing law almost 20 know 20 years now. This year, 20 years, October seven. That was yesterday. 00:15:49:10 - 00:15:50:01 Speaker 1 This was great. 00:15:51:01 - 00:16:13:01 Speaker 2 Yeah. Yesterday was my 20 year anniversary of practice. So I and I do a lot of other things like you were saying, I met your mom at the farmer's market. I'm selling Microgreens and I have a float. Sensory deprivation of floating and yoga studio. So with lawyering, it's taken a little bit of a backseat, although I do still practice a little more than part time. 00:16:13:09 - 00:16:43:23 Speaker 2 But mostly what I do now is legal writing. I don't do litigation anymore. I did that for many years, but it's just, you know, after 20 years of doing it and it is difficult to be a yogi and to be constantly in that litigation field, there's there's a lot of really strong energy when people are litigating. So I prefer to do a little bit more calm things now with legal writing and then helping people with with simple legal issues like wills, estates. 00:16:44:12 - 00:17:11:07 Speaker 1 Contract drafting things to me that in my head there would be conflict with the practice and then the practical, right? What's happening in your day to day and how this swirls around in your head. And I for me, because I have a very dualistic nature, I fight with myself a lot. Did you find that to be true early on when you were still litigating and then being, you know, doing your yoga practice? 00:17:12:06 - 00:17:40:08 Speaker 2 It just gets uncomfortable because there's there's a lot of pent up energy in people's lives are on the line, not literally, but people really take their legal issues very personally and can get very emotionally involved. And it can be emotionally draining, especially if you're aware of energies and sensitive like I am. It just can start to drain you and feel not good. 00:17:41:01 - 00:18:08:17 Speaker 2 But I do think it's important that we have more attorneys that are aware and compassionate. So it's a balance. It's not that it's impossible to do both. It's just for me, I started to be more interested in and other things and to not want to go into those environments, even though I think I was helpful, you know, to bring a more uplifting presence into those environments can really help move things, but it can also be draining on you physically when nobody else is on the same page. 00:18:08:17 - 00:18:28:23 Speaker 1 I totally understand that. I feel that immensely for myself in you know, I deal with people all day long and I sometimes take on their stuff and I have people say, I saved your yourself, drink water, do all these things, sit in the sun, try to heal yourself. I took a class called Heal Healer back in the day. 00:18:30:04 - 00:18:53:04 Speaker 1 Yeah, but sometimes you just have to step away for a little while and relax and get your energy back. So we didn't we didn't actually talk about talking about this, but I wanted to ask you ended on a note this way. We have a couple of minutes left, like 2 minutes. Sure. Talk about Zen float. Talk about what sensory deprivation is like and I'll give you a heads up. 00:18:53:20 - 00:18:59:00 Speaker 1 So Kelly has a company or a brick and mortar called Zen float, right? 00:18:59:07 - 00:19:02:17 Speaker 2 Float total and totals and float. 00:19:02:17 - 00:19:16:02 Speaker 1 And it's basically a sensory deprivation, brick and mortar store where you can go and you can get into a tank and you can basically do a sensory deprivation experience. Can you tell us what that's like for some people or for you? 00:19:16:20 - 00:19:40:11 Speaker 2 Yeah, so it goes hand in hand with yoga. It is its own yoga and it's sensory deprivation floating, if you haven't heard of it, it's it's basically it looks kind of like a hot tub with a lid on it and it's filled with £1,000 of Epsom salt and 200 gallons of water, and the water's heated to skin temperature and the environment is dark and quiet so that you can really go inward and completely relax. 00:19:40:11 - 00:20:04:06 Speaker 2 The Epsom salt has numerous physical benefits that have been known for centuries or thousands of years even. So you get a really good physical benefit from that. The water being so saturated with Epsom salt that because of the sensory deprivation aspect, you know, all your senses are muted, your, your sight touch even because the water feels like your skin, because it's the same temperature you're hearing. 00:20:04:13 - 00:20:27:13 Speaker 2 So you really get a chance to go inward and it can be very helpful for meditating. You can bring a meditation practice in there, but even if you're not a regular meditator, people will experience deep relaxation and pain relief and relief from other chronic conditions from floating. So it's kind of it runs the gamut for physical, spiritual, mental type healing. 00:20:27:22 - 00:20:40:14 Speaker 2 And I own a center that has two of those floatation tanks, so you can come and bring a friend. And then we also have a yoga studio. So we offer yoga classes in the yoga room. And that's like a place of spiritual. Like a spiritual centers. 00:20:40:20 - 00:20:42:00 Speaker 1 And your website is. 00:20:43:12 - 00:20:45:05 Speaker 2 The yoga lawyer dot com fabulous. 00:20:45:11 - 00:21:02:06 Speaker 1 And I just wanted to say in closing, if you like what you see, you like what you've heard, you can like subscribe to this channel. I'm also on Rumble and my producer would kill me if I didn't say that. So I have to say all those things. I'll probably forget sometimes, but I'll get better at it. And Kelly, I really appreciate you and your time. 00:21:02:06 - 00:21:05:14 Speaker 1 And one last thing, Rotten Minerva is on Amazon, right? You can go. 00:21:06:05 - 00:21:10:20 Speaker 2 Yes, it's available. Leisure books, booksellers and you can also get it from my website. 00:21:10:20 - 00:21:11:11 Speaker 1 I must say. 00:21:12:13 - 00:21:58:15 Speaker 2 Now I must say thank you.
