Intro: Welcome to the heart soul Wisdom podcast, a journey of self discovery and transformation. Moira Sutton and her amazing guests share real life stories, tools and strategies to inspire and empower you to create and live your best life. Come along on the journey and finally blast through any fears, obstacles and challenges that have held you back in the past so you can live your life with the joy, passion and happiness that you desire. Now. Here's your host. Create the life you love. Empowerment life coach Moira Sutton.

Moira: Welcome to season five, episode 102 a story of yoga and love with our very special guest teacher, author, speaker and yoga instructor Troy Hadeed. Troy was born in Trinidad and Tobago and has lived there for the majority of his life with the exceptions of attending the University of Tampa and his regular stints of travel and exploration. During his senior year at university, he participated in a study abroad program called Semester at Sea, taking him to 15 different countries and exposing him to a wealth of cultures and experiences. After graduating from university, Troy traversed Costa Rica coast to coast on foot, has spent prolonged periods in silence and has immersed himself in the study and practice of yoga. 

With mindful, intentional movements, Troy brings an intimate and powerful dimension to todays yoga class that helps bridge the gap between the pure essence of yoga and todays disconnected world. At the foundation of his teachings is not the breath but ones relationship to the breath. He feels that it is essential we discover that no posture, no transition, no movement is ever the same. We discover what it means to live in the present moment, not only the moment when we can know and we feel this genuine love which Troy is all about. So, without further ado, it is so. I'm so happy. And I would like to give a warm welcome to Troy Hadeed. Welcome, Troy.

Troy: Yeah, thank you Moira, so much for having me. You know, it's such an honor to be here and the first thing I like to do, Moira, anytime I'm on a show, is I think listeners don't always recognize or realize how much work goes into having a show like yours and giving people like me a voice. And I just want to acknowledge that. And I want to tell you thank you for all that you're doing for providing a voice for people like me and inspirational content for listeners.

Moira: Namaste. Thank you, Troy. That's very sweet of you. I know you're all about what the show is about, but raising the consciousness that the planet for me is to heal Mother Earth, humanity out into the universe and galaxies. And your book is beautiful. We're going to definitely put that up. It's one of the ones that are in almost like my biblical section go to book just to have there. And my name is love. We're not all that's different. And you know that picture, we'll talk about that picture. Yeah. So, let's dive in and thank you. Troy let's start with your journey here in the forested mountainside of Trinidad's north coast. And that first night in your treehouse, which I love, which is your home, what, what happened that night and how did it change the trajectory of your life?

Troy: Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if it changed the trajectory so much, but it gave me so much clarity and understanding. I think because I was called to be there, right? I was called to. I didn't think I was going to live on that plot of land right away, but I did. I was called to buy it and I knew that one day I would have a house there. And that first night so much became clear to me that I moved into that treehouse. He is following the permanently. So, I guess it did have an impact on my life and it did change my life in some way. But what came, what became really clear to me is that, you know, it's almost like we create an and fabricate our reality in so many ways. And one of the things that landed for me that night, and just to paint a picture of a listener, I grew up in a city, so while I would spend time in nature, I was by no means a survival bushman of any kind. And so I had this treehouse in the forest, in the jungle that we had built. And I knew at some point that plot of line would be more developed. It was on a housing development that up to this day, no one lives on but me. And, you know, so that first night in treehouse, there were no doors or windows. I was in a little board house in the middle of a jungle and I was spending my first night alone. There was no artificial light. Besides, I had one or two lights in my house. And in so many ways it was extremely uncomfortable. It was not familiar to me at all. And what really larger sticks out for me is I felt so threatened and unsafe from the beginning of that night, but I felt threatened because I saw myself as separate and I see myself as separate. Then everything around me becomes a threat because my body knows and my mind knows to some extent that my only certainty in life is death. So, in that twelve programming of the mind is that of self preservation. So as long as I saw myself as separate, everything around me that I didn't understand or that seemed unfamiliar, became a threat to me, when in reality, as long as I saw myself as separate, I was a threat. I became a threat because I would be willing to do anything I had to preserve my identity, my body. And there's so much. I think there's so many takeaways from that experience. One, for me is that God lives in even what first appears as darkness. And the other takeaway is that if we can begin to see ourselves as part of nature, rather than separate from nature also meaning as part of everyone else, to realize our interconnectedness, then our perspectives and the way we navigate world begins to change. Because we're no longer governed wholly by this idea of preservation. I I I me, we now begin to see ourselves as part of a greater collective, and therefore we become more open to being in service to that collective sometimes, even if that means self sacrifice in certain ways, you know? Yeah. So, I think I say my book, I believe. I think that's the one of the first nights I really felt God. You know, we're often told what God is and what God looks like and who God is and what God wants of us. God is given an agenda, and it's a box that's often drawn around God or divinity or has been for generations. And I think while I knew differently, and I always pushed against that narrative, I think that night was the first night I actually felt like it's a knowing. It's a feeling that without any doubt, that I was part of something bigger and that God was everywhere.

