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About Dee
Dee Dussault, author of the 2017-published hit book “Ganja Yoga”, is a pioneer in the yoga and cannabis wellness movement.
She was the first ever to offer ganja yoga classes to the public and has been doing so since 2009.
Pete 0:00
All right. All right. And welcome again to another episode of hempire. I am Pete Bahrenburgberg, as always, I’m here with CEO and co founder of pure Well, that is Nick DeFrancesco.
Nick 0:12
what’s going on? Pete, how you doing today? I just want to let you know that I’m excited because we’ve had, you know, crazy things go on in the office, we’ve got some amazing new gas that we’re doing on hempire. We’ve got, you know, a new product that we’re launching. So it’s been you know, it’s been pretty amazing right now to be honest with you and Right, right, so definitely. Exactly. And today, we got some little bit of cannabis enhanced yoga. So I’m definitely excited to talk to our next guest, obviously, so let’s say Namaste to our next guest.
Pete 0:46
And that is the author of ganja yoga. That is D Dassault D.
Dee 0:50
How are you? How are you guys? Doing? Great. Thank you. Thanks for having me. I’m excited to talk. All things we do yoga, there’s a lot to talk about the history, the medicinal and sacred properties, the kinds of practices that are best suited, and I even brought a little doobie. So I want to start but I’m ready to dive in. All right,
Nick 1:12
so I like it. I like it. Well, let’s do it. So you practice for tenants of ganja yoga, enhance relaxation, deepen embodiment, elevate creativity and expand consciousness. So tell us a little bit about the cannabis yoga and how it comes together. And how those four things all work in synergy. Or soon or by themselves.
Dee 1:36
Yeah, you know, it’s like the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. So cannabis can help with body relaxation, it can make people even want to do yoga, you know, if you’re tight, you’re stiff, you’re sore, the idea of getting on the floor and stretching is not that appealing. It can elevate creativity and a sense of play a sense of curiosity and you know, that may not be outright spiritual, but it kind of puts you in that psychological mood to kind of you know, feel yourself connect to yourself, you know, do some new flows or stretches or, you know, kind of be weird, you know, and then the last piece it really does, you know, at the right dose and strain, enhance you know, focus meditation, mindfulness, so it can kind of bring in some of those more spiritual aspects even stuff like, you know, esoteric anatomy chakra stuff that you might read in a Yoga Book. Once you take a nice toker to the right dose. You’re like, okay, yeah, no, I do feel like something in my throat chakra and my heart chakras. So it has all these different elements for sure.
Nick 2:32
I love it. I was gonna say, so how did that really, you know, how did you get started? How did you marry the two together? Of course, what you’re talking about is absolutely the truth. But how did that become a reality for you?
Dee 2:42
So me, I got into weed late I started when I was 27. You know, when I was in high school, I took way too much bad trips, I and then I kept getting flashbacks of those bad trips. So I just thought, you know, I’m too sensitive. It’s, it’s not for me now looking. I’m like, Okay, I was taking weight. Beginners Shouldn’t you know, be taking as much weight as I was taking when you’re just getting started. So now you know, it was a dose thing and a set and setting thing you know, you want to be in a comfortable relaxed space, not like a frat party vibe when you’re trying a new drug, you know, all of this. So yeah, I got into it late. I’d been doing yoga my whole life since I was a teenager. So I’ve been doing it sober. And I when I got high in my late 20s and didn’t get paranoid I was instead got like, wow, my yoga is just so much more open. So much more fun and free and yeah, mystical. I kind of got more into the kind of chakras and that kind of more New Age side of things. And yeah, so I thought I want to teach this and I Googled it, and no one else was doing it. You know, there was a couple of these like, this was 13 years ago. 2009 right. So, you know, the science about weed was just getting started about how it helped with glaucoma, but we didn’t fully know like how amazingly good for you it is and so there was a few you know, dispensaries, you know, a patient’s groups that had yoga for their patients, but you had to consume, like in your car in the parking lot. So I was sort of like, Let’s get together and get high together.
Nick 4:02
We’re sort of out of the back alley, right? Yeah, no harm.
Dee 4:04
I mean, that, you know, for legal reasons, you know, everyone had to do what they could do. And, you know, I always, at this point, always want to name the privilege of if I was a different race, would I have been able to do this in 2009, you know, so I also want to just name like, all these privileges. I grew up with my mom’s smoking weed. So, you know, I didn’t have to worry about judgment on my family. I don’t have children. So I didn’t have to worry about you know, getting my kids taken away. And yeah, I’m white. So I didn’t really worry. It was in Canada. So also the law was different and even that’s a privilege. I didn’t have to worry about going to jail for it. In America. You know, we have we had especially 13 years ago, it’s a different standard. So all these different privilege
Nick 4:40
when did that start in Canada? When was the legalization in Canada? zation
Dee 4:43
started it was you know, it was a few years ago, but I can’t say I remember the year but it certainly doesn’t nine it wasn’t legal, but you know, at worst, you’d get like a ticket for possession you definitely but
Nick 4:53
still, it’s a lot more lenient than it was here. I mean, they were locking people up for a joint for We’re, you know, a little tiny over a lot larger area. Exactly, exactly. So that’s why I was asking because, you know, I think it was maybe three years ago, four years just in Florida, where we decriminalize it in Palm Beach County and Dade County and things like that, where they could just write a ticket. So before that it wasn’t anything like that. It was you were going, I mean, so that’s why I just asked, you know, it’s so funny. But I think it was October 17 2018, cannabis was legalized in Canada, for recreational and medicinal purposes. Yeah. So thank you, George, our awesome producer had given me some facts here. But it’s, you know, it’s always I just thought I’d ask. But it’s it’s kind of funny, because you said you tried it now. You tried it like you were when you were young, you just didn’t know. And then you stopped smoking altogether. And then you started back up in 27.
