Spirituality, presence, mindfulness, enlightenment… whatever you want to call it, we don’t just get there through thinking about it all the time. Or even through not thinking about it, if we’re trying the meditation route. Instead, connecting with our sense of being in the world (joyful or uncomfortable as that may be in any given moment) comes through both our thoughts and our bodily experiences. Mind and body aren’t actually separate, after all.
In this expansive conversation with artist and movement teacher Linnea Solveig, we muck around in the messiness and discomfort of what it means to be a human living in a body these days – how technology, social expectations, and the reality of aging impact our capacity to connect with ourselves and one another.
We also laugh a lot and celebrate the marvelous ways we’re all woven together in the tapestry of life.
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Find the podcast somewhere else!
Connect with Linnea
Visit her website.
Follow her on Instagram @linneasolveig or @lovehelmet for her artwork.
References, Resources, and Links
Body mind centering (BMC). Developed by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen “an integrated and embodied approach to movement, the body and consciousness.”
Alexander technique. A set of skills to improve body movement.
Feldenkrais method. Self-improvement through movement.
Asana (the poses of yoga). For more details on the different aspects of yoga that Linnea references, here’s an excellent article: “Practicing the 8 Limbs of Yoga Will Help You Understand Yoga as It Was Meant to Be.”
Descartes. “René Descartes (1596-1650) argued that the natures of mind and body are completely different from one another and that each could exist by itself.”
Episodes on the nervous system with Marjorie Schreurs (episodes 20 & 21).
Psoas muscle. (which I totally spelled wrong when I googled it for us) “Psoas Muscle: What It Is, Where It Is & Anatomy”
PHAME. A Portland-based arts academy for people with cognitive disabilities where Linneah also teaches classes.
Yin yoga. A style of yoga class where poses are held for longer periods of time.
Transcript
Note: this transcript was generated by AI. Please forgive any malapropisms and misspellings. It’s the robot’s fault!
[00:00] Linnea Solveig: There is so much to be had through the experience of the body, where a lot of those things that feel more either esoteric or more complicated or tricky, like enlightenment, you know, like that seems like really big, I think are more like chewable and digestible.
[00:22] That seems more like just like a palatable way to begin the process is through body.
[00:31] Cate Blouke: Welcome to Settling is Bullshit, a sweary podcast about claiming your joy. If you are an adult human craving healthier boundaries, a greater sense of purpose, or an increased capacity to feel at ease in your own skin, then you are in the right place, my friend.
[00:49] I’m your host, Cate Blouke, and I’m here to offer you practical tools and playful encouragement to help you step forward and be your most awesome self.
[00:57] My hope is that each episode will leave you feeling a bit more empowered to make brave choices and claim your joy.
[01:06] Hello, my friend. I am so excited to share today’s episode with you. It is with a delightful human that I thoroughly enjoy. Our guest today is Linnea Solveig. She is a yoga instructor, a movement instructor, an artist artist, and a charming and delightful person.
[01:27] I’ve been taking yoga classes from Linnea for the last two years or so and really enjoy the way that she thinks about and approaches supporting people in being in our bodies.
[01:40] And we had a really nice conversation about all sorts of things, as I am wont to do, and ended up talking quite a bit about spirituality and presence and how to be in our own skin and to use that as a vehicle for connecting with ourselves, with other people, with the universe and everything, and how to find joy in being in our bodies and also how to sit with discomfort in our bodies and in our lives, because that is one of the many things that being a human with a body entails.
[02:16] So please get cozy, take good care of yourself and enjoy this conversation.
[02:28] How would you introduce yourself?
[02:30] Linnea Solveig: Oh, that’s a good question. I guess. I’m an artist and movement teacher. Yeah, an artist and a mover. A mover and a shaker…
[02:38] Cate Blouke: An artist and a mover? Why? Yeah, why. Why a movement teacher as opposed to a yoga instructor?
[02:47] Linnea Solveig: M. That’s a good question. I think because I, I. Well, I have taught other things other than yoga, but I do think that, like, I tend to kind of push the boundaries of what I’m teaching in like quote unquote yoga class.
[03:05] And I’m pulling from more than just the yoga lineage. When I’m right, I think that’s. And that’s probably a lot of it is like what I’m teaching There’s a lot of, just like a lot of other things other than the yoga tradition going in there.
[03:19] So dance background, weird anatomy stuff. Body mind centering.