Moira: So, did that shift with your identifying the narrative you had on, that in what you had believed before you shifted that? How did you do that, go into that knowing and that feeling? Because, you know, like you said, we all have an identity to God, the divine, higher self, whatever the name we have for that, that there's something larger than us. What. What shifted? Like, what exactly shifted in that moment?

Troy: Um, for me, I think, um, this was at a point where I had already cultivated a yoga practice in a lot of depth of practice, and, um, what did it for me? You know, it's not that this idea was new to me. Right from a really young age, I had pushed back against any box I was thrown against around God. I actually openly spoke out against organ. I don't want to say religion, like religion is a bad thing, but I spoke out against what I believed was the misalignment and misunderstandings that came out of organized religion. The things that we were missing. And this was definitely one of them. But what switched for me in that moment. You know, it's like when you're in a moment of anxiety or panic or worry. There's a teaching by a yoga teacher called B.K.S. Iyengar and he says the mind is king of everything, in that your mind dictates your reality and your experience. At any, any point in time, your mind governs your perception of the world around you. He says, mind is king of everything, but breath is king of your mind. And I think in that moment, that night, I just, rather than I stopped my mind for a moment that I went to my breath and I think I closed my eyes and really started to deepen my breath and I could feel my body relaxed. And then it's almost like when I reopened my eyes, there was a new reality in front of me. I saw things that were always there. I just couldn't see them because I was so consumed by what I was perceiving as a threat. I was so consumed by narrative I was creating that I couldn't actually see what really in front of me. Yeah. Did you have two question?

Moira: Yes, for sure. I'm just taking it in. When you talk about our minds power to shape our perceptions and also about the breath, because you talk about an intimate relationship with your breath in your mind gives you back your freedom, and without it, I have. Here, life becomes an automated sense of routine and reactive experiences. I wrote here, how do you begin that long journey into really who we are? Is it through yoga and discovering how to do these, the practice of, I think it's called asana. I don't know if I'm saying it right.

Troy: Asana. Yeah.

Moira: Asana, yeah.

Troy: So that would be yoga postures.

Moira: Okay.