Dee 5:52
That’s right. Okay. Yeah, a couple of bad trips when I was a teenager. And then I all through college, my friends would smoke with my mom, because my mom smoked weed my whole life. So when I was 2728, and I smoked in front of her, she was just like, I passed for the joy and she’s just like, I can’t even believe you’re smoking. I just thought she thought it was like a goody, goody, it’s not. Right. It’s like and so now it’s like my profession, you know, other people to be cannabis yoga teachers, I have a book of best selling but HarperCollins book on the topic. Like it’s just so weird to have this rocky relationship early on. And so that’s a big part of like the ganja yoga experience is like, you know, to create the set and setting where people can relax and really, like, you know, a lot of us, you know, obviously who’ve listened to the show that, you know, it’s we’re not new to weed, but when for people who are if they’re sensitive, if they’re nervous, you know, because of propaganda and prohibition that can put like a nervous energy on it, like, kind of a bad trip of like, Do people know, I’m high? You know, am I gonna go schizophrenic are the police gonna come all this stuff can come with us, it’s like baggage, you know. So creating that kind of environments, like, you can smoke a lot or a little and it’s, we have like, some community chit chat. So you sort of start to feel like, wow, there’s all different types of people here. And I’m part of something and it’s, it’s like, super low key, it’s not, you know, what I mean? So, you know, yeah, it just creates the right environment for smoking weed, you know, especially for beginners.
Nick 7:06
You know, it’s funny, the way you’re talking about it is more of it putting you in a state of mind, right? And, and we have a lot of people on, it’s more how they change their life because they were injured, or something had happened to them. And it makes them what you actually mentioned, more pliable, more relaxed to maybe, maybe try new things, I would say a little bit more open minded to maybe try a different stretch, or put your body into a little bit longer. And because of that any inflammatory effect or that muscle elasticity, it makes you a little bit more, you know, a little bit more flexible. So it is awesome. And I always thought that if I’m doing yoga, I might as well smoke because I’d be relaxed and it would put me in the right state of mind. So putting them together now. What is your thoughts of goat yoga? Okay, I just thought I’d ask you throwing a little bit of goat yoga in with with them. I want to do both eat grass. They both so guy on j right. Gotcha. Go yoga. So um, but um, no, I’m just so funny. I mean, is that something that you you think is good for people to when they when they bring in an animal like a goat or something to
Dee 8:16
you know, it’s a complex conversation, I might my initial responses, like if it makes people even want to do yoga, same with ganja or beer, yoga wine, if someone was not going to do yoga, and now they’re willing to, hey, that that’s a positive because it’s going to bring them more peace, more flexibility, more know, they might be less grumpy with less road rage, it makes the world a better place. So anything that makes people want to be mindful and stretch and be peaceful. Amen. And we got to just sort of like acknowledge that, you know, it’s getting pretty changed from its original kind of, you know, Indian, ancient spiritual practices. You know what I mean? Cannabis was there at the beginning with early yoga. It’s like woven into Indian history. Lord Shiva is the Lord of yoga and the Lord of cannabis. So I don’t want to be judgmental about like beer, yoga, wine, yoga, goat yoga, like I said, if it’s getting people to do yoga, it’s cool. But we also have to just kind of be like, okay, at what point is it kind of like a circus or kind of like, you know what I mean, like Americanized.
Nick 9:10
And that’s reason why I was really asking. I agree with I look at it from both sides. Yeah, I like it. Like, for me, I love how people get into CBD. And that side, because at least they’re getting into cannabis and, and trying something that would open up their mind and help them in a certain way. They don’t have to go right to marijuana. And honestly, most people, not most people, some people like that high of marijuana and some people are just great with CBD, or just using it in other ways. So I liked the idea what you’re saying is, you know, with if it’s goat yoga, I think it brings people there to actually try it now. If they get into it, then understanding more where the history is and things like that, but like you said, it’s at least getting people to try it. But yeah, we don’t want to exploit the animals. We’re definitely not saying that. Let’s not make a mockery out of this. It’s
Pete 10:00
I was just gonna say we can get the goat high and then it’s about a complete.
Nick 10:08
That’s absolutely, definitely a difference of the entourage effect. But, um, but yeah, so now the other thing is, is that when you host these unique weed infused yoga classes, how does that work? I mean, like you said before, where you’re kind of sneaking away and everyone’s doing it, how do you present it now? And and what do you recommend for somebody that wants to do this with you?
