Episode 16. Join me in this episode as I dive into the transformative world of Qoya. In this review, I'll explore the impact of this unique movement practice that weaves together dance, yoga, and feminine embodiment.
The episode provides a glimpse into how Qoya empowers individuals to reconnect with their true selves, honor their intuition, and navigate life's journey with grace and authenticity.
I hope you feel inspired to explore the healing, self-discovery, and empowerment that this beautiful practice can bring to your life.
If you're interested in starting a podcast of your own, consider joining the SPI Community. The All Access Pass, in particular, has a step by step course for starting a podcast which absolutely was key for creating and launching my podcast. And equally important, I made connections with other fellow entrepreneurs/podcasters. If you do sign up through my affiliate link, I will receive a commission fee.
Episode 16. Join me in this episode as I dive into the transformative world of Qoya. In this review, I'll explore the impact of this unique movement practice that weaves together dance, yoga, and feminine embodiment.
The episode provides a glimpse into how Qoya empowers individuals to reconnect with their true selves, honor their intuition, and navigate life's journey with grace and authenticity.
I hope you feel inspired to explore the healing, self-discovery, and empowerment that this beautiful practice can bring to your life.
If you're interested in starting a podcast of your own, consider joining the SPI Community. The All Access Pass, in particular, has a step by step course for starting a podcast which absolutely was key for creating and launching my podcast. And equally important, I made connections with other fellow entrepreneurs/podcasters. If you do sign up through my affiliate link, I will receive a commission fee.
Lisa:
Welcome to the Happy Sweat Life Podcast. My name is Lisa Rung. In this episode, I'm going to be talking about Qoya that's spelled Q O Y A. And I first learned about this dance based exercise when I got a newsletter from a Thai massage therapist I used to go to in Bozeman, Montana. And she mentioned that she was holding classes in Koya. And I was really curious about what it was. So I started to research it and it's actually a really neat mix of things. it was developed by a woman named Rochelle Schieck and it came out of a women's group that she was in, when another woman said that she had been told that she needed to get out of her head and into her body, and she was just struggling with that, because she had tried yoga, and she thought it was boring, and she had tried pole dancing, and she had hurt her back, and she had tried dance classes, but she never seemed to be able to find one that fit the level that she was at, and she said if movement It means fitness, then I'm screwed because I can't find anything that makes me drop from my head into my body. And so Rochelle had taken dance when she was growing up. She had actually gone into yoga and also tried pole dancing. And for her, the experience was much different. It really. Helped her connect with different sides of herself. And so she began to wonder if there was a way that she could guide people into that experience. And so she invited people to come to her apartment and to see if she could develop something that would help people Feel that dropping from their heads into their bodies. And Qoya was the result of that. So she defines Qoya as remembering through movement. And in movement, we tap into our essence and remember that we are wise, wild, and free. And I'll go over each of those components in just a minute, but I should preface this by saying that a lot of the information that I got on Qoya was from a YouTube interview. Between Rochelle and Cassandra Reinhardt. And if you don't know her, she has a YouTube channel called Yoga with Cassandra. She does yin yoga and vinyasa flows, and she's an excellent teacher. So if you're looking for a yoga class, I would give her a try. Anyway, so this is what she explained in the interview as to how it got started. So, wise is about the wisdom of yoga And, you know, yoga is a centuries old tradition. It's got a lot of wisdom behind it. The flow that you will find in her classes is not one where she's sort of correcting, or the teachers are correcting your form exactly, like, you know, lower your hip or turn more out. It's more about feeling, like let's say you're in a lunge, feeling that lunge. Where's your range of motion? What feels good in your body as you do that movement?. Wild is about creative expression through dance, through movement. So whether that's. A choreographed dance where you're adding your own style or in the freestyle dance. And free is about expanding our capacity to enjoy our bodies through sensual movement, really connecting with our feminine self. So the classes do begin with controlled movements and then move into more Free flowing movement as you feel more comfortable with the movement, moving in your own body, trusting your body. So, if you take a class, there are 13 core components in each class. And they include, but are not exclusively choosing an oracle card in the beginning for guidance. I think that's really interesting. I've actually been getting into... Reading tarot and oracle cards more, trying to understand and trying to develop my intuition through the use of the tarot and oracle cards. So I love that this is part of the class itself. There are also our hip opening movements, sun salutations, something she called shadow dances. Shaking. Now