[03:23] Cate Blouke: Ooh, Body mind centering.
[03:25] Linnea Solveig: You’ve done it. You don’t know it.
[03:27] Cate Blouke: I know because. Right, because you’re here. Because you are my favorite instructor, yoga instructor of all time.
[03:33] Because your classes are fun and I’m a runner and we get to like, stretch a lot.
[03:43] But I will say that, yeah, your classes are a little bit different from the more traditional yoga classes I’ve been in. So what is the mind body center? What did you just say?
[03:54] Linnea Solveig: Oh, so BMC Body Mind centering is a movement modality.
[04:03] Invented is probably not the correct word, but kind of codified by a woman named Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, I believe is her name. And that’s going to be the miracle of the hour, is me remembering a name, because that’s not how I roll.
[04:20] So that was a big moment.
[04:22] I think she comes from, like, the osteopathy lineage, which is like, where else then, like, you know, chiropractors came from that and just like, lots of bones and she talks a lot about, like, developmental.
[04:34] And it’s a lot of, like, experiential exploration of anatomy.
[04:37] Cate Blouke: Experiential exploration of anatomy. Oh, my go.
[04:42] Linnea Solveig: And. And a lot of it can do with how, like, you personally developed from the time that you were in the womb. So it’s very developmental and, like, it’s pretty cool.
[04:55] So there’s that and then there’s dance background. And like, all my dance teachers growing up were all, you know, they were either yoga teachers or BMC teachers or Alexander Technique teachers or Feldenkrais teachers.
[05:08] And so pretty much since the time I was 10, I’ve just been absorbing, like, I was probably one of the few 16 year olds that I knew who had spent like hours in a dance class trying to find their public floor.
[05:22] Cate Blouke: Yeah, I.
[05:24] I mean, I don’t. I wasn’t in dance classes at age 16, but I don’t think I was even introduced to the concept of pelvic floor until my friends started getting pregnant.
[05:32] Yeah. Yeah.
[05:33] Linnea Solveig: So like, so like the, like just the different kinds of movement experience. Like. Yeah, even in middle school I had a teacher who was doing something called like Laban Technique. And I don’t even know what it was, but we were like starfishing on the floor and like rolling and we’re supposed to be in ballet class.
[05:48] But she was like, having a day where I think she was like, I’m tired of teaching these 14 year olds to plie, let’s lay on the floor. Just, you know when you have a bunch of like funky dance teachers and then, you know, you turn into one of the like, ladies who are into bodies.
[06:05] I’ve turned into one because I’ve just, I just from a young age acquired.
[06:09] Cate Blouke: Yeah. So what has your relationship with your body like? Have you just been a very embodied person your whole life?
[06:14] Linnea Solveig: Yes and no.
[06:16] Cate Blouke: Okay.
[06:18] Linnea Solveig: I think that my innate way of being is very physical. Like I sometimes when people are like, oh, I just laid in bed and thought all day. Okay, I can’t actually.
[06:31] Like that sounds hard.
[06:32] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[06:33] Linnea Solveig: And also like, I can’t, like, I. I actually can’t think without being embodied a lot of the time. Um, so I actually have a really hard time processing things without being connected to my body.
[06:46] Cate Blouke: Oh, no. Should we be doing this on a walk?
[06:48] Linnea Solveig: I mean, I’ve got, I’ve been clutching your crystals. I touched your cat a lot. I might wiggle.
[06:57] Cate Blouke: Great. Full permission.
[06:59] Linnea Solveig: But I’ve grown up in our society, so I found ways I understand.
[07:06] So yes and no. I think it was always. I grew up feeling pretty welcome to be in my body, you know, and shoveled into dance class was really helpful. But I think that like, I was able to do both.
[07:19] Also, like, you can be. Have a huge sense of connection to physical body and not be embodied, which is kind of.
[07:27] Cate Blouke: Ooh, tell me more about that. I agree. I just like, I have a felt sense of agreement with what you just said, but I also don’t understand it.
[07:35] Linnea Solveig: I mean, growing up being a dancer, I had a big sense of like my proprioception. I knew where my body was space. I had a lot of control over my body.
[07:43] I could feel like really subtle, like muscular engagement or so I was able to have a sense of my body. I think we think that disembodiment can be like a lack of control over body or it could be a, like just not actually even knowing one’s body.