Troy: Yeah. I wouldn't say that at all, moira. You know, for me, for me to say it's through yoga would be to, again, to put a box or shapely genie and see path has to look like this, and this is how you achieve realization or whatever. And I don't think that is any slightest *****, okay. That was my part of my journey, not even my entire journey, part of my journey. And I think it's a really beautiful practice that if anyone really practiced or stepped into depth of yoga practice, they would begin to glimpse that something bigger and that realization. Right. But I'll tell you straight out, right, not all yoga is seen, and there's so many different styles that approaches they practice in yoga. And in my opinion, many of them have missed, have missed. Have missed the depth of their practice. So, so what I would, for me, the breath is absolutely essential whether that be somebody wants to call it yoga or tai chi or walking meditation, or just sitting on the beach and spending time in nature and looking at a breath, I have come to believe that there is, um. It's an intelligent, sinning breath in the air we breathe. And while to some people this might sound like far out, I remember moment when I discovered that the world spirit, like Holy spirit. The word spirit comes from Latin word spiritus, and it means to breathe. And I think that came to me at a point where I was really deepening my relationship to breath in a very intimate way. And it landed for me because it makes absolute sense that they could. There would be a divine intelligence of some kind. And we breathe. It's the one thing that makes us all see it. It's one thing that connects Troy and Moira on different parts of the world, but never physically met. But chances are the air molecules that we want in my body will be once in yours, or will, at some point, couldn't possibly, at some point, pass through yours, you know? And it's one thing that makes us all safe, that connects us with all of creation. It's one thing that deserves any boundaries or identity or physical matter or physical form. And it would make sense to me that there is some divine intelligence that is carried in breath now, something. So, to answer your question, I think everyone has the different path and the different approach and the journey that is different. I think what is essential is introspection, reflection, and a certain amount of solitude to facilitate that reflection and introspection. I think it also requires the courage to question everything we think we know. Because for a lot of us, we'll say, I believe a, b, and C. But in reality, what we believe at a, B, and C is just a story we were told, and we chose to believe it. And if we don't have the courage to question the narratives that we have been told, any things we think we believe, then the truth will always elude us, because we'll keep repeating in narratives and mistakes of past generations, because we didn't have the courage to sit with ourselves and asking questions. How do I really feel about. And I think that inquiry and that courage to inquire is where realization and real spiritual, real spiritual awakening begins, if I dare use that word, right? Because I always twitch a little bit when I hear somebody say, when my spiritual awakening happened, it doesn't happen if we're in our body, I don't believe we're spiritually awakened. Maybe this is where our journey to awakening begins. If you want to say that, but I'm just very careful with words like awakening and realization because I believe it's an ongoing journey always.

Moira: Yeah. I have the soul awakening academy, Jordan.

Troy: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Moira: But it is, like you said, it's a continuation. And when we come into this with intention and focus into this human form and then intention when we leave this form, but, you know, as, you know, you know, energy never dies. It just transforms. Let's talk about that, because I know some people are. There's so many things I want to talk about, but. And as you're talking, I go, oh, I want to go there. I want to go there.

Troy: Yeah.

Moira: And I'm a little, I'll be back.

Troy: One day, I'm sure.

Moira: Yes, you can.

Troy: Anytime. Yeah.

Moira: So, when you think about, you know, that illusion of death, how do you insecurity and that the death, you know, I think you say here often, death has a really bad wrath and it can feel really heavy. You know, how can a person truly come to the knowing that what if death is not so much an end, but more of a shift in a transition? It's my belief. And I also work with spirit and people who have died so I can see them and hear them. But for people who are terrified of that thinking, that's the end all this is it. What's your philosophy on that? How do you teach your students about that being an illusion?