Dee 10:31
Yeah, so you know, now there’s classes springing up all over the country and even around the world. You know, my training is a digital training I have people do it from like Hong Kong, all these different countries, Czech Republic. So that’s awesome, man. You know, hundreds of people have trained and trained in this ganja yoga. And there’s other brands that are offshoots. So it is a movement, which is really cool. And so you know, if you can find like a local studio, that’s like so cool, because you get the community aspect. You can go to a regular yoga class Hi, you know, where it’s legal? Of course, I’m not suggesting anyone do anything. You know, that kind of thing. Unless you’re
Nick 11:05
in a back alley on a car right before and no one’s seizure. Yeah, like
Dee 11:09
respectful of the students. Exactly, you can do anything you can definitely do your thing at a regular studio and you know, practice even you know, there’s we have, there’s YouTube classes for people who want to experience like a free you know, just do yoga. You know, watch a yoga class hot, do it at home high if you want to kind of get into it. So I think it’s cool that people kind of build a relationship to weed separate of yoga and kind of you know, make sure they know their dose and stuff. But the good thing about these ganja yoga classes is that like I said, we have the set and setting where okay, you if you over consume no big deal, we just like have a volunteer, we say it happens we bring you water, we don’t make a big fuss over it, like over pamper you. But we also just make it’s like normal, no big deal. You know, it happens. So it’s okay to kind of like get a little anxious or, you know, that’s what you know, CBD is for it offsets that that THC kind of thing. The Nano gets raided and under the tongue. And so we do like subliminal every kanji yoga class, and it’s there for people if they need it as a kind of RX. So you know what happens, if it happens, we try to avoid it, obviously, with a chill vibe.
Nick 12:07
That’s an awesome, awesome point. And we like to try to type people that that they know that there’s always going to be a counter, you know, antagonist protagonist. And a lot of people don’t know that, you know, if you are feeling a little too high, or it’s like a little too much for you, which is fine, you got to learn your dose, or your bottle. You can always use CBD to offset that. But I guess what I was saying is, is in your own classes, which I assume you do them, of course in person. But do you ever do any right? We see you have people from all over the world? So are they tuning in, and you’re doing live yoga classes over the internet as well? Yeah, definitely.
Dee 12:44
Sometimes I didn’t do that in a big way over the pandemic, like a lot of my teachers and a lot of other yoga teachers have been doing these virtual live stream. For me, that’s always like less less my thing for some reason, you know, what I mean? Person with my people, or I have digital products that people are self paced. So I have gone to yoga online, like it’s we have like over 100 classes, and now my trained teachers are putting their classes up. So there’s all different lengths and styles and body sizes, and that kind of thing. So you’re like, oh, I want to 25 minutes shoulder class with, you know, you can just see different teachers and they’ve all done my training. So we all kind of have some similarities in our approach. So we have Yeah, we have these kinds of digital products, or I have like in person things. And I also you know, I’m also a sexuality coach. So I like a mindful kind of tantra based, you know, helping couples and people relate to their partner relate to themselves. So bringing in cannabis for that, too. So we do like virtual live stream events around sexuality sometimes or, you know, kind of like partner yoga stuff, things like that. Super X rated I don’t mean to sound like but just kind of like intimacy.
Nick 13:45
I mean, it sounds fun. It sounds exciting. I mean, obviously. But I guess what pizza do is this though. This is more hands on approach, but a little bit more personalized attention being in your own studio is obviously going to be much better for the person that’s that’s trying to learn or, or to to do it with you so I could understand why you didn’t want to do it that way. For me, we love doing one on one with people as well as you know, it’s not it’s not the same, right? You know, it’s not the same as being able to be right there in it. So missing missing energy. Exactly. No, you can listen, you could talk we talk about everything you want on this show. You want to talk about sex and sexuality great. We’re all we’re all for it well
Dee 14:30
you know, it’s related you know, yoga, like it’s it gets you in your body, it gets you in your senses, your sensations, your emotions start coming when you slow down when you actually start to hear your thoughts and you know, you start to be with yourself that’s the whole kind of point of view, you know, yoga that’s you know, your with your thing, and then it’s like, right next door to being with yourself is like oh wait, I’m an animal, right animals are sexual beings like it’s there’s nothing wrong with being sexual. You know what it means? Yoga and sort of sexuality or cousins are you know what I mean? It’s all related. You start doing yoga uses
Pete 15:05
a lot of bending.
Nick 15:08
There’s a lot of bending and building, Pete said,
Dee 15:11
You gotta I like our yin and yang approach and you need the balance.
Nick 15:16
Right? But it is, you know, it is a more of a sexual type of thing. I think even from guys looking at it in one way, people seeing it, they feel it, they feel sexy, they feel flexible. I definitely think it goes hand in hand. And, and obviously, you know, look if anyone can use anything to alleviate stress anxiety is Gungeon sex, right? I mean, that’s some of the best stress relievers that you possibly could have. So they definitely got to go hand in hand.
Dee 15:47
Exactly. You get it?
Nick 15:49
How much how much do you like regiment wise? What I was really getting to was the question was how do you initiate cannabis in your classes? Is it something that you do before with everybody? Is it something you tell them to bring? That’s how I was trying to get
Dee 16:03
ice? Yeah, so yeah, we consume for about a half an hour before class and you know, here in California it’s legal for adults to share I mean state legal so everyone’s invited to bring their own it’s not you know, explicitly provided but adults share and there’s like always plenty to go around.