[08:05] But I think when your body’s actually like, you can know your body and, and be able to control it. And also it’s not a very safe place to be.
[08:12] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[08:13] Linnea Solveig: And growing up as a dancer, it turned out that my body was not a very safe place to be. But it’s also the safest place to be because I also loved moving.
[08:22] So both things, both things were both true at the same time. So, yes, always been a very embodied person.
[08:30] But also what brought me to yoga was that the embodiment was so encouraged to be an internal experience, and not an experience in order to satisfy other people’s needs or desires.
[08:45] Whether it’s, like, choreography or, like, do a pose this way. And so immediately when I got injured in my early 20s and I was dancing a lot, like, I went away to boarding school for dance class.
[08:56] Cate Blouke: Okay. Yeah.
[08:58] Linnea Solveig: And then immediately started, like, joined some companies and was dancing, dancing, dancing, dancing.
[09:01] Cate Blouke: It was nice.
[09:03] Linnea Solveig: And I got really injured. And that was a good way to get out. Um, it was a good way to get out. And yoga, I mean, but I was like, I can’t not move.
[09:11] I couldn’t. I. That sounded horrible. And yoga seemed like a good place to move more safely. Um, Although I got myself in some wild yoga classes and some wild poses that probably weren’t good for the injury.
[09:26] Cate Blouke: Yeah, yeah. Listening to you, I’m just thinking about. That’s probably part of the reason that I like your classes so much is. And. And the classes that I have always tended to gravitate towards are the ones that are really about having the internal experience of your.
[09:39] And I’m just thinking about, like, when I was teaching English. I’m gonna back my way into an analogy here.
[09:45] You know, my students would show up and, like, be so frustrated because they, like, didn’t. Like, writing is hard, but we’re like. We use English all the time. Like, we speak this language.
[09:53] Why is writing so hard? And it’s a totally different thing. And the analogy is that, like, we use our bodies all the time. We walk around, we pick things up, we survive, you know, but that doesn’t actually mean that, like, we are particularly in tune with what’s going on in our bodies.
[10:10] I remember I took one of your classes and, like, discovered that I stand on the balls of my feet, which I had no idea was, like, the way that I put my weight on my feet.
[10:22] And, like, no wonder my feet hurt, right. That I don’t distribute it evenly. And we get into these, like, patterns of movement and motion and behavior.
[10:32] And it’s so helpful to have the opportunity to pause and notice what the fuck is happening and. But when I first started doing yoga in Austin, it made me so angry.
[10:45] Well, because I was bad at it, right? Because I didn’t have a lit.
[10:50] Linnea Solveig: Shit.
[10:51] Cate Blouke: I mean, it was partly that, and it was partly the. Like, I ended up in a lot of, like, what felt like performative classes, where it’s like, let me. I was in classes with people that wanted to show off how good they were at yoga.
[11:04] And that was really alienating for me as someone who Felt like I was really bad at it. Yeah.
[11:10] So the studios that I have tended to gravitate towards are the ones that don’t have mirrors on the wall.
[11:15] Linnea Solveig: Yeah.
[11:16] Cate Blouke: And the instructors that are like, hey, wherever you’re at in your body is great. Here’s all the different ways you can do this thing. Yeah. And, like, I just want everybody to feel, like, invited to have an experience with their body.
[11:29] Linnea Solveig: Yeah. Yeah. There is no prerequisite other than have body, period. Yeah. The amount of folks who, when I say, oh, I’m a yoga instructor who will say, oh, I can’t do yoga because I’m not flexible is.
[11:45] I mean, like, if. Unless somebody as actively doing a yoga, like, has a yoga practice, that’s usually what. There’s usually a. Oh, I can’t do it because. Fill in the blank.
[11:54] Cate Blouke: Right.
[11:54] Linnea Solveig: And I mean, some people are like, I can’t do it because I don’t want to. Yeah.
[11:57] Cate Blouke: That’s reasonable. Right.
[11:58] Linnea Solveig: It’s. And some people are pretty on the nose. Like, I have had friends in the past who are like, why? I don’t want a spiritual practice.
[12:05] And they’re like, I do Pilates. I don’t want any spiritual stuff. And I’m like, fair. I’m glad. I’m glad you. You got the program.
[12:13] Cate Blouke: Yeah. So. So is yoga inherently spiritual practice?
[12:16] Linnea Solveig: Yeah. Yeah, it is.
