Hi there. I'm Jill Allen and this is find your fierce, the show designed for women to discover your fierce, unlock and unstoppable mindset. Build unbreakable courage and completely transform how you show up every single day. Each week I will bring ideas, methods and strategies that will inspire you to step into your greatness and live life on purpose. Let's be fit, fierce and unstoppable.
(00:35): Hey there gang. Welcome to Find Your Fierce. We are back and I'm so glad that you are here with us today, and this is going to be a good one. It's going to be a tough one. And I have a feeling it's going to raise a lot of questions. It's going to stir some things up. It's going to make you question and we're going to be digging deep a little bit. And this is, this is a huge taking me taking a step in faith. I mean, this that's all I can say. We do have a guest today, but before I introduce her to you, I have to fill you in and this past year, okay. We all know about 2020 and new endeavors things people were shifting and just, I was trying to find that peace. Okay. And to slow down. And as you guys know, I've been a fitness, a mindset coach for 20 years.
(01:32): And I had this great idea that I was going to become a yoga instructor and add that to my list of certifications. And so in January I started the course, the 200 hours and just got to work. I mean, all I wanted, if I wanted was my hips to be stretched. I wanted my hips to work. After all the years of training, I wanted to find that inner peace, you know, where you're on your mat and you find that sense of calm. And I thought, what better way to do this than to be certified. Okay. And so I've taken a few, a few yoga classes over the years. Absolutely loved them. I love that. I loved the people and the, and the community that it has. And so here we are. And I was halfway through my yoga certification and a friend of mine reached out to me and said, please, please do not get certified.
(02:34): And she sent me a YouTube link and of how yoga is a bit off. And it wasn't aligning with God. Now, when I have to be honest with you, when I got that text, my walls went up, I was in defense mode and I thought this girl is nuts. There's no way I'm not doing this. This is crazy. I'm going to continue on my yoga. I've already paid, this is this isn't going to happen. And I had no idea guys. I had absolutely no idea that the D that there was this massive division in the church. I didn't know. I thought it was a good thing. I didn't understand that there was a fight that there was a battle between whether or not yoga was good or not. And so obviously I, I was able to justify everything because I just wanted my hips to be stretched.
(03:27): I wanted to feel good and move on and get others to feel this this way as well. I completed my certification. I never posted it. I never shared it. I never went out because I had this feeling in my heart and my gut like, well, what if it is off? Would the impact that it would have? If I shared this with everybody, what if I'm wrong? What if I needed to be educated? What if I had, if I was willing to just dive into this a little bit more and do my research and ask the Lord whether or not this is the path that I needed to be on. If this is what I needed to go with. And I even reached out to my pastor, I reached out to close friends, looking for ways for me to say, well, yeah, I'm going to do yoga.
(04:17): Yeah. I'm going to teach. I'm going to, I loved hot yoga. I wanted that. I wanted to put heaters in my basement and the two, all that good stuff. And here we are exactly a year later. And there is this new conviction because my eyes were opened. My ears were opened. I had a, a clear perspective and I can see things through. I can see this area through the eyes of the Lord. And so talk about a big step out, because I know a lot of you guys are listening and it's like, it's coming out of left field. And I know it sounds crazy. It sounds like I just jumped off the cliff into the deep end where actually I am doing that because it just sounds so crazy because it doesn't make sense to the society, the world that we live in. And man, these next few minutes with my friend is going to be complete fire.
(05:22): And what I, I invited her on here today to just put it out there for you to just take a step back, to see what, what this is all about and why there's a division and whether or not, whatever, whatever path you're on as to whether or not we should continue on that path. Okay. I tell ya, my friend, she's been a fitness coach since 1991. She's married four kids. She absolutely loves people. She loves Jesus. She loves the outdoors. She loves movement. She loves life. And I tell you, we have so much in common. It's like we're clones and she is purifier. I want you to meet my friend, Amy Dudley. You're here. How are you? How are you? Good. I think I'm shaking. I think, you know, cause I keep thinking persecution, persecution. People are gonna think we're nuts. Yes. Ma'am yeah, totally crazy. We're pretty much identical. I mean, we met and it's like, man, I saw myself in your story and we just connected immediately. I trusted you of everything that you've stepped out. And I mean, your faith is absolute. I mean, it's, it's so good. The things that you're doing to the light that you were bringing to people on this controversial topic of yoga, I mean, how many millions of people practice yoga every single day? Amen. I mean, where do, where do we begin?