Nick 16:19
Nice. There we go. Diesels right. These doing it right, that’s that’s on it. We know the ds ds. Absolutely. I look, I love this. And that’s why we had you on we love that this connection with cannabis with yoga. But again, any way we can get people to understand that it’s used for more things than just having a great time for mental health for your body. And any way you want to do it. That’s great, but this is a great way to put it all together. And so what do you normally like? What’s your regimen for day like? What do you like to do? You smoke you’re an animal person.
Dee 17:00
i For me,
Nick 17:01
we went right to the dabs. This one’s hardcore.
Dee 17:05
I don’t even think of it as hardcore as Yeah, I usually don’t smoke until 420 I’m doing it because we’re like, you know, it’s like a set. Yeah, cool. Really just taking a little clip for my
Nick 17:13
Instagram Live join. Sounds good. Always posting always hustling. I love that. We love that. We love that. Definitely Shut up. We’re gonna get you some products too. So you can try some of our stuff. I think you’ll love it.
Dee 17:25
I mean, yeah, so I like to dab it helps me manage my ADHD I take baby dabs of like rosin you know, organically grown and then solventless extraction so just pure cannabis delicious. I love that all of the whole plant the terpenes so like, you know, it’s you know, not a baby baby DAB but a small down but probably you know, like kind of like every hour or
Nick 17:44
two sure more than micro dose type of micro dose dabbing
Dee 17:48
throughout the day. And I also take CBD tincture to offset just that huge THC amount. So when I’m not that big between the dabs I take CBD. So I’m like, you know, kind of doing this up and down thing that really helps me focus that with coffee. I don’t need to use my ADHD medication.
Nick 18:03
But that’s another good one.
Dee 18:06
You know, you take that token. For me. It’s like you earned like, the longer I can delay, the tastier it is to write once you’re gonna grow up and okay, I’m gonna have you know, in a few joints in the evening over the course of the evening.
Nick 18:18
I love it. I love it. Gino, I don’t know much more about pol or everything but we were hemp side, you know. So I’ve, we have three we’re from farms of two out in Colorado, one in California. And we’re all about quality and pureness and all that stuff. So we’re on that CBD, we do specialized formulas. So we do a little bit different, but I’m all about that, you know, you know, we’re USDA certified, organic, kosher, non GMO, all that good stuff. But not having pesticide free, all that stuff. But it’s how it’s grown, where you’re getting it from making sure that you’re not putting anything in this even if you had pesticides, like I said, you know, insects, you don’t use pesticides, you might use like a spice balm, or something like that. So knowing where you’re getting your product from and having something so clean is is so important, no matter if it’s a dab no matter if it’s your tincture, no matter if it’s topical. I mean, these are the things that are important that you know you need to know and you got to get educated out there so
Dee 19:16
definitely to talk about this you I even here in like Bay Area you think California Bay, you know, it’s gonna be the cutting edge of environmental kind of cannabis awareness. I’ll be like, you know, what’s your organic selection or what do you have for solvent free extraction? And they look at me like don’t don’t say those things like Don’t you know, like, should be quiet like they don’t carry any of that product. You know, you’re like, This is the bay This is Oakland Berkeley. I’m shocked at how are you know, and they say it’s tested, but it’s like, I don’t want any butane to have ever touched my shit. I don’t care if it’s gone now. It’s like no your apathy idea I don’t want you ever to have touch my shit, you know?
Nick 19:50
And what she’s talking about. It’s obviously you know, when you’re when you’re talking about dabs and things like that there’s several different ways you can get to that consistency and to to make adaptor basically. Right? So and one of them is butane, and it was an older, you know, it was one of the first ways that they had made dabs long time ago. Right, it was a cheaper way for sure, it was an easy way, they were able to pump out a lot more. And, you know, I would just so that, you know, being out there consumers, you know, try to get away from that, of course, if you can, now, they’re not always going to be honest with you, when you ask where it comes from, or how they do it. But you know, if you can, and this is why, you know, that’s why kinda like my Psy D. I mean, we have all these crazy CLAS you know, everything is a QR code on the box, everything. I mean, I’ve nine pages, pesticides, you know, everything that’s in the product, everything, I go by the prop, California prop, so it’s the most stringent in any hand, but cannabis is still not there yet, when it comes to a lot of this stuff. It’s more like the Wild Wild West, when you would think it’s more regulated. But in fact, it isn’t. So so that’s just something to be aware of whatever you guys are consuming whatever you guys want only
Dee 21:02
the more we ask for it and talk about it, the more it kind of becomes normal and not so fringe like wait, like if the more consumers are kind of like, you know, starting you know, just especially if you’re, you know, doing a lot of dabs it’s like okay, what’s it you know, you know, you just are smoking a lot of grass, whatever it is just yeah, like you said, every product, everything.