[12:18] Cate Blouke: How so?
[12:21] Linnea Solveig: Because it’s not yoga unless it’s a spiritual practice. Okay.
[12:24] Cate Blouke: Yeah, no, that’s like. Okay, but explain it to me. Like, I’m five.
[12:28] Linnea Solveig: Yeah. I mean, and I will try my best, but I’m. So the practice of yoga is there’s asana, which we do a lot together, which is the poses.
[12:39] Cate Blouke: Right.
[12:39] Linnea Solveig: And then that’s like, one of many limbs of, then breathing, pranayama, and then yamas and niyamas, which are, like, the ethical code of yoga, and then going through different states of, like, enlightenment, basically.
[12:58] So inherently, it’s a tool to find yourself and find, depending on, you know, what words you’re comfortable with, which, for me, I’m getting more comfortable with finding the God within, which is not.
[13:17] Like, as somebody who doesn’t really have big religious dogma or hangovers, it’s easy for me to kind of insert, like, spirit God names.
[13:26] Cate Blouke: Right.
[13:27] Linnea Solveig: So it’s finding, you know, your internal God and you are also. That then connects you to everything. So. Yeah, that’s. That’s the spiritual. Okay.
[13:40] Cate Blouke: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, nobody sat me down and.
[13:42] Linnea Solveig: Was like, hey, well, and that’s taken yoga in the west pretty much. Yeah. Is it’s really separate from the actual lineages of yoga. I mean, there’s so many wonderful teachers all around the West United States, you know, who are, I think, really doing their best to bring the whole package in with them.
[14:07] But it’s hard because people mostly want to exercise.
[14:12] Cate Blouke: Right.
[14:13] Linnea Solveig: But it’s also, you know, I think there is so much to be had through the experience of the body, where a lot of those things that feel more either esoteric or more complicated or tricky, like enlightenment, you know, like, that seems like really big, I think are more like chewable and digestible, at least for people like me who can’t even think about, like, being in bed and thinking for a morning because I’m like, I gotta move.
[14:45] That seems more like, like, just like a palatable way to begin the process is through body.
[14:51] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[14:52] Linnea Solveig: And. And it’s there. It’s all there because we’re not separate from it. You know, like Descartes and his whole mind is different from the body.
[14:59] Cate Blouke: And.
[14:59] Linnea Solveig: But, you know, just like, I had a therapist once who was like, fuck Descartes. And I know I want. I need a. I really, I really want a T shirt that says that.
[15:08] Cate Blouke: Fuck Descartes.
[15:08] Linnea Solveig: I feel that way all the time. And we have, you know, we have to because our language doesn’t allow it. But, like, you know how we talk about the mind and the body, right?
[15:16] Cate Blouke: As if they’re different.
[15:17] Linnea Solveig: As if they’re different and it’ helpful to talk about that way. And then also I’m like, they’re just not different.
[15:22] Cate Blouke: Yeah, no, they’re actually, like, very connected. Quite literally. The body houses the brain. Like, it’s not different. And I think I just got like. And I think. And then I’m like.
[15:34] And my brain short circuited because I’m like, now I’m doing it and now I’m in the black hole. But there’s this primacy of brain, right? Mind over matter. Like, no, Boo boo.
[15:46] Like, let’s all just, like, power through and ignore what our bodies are telling us and think our way through things and just not pay attention to the signals that our body is sending us.
[15:57] I do sometimes wish someone who’s listening, can you please invent a translator for my body and my brain so they can talk to each other better. Because, like, I know there’s stuff that my body’s trying to tell me and my poor little brain doesn’t understand it.
[16:15] Linnea Solveig: And that’s like, I feel like that’s.
[16:16] Cate Blouke: My journey of adulthood.
[16:18] Linnea Solveig: Oh, now I want to know so much about that. Because I only listen to my. No, that’s not true yet. Okay. Have you. Is there an example of something you finally figured out?
[16:28] Like, you finally were like, decoded what that meant?
[16:33] It was like tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. And then, I mean, I think like.
[16:38] Cate Blouke: A little while ago I recorded some episodes about the nervous system with a body wisdom coach and we were talking about the ways in which like, nervous system activation works.
[16:52] And that is a, like, bodily experience.
[16:57] And Marjorie used a really helpful analogy of like, levels of activation as sort of like green, yellow, orange, red.