Troy: Yeah, well, I would use different words. This is how I would speak to it, because I don't think I can teach that. I don't think I can teach that to anyone. Um, someone used to, maybe they. They can listen and they can take a snippets of what I might offer, but they have to come to that realization themselves. And, um. And, you know, when I talk about death, moira, I'm very open. The fact that I've never had anyone really close to me leave their bodies, you know, so I have an experience that close passing or that close death of someone I was really close to. So, when I speak about death, sometimes I am, I almost feel like a hypocrite because I'm like, what are you, how are you going to feel when you actually lose him? Like, am I going to be able to really embody what I speak of? I would like to believe. I would. I would navigate it with as much grace as possible, but it's this simple. More for me, it's like, if I am my body, if I choose to believe that I am my body, then my only certainty is death. And what that means is that at some point after I leave my body, there will be no memory of me, whether it be a year, a week, ten years, five years. At some point, no one will remember who I am or what my name was, and I will completely cease to exist. And I don't believe that is to be true at all. And I don't say this because I cling for some kind of immortality or seek some kind of immortality. I say that because it's very apparent to me that life is not an accident. You spend enough time in the natural world, and it is almost impossible to deny. Sorry, let me rephrase. It is absolutely impossible if you spend enough time in nature to deny some element, some energy, some consciousness, something beyond the physical form that moves and connects all living things. And I can't. Like, I just can't. There's something within me that knew with the absolute clarity that this life is not all fun and games, that we're here in some way to learn, to grow, to evolve, to transform in some way. And I know that I will exist beyond my body because I am not mine. I am part of everything around me. I am part of this natural world. I am part of you. And it is possible for Moira and Troy to leave this conversation, or our listeners by to leave this conversation at the same people came into it. That is impossible, because the words I speak will land for you and change, actually change who you are and how you live from this point on. And likewise, your words to me, that this sharing and this conversation changes the people involved and the people listening. So, in that sense, as energy that is moving within you, I now also live in every interaction you have from this point on, as well as you and me. So, for me, my immortality is an resonance and vibration of my choices, my relationships, my life. I will always live in that as my contribution to the evolution of human consciousness. So, I have to accept, personally, that I am not my body, because if I allow that, and I believe more that I am, my body is our natural programming when we are born. Sorry. That's our programming that we receive when we're born into a body. That body is given a name. And from that point on, everything we gather points to this individual identity of Moira and Troy. If we don't have the ability to question that narrative, then it will govern the rest of our lives. And consciously and our mind or our ego, if somebody wants to call it that, our ego knows without any doubt that its certainty is there. Its only certainty is there. So, therefore, the programming of the mind is one in that which we are separate and must live from a place of self preservation and do everything we need to meet our needs, our desires, and our wants. That is the conditioning of the mind. And if we don't have the presence to question that and reprogram that, then what it means to really, truly embody love, that, too, will also elude us, because the only way we can begin to understand what it means to love is in the dissolving of this obsession with self. Not that individual identity is bad. It's not bad to call individual identity or ego. Bad would be to call a human experience useless. And I don't believe that to be true. I believe the ego and the mind and the individual identity has its purpose. It's here to teach us the love, but. And it's here to allow us to experience pain, suffering, joyous laughter, all emotions of a human experience. We could not experience that without this sense of I or individual identity. But without a relationship to that individual identity and ego, it will always manipulate us. It will always control us. And our only certainty is death. The second we begin to dissolve that hold on us, we remember placing something bigger in something larger in a collective identity, and in that, we discover our immortality.

Moira: What would you say? Thank you. Troy, what would you say about today? Like, you know, we have suffering, hardship, we have disconnect in the world. We have what's going on in the states with the election and that there's a lot of fear. There's a lot of judgment. There's a lot of division. What would you say for the. I know there's a possibility of transformation, growth and evolution, the spirit. But when you're in that moment and you're just in the fear, how does someone, you know, shift more to love rather than that fear? And how do people face that fear to add to that collective for healing on a Yemenite, on a planetary level?

Troy: Yeah. All right. I have two things to say to that, moira. It's such an important question, right?

Moira: Because it is.

Troy: I am not about flowers and rainbows. I'm not trying to blow any sunshine up anyone's anywhere. Life is filled with pain and suffering beyond anything I could imagine. I come from privilege. I come from a certain aspect of security and privilege. My life had been very blessed in so many ways. And I am often asked, so I'll give you one answer, and then I'll expand on it a little bit.

Moira: Thank you.