Nick 21:19
But it’s also you learning right learning your dosage, we talk about it on almost every show how everyone had to learn that dose, where you were just taking way too much. You’re a kid, you’re taking a shot, you get to drink, you know, at 21, you’re like, Yeah, I want anything that is the highest THC or the white muscle alcohol that you could possibly have. And you have moonshine, let me back up. But you realize you go, that’s not really what I want to drink, you know, and then you get so messed up that you’re like this, you’re not enjoying maybe the wines of the world, the beers of the world, just maybe a cocktail or two. And that’s really why something about that is why that’s important. So getting back into the classes, right? I did you know, it’s kind of funny. I’m only did Wall Street Journal’s sat in on one of your classes, and Brooklyn at the Powell a place called Bendon Blaze. But the reason why I’m bringing it up because I had seen something that one of the yoga instructors was quoted by The Wall Street Journal with a criticism saying that she doesn’t take issues with marijuana smoking. But sees that as a counter intuitive to yoga as purpose. Substances blur your reality, and they blow your capacity for expansion. I mean, what do you say to that? I mean, it was just kind of crazy. That
Dee 22:34
sounds like someone who hasn’t really tried cannabis or who hasn’t tried it at the right dose and set and setting. You know what I mean? It sounds like someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking like, you know, maybe she has, but it’s like, for some reason, her reality when she her experience when she consumed cannabis. Was that a blurred her? Sounds like she said, A blurs are real, but I can I know hundreds of cannabis users who would say it heightens reality. And it makes us more sensitive, more appreciative, more present, more relaxed, you know, the anti inflammatory effects alone, but then all the terpenes the mercy and, you know, putting us into our bodies, activating different parts of our brains, like, just less contracted, you know what I mean? It’s like, yeah, of course, sounds like she doesn’t fully know what she’s talking about. You know, that’s just my experience. You
Nick 23:18
know, it’s spiritual. And again, we’re saying the same thing, knowing your dose, right, like, knowing what’s going to work for you to make you put you on that level where you need to be well, who knows what that is, that can be completely different for me than Pete anybody else. But knowing that and why it heightens people in 100, you said hundreds of millions, right. I mean, you know, I mean, how many people are using it every day for the right reasons? Not that look? It’s Oh, it’s fun to just smoke, you know, I mean, but what I mean is, is they’re using it because it’s, it’s helping them in some way. And finding that dose. It’s not where I say, it’s so different. I mean, you’re drinking alcohol. Yes, that does hinder you from driving things like this. I mean, you really are discombobulated. You can’t even walk in a line. That’s not the case in marijuana. So I agree with you. I don’t think it’s someone that really has much experience with cannabis to say, look, this has helped me in some way. Because, like you said, it could help you with focus, which is completely different that some people think that just makes them tired and lazy and, and non social. So, you know, again, that’s important. But let’s get back into your classes a little bit. You know, I want to know more about it. I mean, we talked about there’s four different types, and then how do you separate them? Or how do you put them together and tell me a little bit more about it? I’m very interested.
Dee 24:39
Yeah. So the main, you know, principle are types of yoga. You know, there’s like vinyasa flows repeat. You kind of move fast through yoga. We avoid things like that, because, you know, we want to help people relax. There’s, you know, working out and moving in cardio and all of strength and all of that is important is just, if you’re going to do those things, it’s like you really want to do it. Slow win with really good alignment. So we focus more on things that are going to be on the relaxing side unless, like have a cardio flow. So restorative yoga, lots of floor poses, you know, it doesn’t mean you can’t do like a warrior, like a standing thing. You know, it’s just like in the teacher training, we talk about, you know, getting people to rise slowly, because cannabis can lower your blood pressure, you know, it can elevate heart rate. And that’s why it can cause THC can cause anxiety, because it makes your heart beat faster, but the pressure is actually less. So it can also make people kind of faint or dizzy. So you know, if you’re sitting and toking, you know, if you’re gonna do gogit, say, can’t go into yoga with friends, do you want to sit around and then you know, instead of just sort of popping right up and walking to your mats to kind of intentionally rise slowly, or do things that are more like on all fours, like a table pose, you know, cat and cow or Child’s Pose, things that are low, and we kind of have to get out of the mindset of like yoga is a fitness thing, or, you know, it definitely can be and you know, there’s a place for that as well if people are interested, but specifically for cannabis enhanced yoga to think of more of like, well, where in my life do I do mindful, slow, restorative, like, self care, you know, like, like, you know, it most, you know, it’s just like, it’s just like, if we just try on the idea that as animals, we need that because other animals there, chillin, when they’re not hunting or being hunted. They’re resting, but we’re never resting right. We’re always in either physical motion or mental motion. And it’s like, okay, taking that hour a day, you know, or whatever we can do to just really, you know, rest. So yeah, it’s kind of like, it’s the purpose is to help people relax, to help people connect to their selves. People can’t
Nick 26:32
see this at home, but he’s actually moving. When she talks about this. She’s like, doing the motions. I’m not getting into yoga motion right now. I feel like I want to get on the floor and do some poses. It’s crazy. Like, when she talks, she’s like, she you’re so into this, I love it. You’re so passionate, you’re so intense. And you know, I just I love it. I just I love it. And I wish that more people had maybe the lessons through the I don’t That’s what I was saying. Like, I’m like, getting into it. I mean, she’s got this magnetism about her. Um, but Okay, so from an independent online in South Africa, they recently wrote this, Yoga has traditionally been linked to tranquil tranquility and happiness, yoga and CBD go together like to eggs so to speak. Yoga takes a specific amount of mental focus, and most of the time we struggle to convince our minds to turn off the thoughts and focus on nothing, right? And in this situation, CBD is useful the restorative effects of CBD oil improve our experience and prevent daydreaming. Is there any preference to what strain that you like to use? I mean, are you a hybrid girl are you I mean, we know we know it’s more terpenes we talk about hybrid you know, we’re talking about indica sativa thing of the past people start to get educated it’s all about the terpenes but in the way that we talk about it, what’s your go to?