[17:05] And I realized in the conversation that, you know, I spent so much of my life in the like, yellow, orange activation zone. So, like all of the, like, anxiety and the tension and the stress and thinking that was normal.
[17:23] Right. That like, that’s my, like, norm. Like, this is just what living feels like. Right. And not knowing the difference between a like, nervous system that is regulated and like, able to downshift versus just sort of like being in this elevated state all the time.
[17:44] And I think that like, contemporary culture.
[17:46] Linnea Solveig: And modern society and all of these.
[17:48] Cate Blouke: Things that we have not evolved to deal with. We have not evolved to deal with TikTok, like, and the overstimulation and the just like constant everything.
[17:58] Linnea Solveig: Always.
[17:59] Cate Blouke: All the time.
[18:00] Linnea Solveig: Yeah, no, that, that resonates. Yeah. I mean, I find it extraordinarily challenging to exist in the modern world.
[18:13] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[18:14] Linnea Solveig: And stay like really, like authentically chill and calm. And I think I’m so lucky that my job is to be in the practice of movement and breathing and community because I just kind of get more chances to kind of not have to deal with this world.
[18:40] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[18:41] Linnea Solveig: But it’s not.
[18:42] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[18:42] Linnea Solveig: I mean, I, I don’t know if it’s possible when you’re also trying to like, pay rent and like, hear cars. Honestly, like the, the level of just hearing like, or hearing lights.
[18:54] Like my body hasn’t evolved to even cope with sound of the computer making its little high pitched hum.
[19:01] Cate Blouke: Oh.
[19:03] Linnea Solveig: And then you just, I mean, and then you deal with it and it’s like that then when on the rare chance, like I’m removed from lights and sounds and actually on the earth and maybe no shoes, like the peace that can be had is so vastly different than the peace of just like having a nice day walking down the street with your coffee.
[19:25] And they’re both great. Right.
[19:27] Cate Blouke: But they’re vastly, very different. Yeah.
[19:30] And I think the other. Now I’m realizing, like, the other example, like, you know, when I don’t feel particularly great, whether like this happened to me yesterday, like, I kind of was feeling like a little bit of an upset tummy and a headache.
[19:41] Like, I wish that, like, my body could just be like, it’s because you ate this, right? Or like, you need to drink more water. I mean, I did. I was hydrated.
[19:50] It wasn’t that. That’s usually my go to is like, if I have a headache, like, did I drink enough water? No. Okay. But yeah, I think what is lovely about yoga classes is the way in which you get to come together with other humans to then have an internal experience together.
[20:11] Linnea Solveig: Yeah. Yeah.
[20:13] Cate Blouke: And I will not do it on my own. I tried. I’ve tried to do you. You do live streaming classes and I’ve tried to do those and then I just like, can’t.
[20:23] I need the accountability of like going to a space. And like in the last year or two especially, have been really kind of leaning into what it means to gather with other people and what it means to have ritual and ceremony and that sense of spirituality and spiritual practices that aren’t necessarily like, religious or God oriented, but there really is something to gathering with a group of humans to do a thing together.
[20:54] Linnea Solveig: Yeah. The gathering together of the sangha and yoga. And sangha, which is the community of support that we’re creating together, is. It’s a big part of the yoga practice, which is some.
[21:10] And that’s something that other movement practices and other gathering ritual is so lovely.
[21:15] And there’s something so special about our little sangha that we practice in is that like, everybody can have such a different experience.
[21:28] Yeah. All at the same time. Where I think other things that can be more dogmatic, that are kind of rooted around gathering and there’s an expectation that everybody’s experience is going to be similar.
[21:41] Which is never true.
[21:43] Cate Blouke: Right.
[21:43] Linnea Solveig: That’s never true. Even if there’s two people in a room at the same time, there’s experience.
[21:47] Cate Blouke: Right. Because we all live in our own heads. Like, and we all had different things for breakfast and we all have different, like stressors or pets that are at home making noise.
[21:58] Yeah.
[21:59] Linnea Solveig: So many things. I didn’t realize what I was gonna say just about the. I wanted to follow up with your connecting to body.
[22:07] And just like, I think that the reason I like yoga as a practice is because one of the ways to help you figure out, like, oh, am I. Why am I thirsty?
[22:17] Why am I weird and grumpy? You know, like, why am I feeling funky? So it helps that identification process of like, what. What the fuck is going on with me?