Troy: I am often asked if there are times in which I want to walk away, in which I want to throw my hands up and give up, or find myself slipping into darkness or depression, looking at a state of the world, any state of humanity. And the answer is yes. There are absolutely days when I feel down, defeated. And I feel like the work I try to do in the world, or the love I try to bring, or even my presence doesn't matter. No one cares. You know, you rubble the walls, we can go down from an individual level to a global, universal level. Sometimes it can all seem really heavy and overwhelming. And sometimes you just want to disappear. Whether disappearing to someone might be taking their life, or whether disappearing might be like my example is I could go and live in the South Pacific and save for the rest of my life and just disappear from wood. And I think it's important for us to feel the overwhelmed, to feel the pain, to feel the suffering momentarily. But then there's a voice in my head that I hear. And that voice says something like, how dare you? How dare you? With all that you've been given, with all your opportunity and all the love and everything you have to offer will, how dare you not at least try. How dare you not at least try to make your world a better place, to make someone's life better, to show up in the most positive, best way you can, to help people facilitate growth and transformation, to help people remember they're part of something bigger, to help people connect to a deeper relationship, to their understanding of. To help alleviate suffering and pain, whether it be physically, emotionally, mentally or otherwise. How dare I not at least try rather than just give up and walk away and see that we're all doomed. Because that would be easy thing to do. The easy thing to do would be to just walk away and say, I'm going to live my life and enjoy my life and here with everyone and everything else. That's my mind talking. That's my ego talking. Because all the ego and mind is concerned with is my own desires and wants, my self preservation. But then I have to recognize that everything I do, every word, every action, every thought makes a difference in the world. The question is not like Jane Goodall, environmentalist once said, the question is not how can I change in world? The question is, how do I change it? Because everything else do change its world. It's about bringing more when it's an intention. The impact we have on world around us. And once you recognize you have an impact on the people around you, even in the smallest ways, how dare you walk away? How dare you not at least try? Now with that said, that brings me to the second part of my answer. And it's a perspective, because somebody could hear me say that that is heavy. Like, that is a massive responsibility to carry, and it is. It is to awaken to our impact on the world. And our responsibility to impact the world carries a certain way to it. It's not an easy realization. And I'll tell you what makes the world be living more palatable. And I say more palatable, because I also know that one thing, I know for sure is how little we actually know. And, in fact, that we know absolutely nothing. We know absolutely nothing. And, um. So, I say that this is a perspective that will make more palatable for me. So, I can try to show every day and dig deep and show up in the best way I can. So, I imagine this. I imagine that life is like a curriculum. It's like we go to school, and I think I mentioned it, but use the technology in your book a little bit. It's like a curriculum. And every one of us have a curriculum to walk. And that curriculum, for some people, a lot heavier than for others. It's like if you all went to university and chose different subjects and had different classes, some of them are going to be a lot harder than others. And some people might come to one curriculum with backpack or certain books, and some people might come to a curriculum with none. And the fact is that we're all walking this unique curriculum, and I am as part. More. I am as much part of your curriculum as you are part of mine. And they are giving me times when I might look at someone else's curriculum and say, wow, that looks devastating. And in that moment, it does. But our view of the world at any point in time, or even our own experience of life at any point in time, while we are present in that experience and how painful it may become, it may be at that point in time. That moment in time. And that experience is just a speck, is barely visible in our lifetime. Far less in the existence of humankind, far less in the existence of all of creation. That one point in time almost develops into nothingness, into just energy moving. Right? And we become so overwhelmed by that experience because we feel it in our bodies and in that moment, that is what we are experiencing. But the reality is, I think I use this example in the book as well. Much like I would go to gym to get six pack abs, and my gym instructor might be killing me. Killing me. And I might, in that moment, want to vomit. But I am committed to these six pack apps. So, I withdrew. I withstand that discomfort and that pain. I imagine that, of course, on a thousand-fold, million fold level, the life is very much like a single thing. But it's not about physical strength. It's not about physical transformation. It's about mental, emotional and spiritual transformation. And that means that we are going to have experiences and have to walk a curriculum that times, for some of us, will seem almost impossible. And we look at the curriculum of others, and it will get us defeated, because we can't imagine how someone could have to withstand that kind of suffering. And this doesn't mean that we should disassociate and shrug our shoulders and be like, all right, that experience will pass. No, we have a responsibility to try to make a difference and try to alleviate the suffering and pain of others, because that is part of our curriculum. And if me and you were in each other's lives, Moira, as we are now, imagine that I did something to hurt Moira, to cause you some kind of pain or suffering. Imagine that in that moment, that experience is part of my curriculum. Maybe to teach me how to navigate shaman. While am I part of your curriculum to teach you how to navigate forgiveness, compassion, understanding. So, I feel that when we get really absorbed in individual identity, we, of course, put that on everyone else. And at times, the human experience becomes unimaginable, and the pain and suffering of the human experience becomes hundredfold. But if we start zoom out a little bit, then we might realize that our pain and suffering could be facilitating in growth and transformation for someone else. It might also facilitate growth and transformation for future generations. And it allows us also to see how the pain and suffering of past generations has facilitated our own evolution, transformation. So, I think when we begin to zoom out, we see how interconnected it all is. And time is very much an illusion that was created by man. And I think once we, once we are aware of that and start to wrap our head around that, then it makes we'll be living a little bit more palatable. But in no way does it relinquish the responsibility to try to have a positive, loving impact on the people and the world around us.