Dee 27:57
Yeah, I mean, I think hybrids are good or you know, you know, or think about what you would what you you know, and yeah, like the these titles are just to describe the terpene terpene profiles, you know, you know, indica terpenes you know, myrcene linalool these kind of more sleepy type terpenes like perfect if you’re a super hyper or you’re coming down from a major work that you’re all like in your head you know, you need to relax like you know what I mean? So it’s like good to have like an indica or indica leaning hybrid on hand for those times, right. And similar with like, sativa stuff, if you’re feeling kind of like couch potato, you go the sativa way, you know what you think of it like the terpenes medicinally like okay, yeah, let’s use the lemon strains that were in strains when I’m feeling sluggish. And let’s use the dank you know, kind of like the indica the coach’s office. Did I say there anything? Because you’re you’re you’re right, yeah, use the cush is what I’m feeling when I’m feeling like, you know, like, I need to find the balance right. And that’s why hybrids are good or even mixing multiple strains. I kind of like the idea of, you know, taking two or three strains and grinding a little bit of each and really making like a complete profile like or more you know, what I mean? Like how
Nick 29:00
do you put them little mixed mixed greens out there? You know, what do you use something specifically for the type of yoga that you’re using that you’re doing
Dee 29:08
know anything, people are welcome to bring their own. It’s also personalized what people need and want in life, you know, his personality types, but also in that moment, so people can bring all kinds of things in my book, I talk about, you know, matching your strain to your mood, you know, and if you have the privilege and luxury of having multiple strains on hand, you can use your nose you can Yeah, this is the one I want. And you don’t have to know why like, Oh, it’s a dang it’s a Tirpitz that my boss wants to just go with your nose trust your body type thing it becomes really intuitive. But of course getting educated to and then you blend like body and mind so that you you’re picking the right strain and yeah, the right dose, right. I used to mine I just really wasn’t honoring. I don’t know. Do you know what I mean? Almost like cigarette advertising showed you how to smoke. There’s like big joint tears. I’ll cut it or something. Right now. It’s like, okay, I’m trying to like, what’s the minimum effective dose I still have a huge pretty big tolerance and I still consume a lot of candy. I was trying to just be more mindful as I think as I age.
Nick 30:04
And of course, the book is called ganja yoga, Practical Guide to conscious relaxation, soothing pain relief and enlightened self discovery. You know, we talked a little bit about, we went back to the, let’s go back to the sex for a minute, right? So let’s talk about how,
Nick 30:21
right so let’s talk. Oh. So let’s talk a little bit more about that. So how do you feel? Or how do you really present that? I mean, you said you work with couples? Are you? Where do you see how this fits in? Of course, sexuality is a big part of everybody’s life. But where do you really see where your expertise comes in? And how do you bring that to your to your followers?
Dee 30:50
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I was always, you know, interested in sexuality. When I was a teenager, I worked at my uncle’s convenience store, and I would put like, you know, Cosmo, or even like Playboy and Hustler on the inside that magazine, and then a teen magazine on the outside. So when I wasn’t serving customers, I was just like, getting all this adult content. And then when I went to university, I said to my nice little news. ultimate, ultimate. I was like, you know, a lot of teenage girls are not necessarily doing that. But yeah. And when I went to university, I said, you guys to the school newspaper, you guys don’t have a sex column, you really should, and I should write it. So and I studied sexuality. It was my undergraduate and my graduate school. So I was just, you know, into this topic. That’s
Nick 31:31
a great I didn’t even know that was available. I had, you know, international business marketing, accounting, finance. What
Pete 31:40
was available? You didn’t, right, I
Nick 31:41
didn’t know exactly. Definitely available in college, but Right. I didn’t know there was a degree for it. That’s the nominal.
Dee 31:49
Yeah, wow. versity had this program where you can make your own major. So like, you know, I majored in sexuality. And then I take classes from like history, they had a history of sexuality, or women’s studies had a bunch of sexual. So my major was sexuality within this bigger program called Individualized Studies. Now,
Pete 32:06
I’m telling you, where did you go to school,
Dee 32:08
York University, which is, Canada, it’s one of the most multicultural universities in the world is very liberal. It’s cool. It’s very cool. So anyway, so yeah, I was I was sexuality was my major. And then I studied yoga, I actually dropped out of grad school and I studied a ton for yoga tradition, but it was about the the non special sexual side of Tantra, which, because Tantra is just so big, it’s like the sexual pieces, just a very small sliver of this huge practice. So I studied this, like, wow, and you know, and then I was like, Well, I, you know, I want to blend my academic studies and what I’ve learned about human sexuality, and I want to help people and bring in all these yoga and mindfulness, and, you know, so I help people you know, look at their partners, you know, stroke their arm, talk about things, you know, just kind of like for plays stuff. You know, getting people really feeling you know, connected to themselves and I have a 12 hour online training called go Can we swear on this go fight, it’s gonna go fuck yourself.