shaking is really interesting if you've never done that before. It actually feels really good to do that. And you can shake an arm, you can shake a leg, you can shake your whole body. And if you have a lot of pent up energy, if you're feeling angry for some reason, shaking is just a really wonderful way to get that out to release it. So if you ever want to give that a try, you can do that now, it's just to start shaking. I was also listening to another interview by a woman who is a Qoya instructor, and she was telling the story of the gazelle and the lion. And in this story, the gazelle is being chased by a lion and is trying everything to evade the lion, zigzagging, hiding, running back and forth, and eventually the gazelle does lose the lion. And once she's safe, she just starts to shake all over, her body starts to shake all over because she has no one else to tell it to. none of her herd are around and she just went through this incredible experience. And shaking was the way of releasing the fear, releasing all of the energy of that experience. So I, I think it's fascinating that shaking is one of the components of this dance. The other thing that she has involved with the dance class is choreographed dancing and free dancing. There's also an element at the end of community and connection. They use a variety of music in the classes, so you might hear some Bollywood, you might hear some Soul Train, you might hear beats of Lower East Side, so hopefully you will find something that you can really connect with. Now, who is Qoya for? It's for women of all ages. types and levels of experience. And it's just fun and healing. Those are kind of the aims of the class itself. If you're interested in taking a class, I would highly recommend that you visit her website, which is www. qoya. love. On the website, you will find. A bunch of videos that she's made. They're about 15 to 20 minutes long, and you can kind of get a sense and experience of the different elements of the class it's not the, it's not a full class, but it's interesting to just at least follow along with the videos. She has some that are more yoga influence, some that are more dance some that are more free form. So that's a great place to start. I also did find a couple videos on YouTube with, again, samples. I think there was one that I found that was a complete class but I'm sure if I looked longer I'd probably find some more. She has an opportunity to have private sessions with her. There are in person classes and you can find those through the website, and they seem to be all around the world, so it's not just based in the U. S. there's lots of countries where those classes are offered. I also looked and checked out the links for the online classes. And unfortunately, a lot of the links didn't seem to go anywhere. They were either broken or said that that option was not available anymore. I'm only guessing that perhaps during COVID, it was something that people offered, but as the world opened up, that maybe people went back to the teachers, went back to just offering in person classes. So I didn't find a lot of. Options for virtual classes. I did find one person through. Searching on YouTube that is offering something on zoom. So I'll have that in the show notes. If you're not near someone that offers it and you want to give it a try. The other thing that she offers is retreats and those are current. I was looking at the dates and they're upcoming at the end of 2023 into 2024. And one of the things she was saying about. Retreats in her interview with Cassandra that I thought was really interesting is that when we travel, we have an opportunity to really have an embodied experience because we are stepping out of our normal routine where probably not fully present in the moment, but when you travel, you hook up with other people that are doing the same thing that are Having the same experience, then you have that opportunity to really be present in the moment. You know, you're not worrying about job, other people. You just can be really present with yourself. And through the dance and through the movement presented in Qoya, she said that we can really feel the most like ourselves. She also has a book that's available on Amazon, so if you're interested in reading a bit more about Qoya, you can get her book. It's called Qoya, compass for navigating an embodied life that is wise, wild, and free. I will leave in the show notes some information about the interview with Kassandra and Rochelle. I thought it was really interesting, and it's well worth listening to if you get a chance. The other thing that they talked about that was food for the brain was, Rochelle was saying that when you are Trying to solve things like the healthcare crisis, the divisions in politics, the environmental crisis. We need both the masculine and the feminine approach. And often right now, we only have the masculine approach. And that is not sustainable. That we need to have both elements. in the solution for any challenges that we're facing. We need both the masculine and the feminine approach. And I just thought that was really an interesting view on that. And I don't know if you agree with it or not but it's just something to think about. If you do try out Qoya I would love to hear about your experience. You can email me at Happy sweatlife@gmail.com and if you have any suggestions or would like to be on the show, you can also email me at the Happy Sweat life@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you. I look forward to bringing you another episode next week. Thank you.