Moira: Well, we're here to fill. You also say this, you know, one larger purpose, and there is an intelligence that understands the real purpose of our existence. I know a lot of people, though. They are maybe they're not even there. They're just still trying to find out what their primary individual purpose in life is. What do you have to say to people again, your students that are searching for why are they here? Who and who they are? In that, because that question comes to me a lot through coaching.

Troy: Yeah. One of the things I love to say, this one also is also a story I tell in book about a yoga teacher in LA called Tommy Russell. And I happened to go to one of its workshops and he mentioned, you know, he asked a question like, what is your purpose? The audience, the crowd, and you had all these answers coming out about what everyone thought the purpose was. To find God, to self realization, to enlightenment, make wherever to please stuff, all this stuff. And Tommy Woodson stood up and he said, your people should still listen to me speak.

Moira: I remember that.

Troy: Yeah. And your.

Moira: Yes. And your reaction.

Troy: Yeah. And my reaction was like, that's kind of cocky and conceited, but, um. But in reality, he was pointing at the one, the very first teaching of yoga, which means Atha Yugan. And it sends you this now, and it points to the reality of what it means to be present. And I bring this up because sometimes when we connect to our purpose, that purpose, we often feel, has to be something big, like this big dream or this big impact we want to have on. And very often, if we get too absorbed in that, we will miss our real purpose. And our real purpose is simply to be present to life, to really be present with every experience and everyone in our life, whether that experience. Be uncomfortable, be painful, be joyful, regardless of what it is to be present to every experience and really look at how it impacts us, try to understand what it is we're experiencing. Because I believe there is a purpose in every single moment, every single moment. And I think that when we start to pay attention and dial into that purpose, at every moment, there is a larger purpose that begins to weave itself with our lives, through our lives. And that larger purpose is bigger than anything we could have ever dreamed of. That larger purpose is dialed into that larger intelligence and how it wants to use us. If we try to govern our people at any point in time, chances are we're going to miss that point. We're going to miss that guidance, to really be present to that larger purpose and guided by that large intelligence. So, I would tell anyone not to overthink what the purpose is. The purpose in any moment is to just pay attention, to feel and to be authentic, because so many times we say we're being present, but then the mind is constantly thinking about, what will people think? What will people say? How will this be received? Will I be loved? Will I be supported? How do I fit in? Will I be rejected? The mind goes on this continuous journey, and the second we allow the mind to get overwhelmed. I'm not saying not to consider, but second, that becomes to overcome us, begins to overcome us, then we are no longer authentic to ourselves. We are authentic to society's narrative of who it thinks we should be. So, then we've already missed our purpose, because to discover our purpose, we need to be really authentic with who we are and what we feel, not what we think. Very different things.

Moira: Because you do talk about the authentic commitment to manifesting the lives we desire to and being present and engaging wholeheartedly with all aspects of life, like you said, both pleasant and unpleasant.

Troy: Yeah, yeah.

Moira: You also shared in your book so many things. Troy, the teacher and philosopher. Osho, I think. Yeah, yeah. I just am pronouncing it. He said that love cannot fly without the wings of freedom and forgiveness. I'd like you to share a little bit about that, too, that we can't fly to infinite heights without these four wings. If you can share with that is because I think today that would. And for people to get your book to understand this, how this could really help with the evolution of spirit in society.