[22:27] And of Course there’s tons of different ways in which you might employ different practices to help support you. And sometimes there’s just things that aren’t optimal. Like you just have a headache or you’re just like things aren’t right.
[22:43] And so then yoga then gives you not the tools to fix it necessarily. Sometimes you can fix the thing but more importantly it gives you like it helps train us with the comfort level of still being in your body even if it’s uncomfortable.
[22:59] And that’s a big, that’s a big part of the yoga practice is being able to sit in discomfort. Which is why meditation is a really big part of yoga and why you don’t see very much meditation on yoga studio schedule.
[23:18] Because actually nobody really wants to sit in discomfort. Everyone’s got to move and fix the things.
[23:23] Cate Blouke: Ugh. Yeah.
[23:25] Linnea Solveig: And you know that’s, that’s, I mean that’s because we don’t have that much time. We also gotta go and hustle this and hustle that. And that’s makes sense. We don’t have a lot of time.
[23:34] And if it’s like I’m gonna sit in the discomfort or am I going to try to fix the weird shoulder feeling I have people might like sustainability like wise you might need to fix the weird shoulder thing you have.
[23:46] Cate Blouke: Right.
[23:47] Linnea Solveig: To get through the next week.
[23:48] Cate Blouke: Right.
[23:48] Linnea Solveig: And that’s fine. And that’s part of like in yoga’s householder there’s like, there’s yogis neither. Which we are not. Right. Because we’re not devoting our whole lives to the yoga practice.
[24:00] We’re householders. We’re trying to live a life and also practice.
[24:04] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[24:04] Linnea Solveig: And so that’s when we go at the pace we go.
[24:07] Cate Blouke: Right.
[24:07] Linnea Solveig: You gotta make the choices you gotta make.
[24:09] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[24:09] Linnea Solveig: But I do like that it, it gives the option that you may not be fixed. Which I think a lot of healing modalities are promising that you’ll get better because that’s the only way a lot of us to convince ourselves to engage in self explor is usually the motivates us to get there.
[24:30] Is when we feel bad.
[24:31] Cate Blouke: Yes. I was just thinking about that this morning. Is that like usually we have to be sufficiently in pain or uncomfortable to do something different.
[24:39] Linnea Solveig: Yeah. I don’t usually schedule massage with my massage therapist unless I’m in pain.
[24:45] And part of that’s just like time and money and all those things. But so it’s like we kind of like we have to be pushed to this threshold of like extreme discomfort to find a practice that Works for us.
[24:57] Whether it’s yoga or acupuncture meditation or walking or running.
[25:01] Cate Blouke: Core exercises.
[25:02] Linnea Solveig: Yeah, whatever.
[25:03] Cate Blouke: Foam rolling. Oh, my God.
[25:09] Yeah. Like, my knee. No, I hate it so much. But, like, my knee’s been hurting and I just had my 42nd birthday and I’m like, if I want to keep running, I need to do something differently because I’m going to hurt myself.
[25:22] Linnea Solveig: What a great sense of self awareness.
[25:25] Cate Blouke: Yeah, thankfully. I mean, you know, I’ve been doing this whole, like, podcast and therapy and like, coaching thing for a while, and I’m pretty good at being like, oh, okay. But it, like, I’ve known I needed to do core exercises and use my fucking foam roller for a while, and it’s not until something starts hurting that I’m like, no, really?
[25:42] I do.
[25:42] Linnea Solveig: Yeah.
[25:43] Cate Blouke: And I have done core exercises twice in the last week.
[25:46] Linnea Solveig: Oh, damn. New Year’s.
[25:48] Cate Blouke: New Year’s is here. Like, we’ll see.
[25:53] Linnea Solveig: It’s. I mean, and that’s the fun thing about a practice is you just. It just keeps. You just keep doing it. Yeah, you keep doing it and that’s cool. But then you stop doing it.
[26:04] Generally, most people’s practices is. Then they stop doing it, but then they come back to it. And that in the big scope of things is just keep doing it. But that’s also what keeps people away.
[26:16] The shame of having not done it.
[26:19] Which is so interesting. I mean, I see that so regularly. I won’t see a student for a while and it could be like a few weeks or a few years, and they come back, like, just being like, I’m like, oh, it’s good to see you, you know, and.
[26:31] And it’s like, I know I haven’t been here for so long. It’s like they almost like, expect to be shamed.