(07:02): I think, I think, yeah. And I think, you know, for our listeners too, the only difference is I have blue eyes and blonde hair and short hair and you have a jar jar guys. You're a little bit taller. You have one more child than we do. But other than that, man, same just out of the same. We're just knit the same. And there are so many others like us out there and yeah. Where do we begin? Because my story is so much like yours. I mean, I just, since 1991 girl, it has been just, I love to move is really, I mean, I started with high, low. I started with you remember like legwarmers basically. Like I started like then, like that was forever ago, like little, little dental false. They call it like of your booty. And I'm just like, Oh my stars. I can't even believe it.
(07:52): But sort of high loads step and kickboxing and both Sue. And then it was dumbbells. I've done water aerobics work with the elderly. Like then the strength stuff comes in and kettlebells spin. I mean, it's endless CrossFit, hiking, running marathon. I mean, you name it. And when you said, I just wanted to touch my hips girl. I was like, yes, me too. When you love to do all those really fast things and hard things as what I like to, not everybody enjoys that. But I needed to figure out how to slow down. Like how do you slow down? How do you, you know, and I remember teaching some stretch classes, if you will, no one showed up. I remember teaching AB classes, no one showed up, you know, but if you have the hardcore stuff, like people were showing up and I was trying to recall, you know, back in the nineties, I don't even remember hearing the word yoga.
(08:44): I mean, really it's within the last, my oldest is 22 and I remember it kind of popping up and friends invited me. It's like, anything else? You know, you've got your running group of friends, you got your, and they were great. They're like, Hey, let's go try this. Never thought twice, never thought twice. I've been just, and they used to make fun of me actually, because they're like Dudley, you can't sit still. Like I was like, I'd get out of yoga and be like, that was the hardest hour ever to sit there and breathe. Like what my hamstrings are on fire. I don't even, I can't even stretch those things. Like it hurts so bad, but I would go back because I knew, but I did know enough. I'm like, all right, I'm not doing some kind of weirdo stuff. Like I don't, you know, not that I'm not doing any kind of chanting, I'm not doing this.
(09:34): I'm like, I'm simply going because I need to stretch. That's it. That's how this journey started. I just need to stretch. I didn't like it, but I ended up getting certified. Like you Jill, I'm like, I don't really want to do this. And I did not do the 200 hours. I did what you call like kindergarten version, like enough to be dangerous. So I could have that in my bag of tricks in order to get hired or when I combed the gym, like it was just another option I wanted the best for clients. And so I knew that, you know, I'm not going to teach something that I'm not versed in or aware of. I don't want to hurt anyone. I don't want to lead anyone. Ironically, how we're talking about this. I don't want to lead anyone down the wrong path. So funny now, right?
(10:25): That's the crazy part. I mean, the class is fun. It looks good. It helps the atmosphere is absolutely amazing. Everything about it. It looks absolutely amazing. Yeah. That shiny thing. I mean also proud of my purple mat. And then I got a green mat and I graduated to like this little warm body thing, you know, like the candles, the ambiance. And I mean, I found some amazing instructors and you know, as an as fellow instructor, you know, sometimes we can be very picky. I support everyone, but if I don't your class, I'm not going to get in. I've found some really solid instruction that I really liked with you. And I, and I knew that they were Christians. Hello, somebody. I was like this one girl in particular. I I've just, I mean the most amazing flow with her word choices. And she never was weird. She just kept it. I knew that she was speaking out of the Bible per se, but it was flowing through these motions and it was hard and it was challenging and I would leave just rejuvenated thinking. Oh, it's amazing.