Troy: Yeah, it's really simple. It's hard to hear sometimes. And we want to push back on it and we, you know, we want to resist it. But here's the reality. And I'm not talking about some. Some kind of enlightenment. I'm just talking about love train and simple, what it means to love, what it means to embody love. I'm not even speaking to romantic love. I am speaking to love. Real, universal love. And the reality is, this is a reality. This is truth and fact. You can't love anyone without freedom, and you can't love anyone unless forgiveness is present, no matter what. Because as long as you put conditions around love, like, I love you, as long as you do x, y, and zenith, or I love you, but don't ever do a, b, and c to me, because then I'm going to withdraw my love. Well, then that's not actually love. That's a business deal. It's some kind of agreement that you're trying to place upon love. And that's not actually real love. What that is a self-serving love. It's a do what I need you to do, what I want you to do, what I think serves me in this relationship, or I won't love you. And somebody might be sitting there saying, well, how does that work? Because some people commit really inhumane acts against humanity and cause people immense pain and suffering. Well, how do we love them? And that comes back to the what? To me, it's a reality that we are not our bodies. And if I am not my individual body, then that also means that I am not my deeds, my actions, my words and my thoughts. That what your body carries, what your actions, words, thoughts and deeds are. It's you’re conditioning. It's you’re programming. From the day you were born, you were surrounded by certain people. And had certain experiences that shaped you into who you are. Someone's actions, wrong or mistakes. Is a product of their conditioning. It's not really who they are. I like to imagine that within everybody is a seed of God. And that seed of God is carrying a bag of conditioning. And that bag of conditioning. Sometimes it's like a bag of stones. And so, I can love someone wholly and completely. While disapproving of their actions, words and thoughts. While completely condemning their actions, words and thoughts. I can still love them because I can. Like one of my teachers would say, I can ignore this story and see this soul. I see God within that individual. And I acknowledge that his conditioning is not who he is. And as long as I see that. Get this, mother. This is the beautiful part. As long as I could acknowledge that someone is not their conditioning and I can still love them. That begins to plant seeds where I can now help them recondition and reprogram. Because I can help someone reprogram, recondition, or see will differently. Or show up in a different way. By judging them and condemning them. I could condemn their actions through thoughts, but still love them. And in loving them and having them feel seen and safe, I create an environment in which I might be able to offer an alternative perspective on life. An alternative approach to life. Because that individual may have never experienced what real love is in their entire life. Like, I think the greatest privilege of all is knowing what love is. And so many people in our world don't. They've never experienced it. So how can we expect them to embody love to. Or to understand what that is and to show that to others if they never experience it themselves? So, I guess, in a nutshell, the ability to really understand what love is. And understand that forgiveness and freedom has to be essential for love to exist. Then we also have to recognize that people are not always agreed. People are not their body. People are not their words, actions and thoughts. Now, there's also a flip side to this, Moira. To make talking too much, I could talk a lot. But he flip sided this. It's also really beautiful. Because if Moira is not her body and I understand words and thoughts are just a condition. That also means I am not my body. Which means that if moira. If I have a moment, feel that Moira has done something to harm or hurt me, I am not my body. So how is that possible? How is that possible? How can Moira personally attack me? I am not my body. So, what it opens up is this. It opens up the understanding that Moira is doing her best to navigate life with what she's carrying at this point in time. Sometimes I might just have happened to be part of the curriculum and get any way. So, I may just have walked into Moira's curriculum. But it's not personal. It's not that there's a. There's anything within Moira that personally has a personal vendetta against anything within me. It could just be that what I represent and the timeline and position I call in Moira's life, mean that maybe I had to be succumbed to some suffering or some pain, so that me and Moira could both grow and transform through this human experience. But my favorite part about this is that long as we acknowledge that someone is not their actions, words and thoughts, that that is only their conditioning, then forgiveness is no longer an option. It's inevitable. It is inevitable. There might be healing that needs to happen, but forgiveness is inevitable. Yeah.

Moira: Troy?

Troy: Yeah.

Moira: Could you just. Because of what you just talked about, I think it'd be nice if you could read an excerpt. While external voices can help make sense, I think it would be nice to hear that from your authentic voice.

Troy: Right?

Moira: Yes.

Troy: Yeah. So. So this is from a chapter, um, on airs of the heart and ears of the mind, right? The voice of the mind and voice of the heart. And I believe it's chapter twelve. Airs of the heart is voice.

Moira: Yes.