[26:38] Cate Blouke: Yeah. As if you are keeping mental attendance of all of the people that you teach. Dropping yoga classes, too.
[26:46] Linnea Solveig: But, like, they came back and I recognized them.
[26:49] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[26:49] Linnea Solveig: And that’s like that, like, so it’s like big scope of things. It’s like you come back and it’s like the. I don’t know. I think that expectation to be really regimented, although that is, there is some fruits to be had from that fiery way of being.
[27:05] But that’s. I just can’t get on board and like, really promoting that in our society as a teacher, like, I feel like we’ve got enough of that. That even if it is like that heat building that does come with like, a traditional practice, that comes with like the dedication, then I just.
[27:22] I can’t. I can’t promote that comfortably when I feel like everybody’s already feeling like the shoulds.
[27:31] The shoulds and the ought tos are suffocating so many people that then people are just not going to come back.
[27:38] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[27:39] Linnea Solveig: Because, you know, it’s like one of those things that’s so wrapped up in, like, guilt for so many people to have not been. And then. And I just. Yeah. Yeah.
[27:49] Cate Blouke: So what if you’re. You don’t want to promote that sort of, like, fiery attitude? What do you want to promote?
[27:56] Linnea Solveig: I mean. Well, the joy of being alive.
[28:01] Cate Blouke: Yes. All the snaps. Okay.
[28:05] Linnea Solveig: Joy of being alive. Yeah. And, you know, it doesn’t always have to be joyful, but I honestly just feel that it’s so extraordinarily fun that, like, everybody who gets to go to class together gets to, like.
[28:22] We get to, like, as adults, we get to put on our stretchy pants and they’re comfy, and then we get to roll around on the floor and, like, giggle and laugh and, like, pretend we’re animals, you know, and then, like, have a, like, sense of our spinal cords and, like, like, I really love feeling the specificity of my anatomy.
[28:46] O. Um. Which I know is, like, really icky to some people. I’m actually not allowed to show my sweetheart dissection videos anymore because I will watch, like, anatomy dissections. Cause I’m like, isn’t that beautiful?
[29:01] Cate Blouke: Interesting.
[29:02] Linnea Solveig: I just think the human body is so, like, just so extraordinary. I just love. I love it. Okay. I love it. Like, I just think, like, when I think about, like, my organs being connected and wrapped in tissue, and I’m just like, I’m so.
[29:19] And that, to me, is really joyful and it’s pretty visceral. So I try to keep it at a minimum because not everybody can get down with, like, that amount of, like, sense of their insides.
[29:29] Yeah.
[29:30] Cate Blouke: But I do. I do enjoy in your classes, the way that you bring that together using metaphor often. Right. One of my favorite parts is when you sort of, like, invite us to imagine our brain just kind of, like, pouring out the left side of our head.
[29:50] Right. Yeah, of course.
[29:52] Linnea Solveig: Yeah. Yeah. And like. And then giving. Yeah. The sense of whimsy, I think, comes from just if it gets too dry or too specific, it can either get icky or confusing if you haven’t studied it.
[30:03] So then you just have to get poetic. One of my anatomy teachers once was. She was saying that most yoga teachers know enough anatomy to be dangerous, which. True. I’m sure I’VE been that person will be again.
[30:18] But, like, was saying that if you’re not really sure what you’re talking about, like, you can be poetic. Yeah, it’s actually helpful to be poetic because a, you’re not, like, spreading wild amounts of misinformation because everybody knows your brain isn’t pouring out of the ear.
[30:34] Cate Blouke: Right.
[30:35] Linnea Solveig: But also, like, that’s like, imagery works for people in a way that if you are walking through life and you don’t actually know, like, like, if you’re thirsty, then you’re not going to be able to, like, necessarily identify, like, how your psoas is, like, pulling on your lumbar spine.
[30:55] You know, like, that’s a big expectation.
[30:59] But you might be able to, like, feel, like, how if your, like, pelvis is doing guilty dog pelvis and never guilty cat, how it, like, feels different in your life.
[31:10] Cate Blouke: Okay.
[31:11] Linnea Solveig: Yeah.
[31:11] Cate Blouke: I was about to say, like, how do I know if my so has to just pulling on my lumbar sp, I sort of. I think I know where those things are in my body.
[31:20] Linnea Solveig: And, you know, we will talk about it sometimes, but then sometimes they just do the movements and then. But. But sometimes you just need to actually give, like, an imagined feeling to your lumb.