(11:31): So what's the problem. I mean that like the listeners are probably thinking, okay, so what's the big thing about yoga? What, what, I mean, it works. People feel great. Our hips do open up. Our muscles are lengthened. You feel good. You build sisterhood. You have that community. So what is the con, I mean, why is it in question as to whether or not this is something we should or should not do
(11:59): The million dollar question? It's such a great question because so many of us do not stop to ask the question, okay. To ask God truly like, we love to have our quiet time. We love to pray. We have our request. We have things we're contending for our families, you know, but when we really stop and ask, do we ask, I never did. I'm going to be honest. Come on, Lord, is this where you want me? My flesh is leading. Our souls are leading and our souls are wounded, right? It's calling our spirit man forward and going, but this looks really shiny. This looks really great. And I want to be a part of this and they're doing a great thing. Everything is good, but not everything is permissible. It's out of the word. So here's the deal with it. And people go, well, it's not a big deal. Here's what you hear all the time. It's not a big deal. Everybody's doing it. Come on. And deli, stop being a stick in the book. Yeah. We're back in junior high, your pressure peer pressure.
(13:00): But we, we don't, we think, well, everyone's doing it. I mean, there are studios everywhere. Now it wasn't back in the nineties. Like I said, there was not, this is just in the last they're everywhere. They're on every corner and you think, Oh, it must be a great thing. Now there are people that I've come across. They're like, no way I would never do that. That's you know? And then there's the people that are like, well, everybody's doing it. Like, who really cares? Like, it's, it's a good thing. It's, you're stretching. You're moving your body and it's hard. But if you really, really stop and you ask, okay, Lord, show me, what is this? Is this a view? Because now, then not only are there studios everywhere. You're, we're slapping the Christian, you know, there's many organizations out there. I've been a part of one.
(13:46): It's an amazing organization. So please hear Jill here myself. There's no condemnation and we're not here to shut somebody down. We're here to provide truth and I want we're waking. And here's the deal like you said, Jill, Hey, I checked with my pastor. Hey, I talked with friends. Hey, everyone was saying it's okay. But Jill and like me, do we sit down and go kick out, show me, and wait for an answer. And that's how I got convicted. This summer was again through a friend, just like you, Jill. That was like sharing. And I was mad. I was like, seriously, are you serious right now? Like, everything else has been taken away. God has. But as I shared with you before we got on here, Jill read a book, dangerous prayers by Craig Groeschel last January. He came out in three danger. He's like y'all stopped being rents is basically what he's saying.
(14:39): Like stop praying these prayers. The first prayer was breaking me. The second prayer is, show me the third prayer is, send me girl. Here we are. I literally was reading. As you were signing up and doing your yoga course last year. At this time, here's Dudley over here. I too was getting recertified in yoga, praying this prayers, reading this book going Lord. I don't know about break me. Like that sounds super scary and super hard. He's like, pray it. I did show me. He showed me through another friend who said in love deli. I love you. You're one degree off. And I wasn't as mad. She's like, just sit with it, pray about it. I'll pray about it with you took me a couple of weeks. Now she can get victim me enough. My last class that I attended was August 21st. And I know that because my birthday with my last punch card was August 24, going to turn 49. And I wanted to use that last punch card on my birthday to do a restorative class. That literally is agony. That you sit there for five minutes and a pose with your, I mean, we weren't, even in my mind, I'm like not doing anything work weird, but God, I said, God, what do you want me to know about this? He's like, you're justifying fine.
(16:01): We get really good, justifying so much so that we even go find people to join our side and we did that. Yeah. Asking everyone I know is like, is this real crazy? I mean, I, I just had no idea that there was even a division and that it was even in question, but let's do, let's dive a little bit deeper into the origin and the history of yoga, because they're like, okay, you know, cause not everyone's in the world, but yet we're Christian. And again, we just don't know what we don't know. But then once we do know, then it's like, Oh, so now it's coming down to a choice. I know that was for me because if I continued after I already knew, then that's where for me, like the guilt, the shame and the justification that came through the doors that are being open, not just as an instructor, but then I started thinking, and this is what got my attention. Well, what, what are the doors that I'm opening for other people? And I didn't even know that.
