Have you been hearing a lot about emotional intelligence? Have been afraid to dive into shadow work? But you are looking to live a more happy, aligned, and connected life? If so, this episode is for you.

For today’s episode, I sat down with Sianna Sherman. Sianna is an internationally renowned yoga teacher, she trained tens of thousands of students and yoga teachers from around the globe. As the founder of Rasa Yoga, Mythic Yoga Flow®, and RITUAL, Sianna regularly shares her expertise at conferences and festivals throughout the world. Sianna touches the human heart through stories and the empowerment of yoga in daily life. On top of her decades of yogic training, she has been focusing her studies and work on emotional intelligence and shadow work, which is what we sat down to talk about today.

Listen to the full episode here:

MY 5 BIGGEST TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE

1-Emotional intelligence starts with emotional intimacy, where we relate to our emotions, without labeling them as good/bad. Once we come into a relationship with our emotions, we can embrace that energy to awaken to its intelligence. Then, we can channel it and respond instead of reacting.

2- The opening gateway tool is awareness, mindfulness, self-study. We first have to learn to bear witness to our patterns to be able to name the emotions and the experience, so we can anchor ourselves to then relate to the emotion from grounded energy.

3- The shadow in shadow work is whatever is in the shadow of our awareness, anything we haven’t brought to light yet, we haven’t consciously looked at, that have been left unexamined, unattended to. It can be our deep conditioning, our biases, etc… Whatever if left out, marginalized, rejected within ourselves, left unattended to, cast out.

4- If we don’t turn towards and start to work with this shadow content, it takes a lot of our energy away as it creates patterns of stuck energy. Working with shadows is a way to liberate our energy, that is tied up in knots. The liberation of energy makes space for creation and our relationship to life. Our deep magic and gifts often come out of our shadow.

5- Shadow work is part of our yoga practice. We don’t come to the mat to push it aside, we come to be with, to transform within the practice and beyond. From there we can turn our focus to collective care. By the very nature of turning towards the tough stuff inside of us, we can open our awareness and lean into the tough stuff happening into the world, to be part of yoga all liberation for all beings.

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QUESTIONS THEY ANSWERED IN THIS EPISODE

• Can you explain what is emotional intelligence?
• What are some tools that you use to deal with our emotions in a positive productive way?
• What is shadpw work and why is that important work?
• How do you relate emotional intelligence work and shadow work to your yoga practice?
• How does your yoga practice support you in this work?
• How does doing our shadow work can help us show up more fully in the world for social justice.

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Sianna (she/her) is committed to being Love-In-Action here on earth to serve. This has taken many forms over the last three decades, including being a yoga teacher, storyteller, holistic bodyworker, crafter of herbal medicine, and guide for women in the way of a priestess.As the visionary of the Rasa Yoga Collective, Mythic Yoga Flow®, and RITUAL, Sianna shares her voice in the way of community and collaboration.

She is a gifted storyteller and awakens the imagination through the language of the soul. Dedicated to social justice activism, anti-racism, unpacking her own white privilege, shadow work, mantra, ritual, Tantric yoga philosophy, and Celtic studies.

Sianna brings a genuine presence to every offering with humility, devotion, and deep care for the collective. In addition, she has extensive training in bodywork, functional anatomy, wildcrafting, emotional intelligence, and earth-based wisdom. She leads Rasa Yoga teacher training courses online, alchemical arts for sacred sisterhood online, and is the co-host of the Fearless Heart Activation series with her beloved, Masood Ali Khan, to inspire courageous conversations and brave space for real transformation in these times.