Nick 33:00
It’s 12 hours literally,
Dee 33:01
it’s two hour long sessions for smoking
Nick 33:03
weed. Of course, we’re obviously person.
Dee 33:07
Complete me if you need. So yeah, go fuck yourself. And it’s like, so people can learn, you know, tantra yoga approach to, you know, kind of, it’s like, masturbating with your whole body kind of thing. And it’s like, he listened to it. And it’s, you know, audio recording. So, yeah, I’m helping people kind of with cannabis Yoga, you know, insects, these are these are my thoughts. So the audio recording
Nick 33:27
is giving them vibes and sounds, or you’re walking them through it,
Dee 33:32
walking it through, it’s kind of educational. It’s like a little bit of like, you know, now we’re gonna move to this chakra. And so you know, as you squeeze your tissues around your pelvis, you know, imagine this and that, and then you’ll see if you can do this breath, practice, and whoo, how does that feel? And like, you know, that kind of stuff like a guided educational meditation thingy?
Nick 33:51
Well, no. And I always thought, you know, tantra to me, or to what we think is, you know, slow, but you were saying there’s a lot of different types of, Can you expand a little bit upon that, or
Dee 34:02
Yeah, I would say slow is a big piece, you know, like it like a slow is always a great tool and a great skill to cultivate, can’t go wrong with slow in any, almost anything we do, it would be great to just do it all slower. But yeah, there’s sort of you can think of tantra in three colors. And so the tantra for you know, better sex, you know, using yoga or spiritual things, practices, you know, simply to have that betters x is not seen as bad. There’s no real kind of hierarchy of good and bad, they just label it read Tantra. So it’s, that’s what it is. And so and then pink Tantra is Tantra to kind of like heal our wounds, heal our childhood traumas heal our their traumas, and other wounds and kind of use, you know, maybe sex energy and yoga practices, kind of more for like emotional intimacy to bond with ourself bond with our partner. And then White Tantra. The third one is about using these practices to attain like, you know, peace and enlightenment and realization of like our divine true nature and a oneness with God and the cosmos. So people can pick which color and you don’t have to be like one color your whole life, but just sort of Like practices and things for your disposition what shade of pinky red white you’re you are in your your life right now and your journey. So some people kind of are more into the white side. That’s what the training I took was so we didn’t have any sexual practices but no sometimes squeezing your pelvic muscles and things but in a meditation and really taking these high charges of energy, like, boom, boom out your third eye, like, honestly, like a five minute orgasm on my third eye type situations. You know, yeah, so like, you know, it’s a bliss in its own different way, but it’s not sexual and what we would think of as sexual. So all of its good, though, like no judgement kind of thing like red Tantra pink. Yeah.
Nick 35:36
No, I mean, I’m, my mouth is open right now I’m learning
Nick 35:47
so many years, look what you could, you could be introducing. So, now this is, apparently, exactly, exactly, um, no, I just find it all interesting. And the way that she ties it all into cannabis is just really what I love to see. Because, again, what we’re talking about is, how do we connect people how yoga is great, but how do we bring it a little bit more where it connects. And I always felt for me, you know, with cannabis with with CBD, anything, any of that cannabinoids in your system always made me feel more connected, whether it was to a partner, whether I was doing something that was, you know, again, doing an activity to anything I just felt, but I always felt when it came to meditation, or if it came to something, you know, even sexually, it just heightens your mood, your light that you’re able to really feel where you might be going through the actions, but you’re not feeling it. You might not be feeling your partner, you might not be feeling yourself, you might not be feeling the class that these teaching, but you’re feeling it with cannabis on a whole different level. And um, so you know, they talk about, you know, they set it in half baked all these different types of smokers. And I always try to say because it’s a mainstream movie, but there’s an enhancement smoker. And there’s somebody that uses cannabis to enhance their life, in whatever it is, you know, it could be what we just talked about. So I love you bringing this in, because I definitely believe that this goes hand in hand. I am a big believer that that yoga and cannabis is the perfect marriage. For cannabis. And a lot of things were perfect marriage too, right. But, but but I just
Pete 37:40
was worth trying.