(17:03): Exactly. Cause he showed you, he showed, he showed you. He showed me and I had to sit with it. Yeah. You know? And when you do go to the ER, I just wasn't, there I'll be honest with you. I just was cleaning on to it because in my mind I'm like it was selfish. I'm just gonna be honest. I told you last year, at this time I was in a 20 week training program to hike the grand Canyon render into rim 48 miles. One of our, we had massive training and y'all were probably like, she's crazy. But one of our training things was yoga once a week. And I was training yoga with godly people that knew God. And I'm like, well, they're doing it again, justifying. But we had to, I mean, I can't hike that many miles, you know, from experience if any of out there too.
(17:49): And there's many runners that tend to gravitate towards yoga because you're tight. The hips, the hammies they're tonight. So, but what we have done in this Western culture is we've equated. When you think of stretch, we think you'll go immediately. It didn't used to be that way it season, but what was a good thing? Stretching. And I loved when you said Joe, before we got on, Oh, I just went old school. Like, yeah. But it's such movement. Stretching is so good. But the enemy comes to kill, steal and destroy and he will twist anything and he will twist a good thing and get us off base. Great. I don't have to worry about them. They're off track. So when you go back to the origin, you've got to do your homework. And honestly, I wasn't willing to do that. I just did it in the last couple of months after I had to sit with it and I was mad.
(18:40): I had to go through all the feelings, mad, bad, sad, scared. Like it's not a big deal. Like everybody else had to. Why can't I do what everyone else is doing because you're different. Okay, great. You know, it was all of that. But then when you start and you can Google Google's dear friends, you can Google anything. And I started, my eyes were opened and my ears were open and my heart was willing. And I said, God, show me. And he just started to unravel just the simplest pose. What you're opening yourself up to what the origin of this pose was meant for. You are opening yourself and that you're worshiping other gods and you're opening your, and I'm like, yeah, but I'm yeah, but I'm praying my prayers and I'm talking to you, Jesus. Then it's amazing. He's like, are you really our intention?
(19:34): Our intention is not that our intention is. I seriously just want to stretch. He's like, how about I show you? And I'm mad, like fine, such a baby. And it took me forever to, to just get rid of all of this stuff, get rid of it. All right, Lord, I'm willing. I'm going to again, move my soul to the side. I'm just going to stop letting my flesh lead because you know, the ultimate goal is ultimately I wanted peace when you're moving and you're running or you're biking and this isn't the case for everyone. We all need to move our bodies and take care of it. But for those of us that are tend to be on the extreme side, we feel great why the endorphins are running. Like we're amazing. And then that wears off and we want more, we want more, it's like a drug, you know what I mean? And this becomes, and it can become an addiction, but that's part of how to say flashy, you gotta, you gotta, okay, spirit, leave me. What do you want me to do? And I just would laugh. He was like, okay, put your arms up. Okay. Bento over like old school, like you talked about. Okay. And it works. Yeah.
(20:35): I think this is a good place to wrap it up here for today. We're going to continue this episode with part two next week. So be sure to come back. But first you were being called to rise. I want to you to the just free sisterhood, a 12 month mindset and accountability experience rooted in biblical truth for Christian women, like you who are ready to rise up, head on over to be fit and fierce.com forward slash just breathe. Or you can check it out in the just brief Facebook groups. So glad that you are here with us. I hope that you have enjoyed this. Have questions, please reach out and come back next week. Thanks so much for joining us today. Please subscribe. Share this episode, link on your social media. If you felt encouraged or inspired, as we all know someone that can benefit. And I would love it. If you would give some feedback and a review as well, talk with you next time. Be fit, be fierce, be unstoppable.
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