Troy: While external voices can help make sense of what you are feeling, the only way you can truly feel at peace with any insight or we, is when it resonates with the knowledge of the heart. Your authentic voice lives within your heart. The voice of the heart is still. It is a voice that does not think. It knows. It is not a voice that we hear but feel. The voice of the heart is not concerned with the past or the future. And it lives in the timeless medicine we discovered it the previous chapter, where the heart's voice is not as loud and voiceless as the voices of the mind. It is direct, clear, and consequential. When it comes to the voice of the heart, there's no questioning or worrying about reactions, approval, or the thousands of possible outcomes that await the heart. Is not concerned with any of that. It's important, though, to note that the voices of the mind are not useless and offer us valuable insights and opportunities for reflection. I recall hearing the lyrics, today is a good day for my ego to die. There are words sung by an extraordinary musician and songwriter named Naatu, and then landed in an interesting way for me. While I related to the desire to kill my ego, the introspection that followed me, the introspection that followed made me realize that killing my sense of self and identity would diminish the human experience and treat it as worthless. I began to understand that the ego has its place. I decided it would be far more powerful to hold my ego's hand and mold a loving relationship filled with possibility rather than kill one of the greatest teachers I ever had.

Moira: That's beautiful, Troy. Thank you. Thank you. Your writing is more than the word beautiful. I don't really have a word for it other than I was immersed and stopped and shared with my husband. And it's a book that you can go to. What I also love about it is you have questions at the end of every chapter for people to do their own introspection and to go within and, you know, that's just so beautiful.

Troy: Yeah, I know. You know what's funny, Moira, is those questions at the end of every chapter. That's something I did not want. I did not want chap questions at the end of the chapters. I didn't want any questions at all. I did not want this book to be a workbook. And, you know, it takes only book takes on a light of its own, and I shouldn't be thrown. And sometimes you just have to listen.

Moira: Well, I think it works. So, I'm glad it unfolded because I went through them, too. I know, Troy, you know, I'm going down a new path in 2025, and I would love to talk to you again and have a conversation. It's very much a heartfelt conversation, and with your wisdom and you’re a vision and mission in your life and what you're doing for humanity, it's truly a blessing. And thank you. So, Troy, I always end off with saying, first of all, each of my people that come on the show give a gift. And for me, that's thanking my listeners for being with us, with, you know, for them to create and live their best lives and with this movement. If you'd like to share what that is and the links to Troy and, yeah, and his special guest will be below in the show notes. If you can share that, you're very generous of what you're offering.

Troy: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wish, I hope I can remember it all now because I don't have it in front of me, but yes, I would love to offer. There is. We just out of this book came a clothing and merchandise line. It's all print on demand line that I spent months crafting and designing and doing this website all myself. And it's called we identify as love.com. and that's very much the philosophy behind my name is love, is that as long as I identify with anything other than that, we remain separate and it feeds out different. Right. So, we identify as love.com, to me is so powerful. You can also buy books there and there's a lot of t shirts and merchandise and towels and all kind of really cool stuff. But there's a coupon code that gives the listener 10% off of that entire website, including my books. And.

Moira: Thank you.

Troy: It's. Yeah, so you can share that with them. I know this. Oh, I know there's one called I am love. Is it?

Moira: Yes, yes. We have it all. You've sent it. And I really appreciate it. It's very, very generous.

Troy: Yeah. So that is, I would love for them to go visit that. That is there for them. And then there's also we have our online yoga platform. We stream live classes from a yoga studio in Trinidad and I teach probably about six, seven times a week. And there's a 30-day free trial there in what they can take advantage of as well as I believe there's a seven-day free trial@Gaia.com.

Moira: Yes.

Troy: Which I do have content on, but I just came back from Colorado and I spent four more days filming some new content with Gaia that is already amazing. So that link gives them seven days free access.

Moira: That's wonderful. When I saw that, I thought, oh, you're on Gaia. As I'm changing and transforming and going down a slightly different path in 2025. I love that community. So that's wonderful.

Troy: Yeah. Troy, did I miss anything?

Moira: No, you didn't. Thank you and very, very generous. Thank you so much for sharing today, from your heart and soul, your wisdom on a story of yoga and love. Namaste, Troy.

Troy: Namaste. Love.