Nick 37:43
Exactly. So, and again, does it really? Do you have a lot of people that are not familiar, and that’s what I’m trying to figure out like, you’re bringing this concept to people are a lot of people newbies, they’re coming to you, or they’re a lot more experienced
Dee 38:00
people. Oh, we get both for sure. But definitely lots of people who are new to either yoga, a lot of like boyfriends whose girlfriends are like come to yoga with me baby can at least get high even if the yoga sucks type vibe. And then yeah, sometimes people who are up there like you know Morial, you know coming from maybe they have yoga yoga experience. But it’s obviously a lot of people who’ve done one or both, you know, it’s you know, quite a bit too. So it’s like, kind of like a good vibe for for all of the above. If that makes sense. We’d really try to create like a you know, like, yeah, you can bring your big bong and your dabs and be welcomed with like your high tolerance and all your tools or you can take a little vape pen like soccer mom vape pen vibes and CBD and like all you know, it’s like all welcome. I was doing a little bit but yeah, it’s, it’s awesome. Yeah. So yeah, it’s just yeah, I tried to really, you know, because really, cannabis does go you know, every race, every age, every income level, every type of job, every type of, you know what I mean? Like you said, it goes not just with yoga, but with like nature walks and comedy and debates and board games and whatever you like, you know, music, like it’s just, it cuts across all these different ways. And now these days with things so polarized, it’s so good to have this it’s like a medicine that can actually like remind us that we’re actually connected, you know, that these things are polarizing these these elements and these forces, but like, the fundamentally we’re all like, you know, a human family and, you know, just kind of like help us help us to remember what’s important. So, yeah,
Nick 39:19
listen, health is wealth, people. Health is wealth, right? And any, any way you can get it is what you got to do. Because the world is a crazy place, especially right now. And it’s not like it’s always gonna be crazy, right? I mean, it is now more than ever, we feel, but then probably felt like that 100 years ago, that things were changing and things were crazy, then. I mean, particularly, I think it’s probably crazier now, but, but um, but I just, you know, I feel like it’s just what you’re saying. When we’re talking about just getting whatever you need, whatever you’re dealing with to relieve that stress. Everybody’s got you know, stuff at home. They got trauma, they got work issues, they got life issues and, and I thought that was really cool what you had said earlier when you were talking about using these type of, of yogas to deal with that mental blockage or issue. I mean, think about some of the could be somebody that’s not good with even their body, maybe they don’t feel comfortable to be in a room with somebody and some other people and just being able to connect, maybe they’re more of a recluse and now being able to be in with a bunch of people and to vibe together and, and to do that so I read it back again, the mental health is really important here people because you know, you need that you need that outlet. You can’t just be Go, go go. You can’t be a mom all the time. You can’t be a business owner and a crazy CEO. That’s a nut job all the time. You got to be able to relax and and so you know cannabis does this
Pete 40:58
speaking for everyone because do you know a lot of people don’t get the
Nick 41:06
know, but I’ll tell you now, let me ask your question. Do we always talk about yoga? What do you feel about Pilates and these types of other you know, physical but there’s a little more strenuous right now there
Dee 41:19
is so it’s like okay, I would really want there to be like really good foundation and like safety, you know, good, uniform and all that stuff. I’m not like saying don’t do it. You know, a lot of people like you know, and you know, people lift high or go jogging high. I’m not saying don’t do it’s just like, you know, I wouldn’t want it to become like careless industry thing. Yeah, that’s why I started the ganja yoga teacher training because I was starting to see other cannabis enhanced yoga popping up and I was like, we shouldn’t be flying through these vinyasa flows, boom, boom, boom, bad, downward dog bad. You know, it’s just, it’s sloppy. So let me let me start to train people. Looks like you guys are both like super distracted by something. But yeah, I
Nick 41:53
know. I know. There’s like this. There’s big voices going on. I’m like, be quiet because we’re trying to hear oh, keep going. Please.
Dee 42:00
Yeah, so pretty much like you know, you don’t want to just go to like a fast moving yoga class or jogging or you know, lifting heavy stuff high. You know, you if you do you want to know your dose and you just want to do it with really good care. Again, slowing down mindfulness, all of that, you know, so definitely mindfulness. That’s, you know, cannabis and mindfulness are key key to life. Extremely important, important. Yeah, exactly. But yeah, so
Pete 42:24
it’s been pretty enlightening. To hear all this and learning some new stuff and maybe maybe you might have convinced one of us go into at least trying some yoga because I definitely like to see oh my god.
Dee 42:36
Yes, definitely. You should check out the ganja yoga. It’s gone to yoga dot online the first weeks free, you know, kind of like a good dealer, you know. Awesome.
Nick 42:46
detailers where we can find out Yeah, so yeah, so
Dee 42:49
if you want to do the on demand classes, you know, it’s like 100 over 100 classes like a lot of me but some of my teachers to gonji yoga dot online and then if you want to learn about like my book, it’s like a HarperCollins bestseller HarperCollins knocked on my door you know a big publisher to say to you have you ever wanted to write a book? You know what I mean? Like that’s such a cool thing. So I got to write this book and so that’s on Ganja yoga.com You can learn about the teacher trainings we have a self paced digital training and then I also do in person ones in the bay and then we’re starting to Yeah, we have like certified teachers around the country like you know if you could look up your your your city or your state and see if there’s a teacher there. Yeah, we have a CBD line. Also organic, you know, also grown on US and European soil like just, you know, education and then the sexuality piece. I’m a sex coach and we have
Nick 43:34
education education is most important for sure for sure.
Pete 43:39
So we do appreciate your time and we want everybody to you know, absolutely go out there and follow do so D thank you again there for everything you do. And we do ask everybody here to follow on Spotify, Apple, I heard cannabis radio and anywhere you guys like to get your podcast please subscribe, share, like tell everybody about it. Start learning in every way about ganja yoga, cannabis CBD, we want to thank Nick thank pure well that’s poor. Well that comm qu RWELL And for everybody who goes there you get 20% Off with hempire code agnp Hi, Ari. Thanks, everybody. We will see you next week.
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Kaitlyn Verfuerth Special | Hempire
Kaitlyn injured her spinal cord in a car accident in 1993. Not letting her injury hold her back, she went on to play professional wheelchair tennis at the 2004, 2008, and 2016 Paralympic games, and is currently a paracanoe athlete for TeamUSA.