[31:29] Your low back. You know what I’m saying? Lumbar spine. Just like, how if your low back, like, had a little smiley face, like, is it a grumpy face or a smiley face?
[31:39] Or like. And on the right side, like, does the right side. Or texture. You know, I talk a lot about texture. So is, you know, is the right side of your low back crunchy or fluffy or is it long or short?
[31:54] You know, so you start to, like, find ways into the body that aren’t so just, like, pedantic, I think.
[32:02] Cate Blouke: Right, right. Because, like, so you were saying that. And I’m like, okay, my low. My low back’s pretty good. It’s usually my shoulders that are cranky. Yeah.
[32:11] Linnea Solveig: Yeah.
[32:12] Cate Blouke: I have long described my body parts as, like, anthropomorphized, having feelings and opin opinions. And often it’s like, cranky.
[32:21] Linnea Solveig: Yeah, that’s helpful.
[32:23] Cate Blouke: Yeah. And my, my left shoulder is kind of Zen, but my right shoulder is the. The grumpy face today.
[32:30] Linnea Solveig: Yeah.
[32:30] Cate Blouke: Yeah. But I wouldn’t have noticed that if we weren’t talking about it.
[32:35] Linnea Solveig: I know.
[32:36] Cate Blouke: And that.
[32:36] Linnea Solveig: That’s why we need to gather and think about it, because you can’t. But then thinking about relationships and bodies, like, I think that like, like, also the body is just a cool tool to Figure out relationship because everything’s connected, you know, so your right shoulder is not separate from your left shoulder.
[32:57] Even though one’s the cranky one and one’s the not so cranky one, they also have a relationship and everything in between is also being affected.
[33:06] Cate Blouke: Oh my God. And it’s so complicated. I remember seeing a chiropractor years and years ago who was like, yeah, what’s going on your neck? In your neck is probably contributing to why you are congested all the time.
[33:19] And I was like, what are you talking about?
[33:22] Like, how is that even possible?
[33:25] And then, you know, my knee problems are because my hips are weak. Like, I don’t understand, like, so I don’t understand why. I will accept that that is a reality.
[33:34] Like people who’ve told me and people who do understand anatomy, like, have tried to explain it to me. It doesn’t stick in my brain. But yeah, it’s a system.
[33:43] Linnea Solveig: It’s a system and it’s, that’s so applicable to everything else. Like when you think about our ecology, you know, the one thing goes one way, everything else gets pulled with it.
[33:55] And obviously like our interpersonal communities, one person walks in and is grumpy and they’re the grumpy shoulder. Everybody feels it, like, and everybody reacts differently. One person spirals, one person leaves, one person starts like making sure they’re okay and that like our bodies are doing the same way thing.
[34:18] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[34:18] Linnea Solveig: And I find figuring out how to cope with that in my body is a lot easier than trying to figure out how to cope with it in the external world.
[34:29] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[34:30] So interesting. Yeah. I think I have focused more on the external world at the like cost of focusing on my body and you know, to be compassionate to myself around that.
[34:41] I think that was because for me, growing up like my body was very much a source of shame and low self worth. And so I didn’t want to be connected to my body.
[34:50] And an important piece of, you know, cultivating self love and self worth has been that journey of like getting back into my body and doing all of the work to accept it for how it is.
[35:06] And it’s squishy bits and, and all of that. And I really love going to yoga classes with folks of all shapes and sizes.
[35:17] Linnea Solveig: Yeah. It’s so important to me to do the best possible job, which is always evolving. And I hope that I’m always getting better at it, I’m pretty sure. Cause it’s a big learning curve from coming from like a 200 hour teacher training and a background in dance and how to.
[35:36] To be able bodied young person inviting everybody into the space authentically.
[35:47] You know, I’ve had my hiccups where truly 10. That happened 10 years ago. And I still am like, I wake up in 3am and I’m like, oh shit, why did I say that?
[35:58] Because that’s just how it goes. Yeah, but that’s, I mean that is the biggest passion of mine is to welcome as many people as possible.
[36:09] And that like, I mean it doesn’t mean every class is suitable for every person and that’s okay. But every, every class is open for people to try it out. And that’s also how I tell people they can get up and leave like autonomy in a group practice.
[36:26] Like, which is kind of extending from the. Oh, we’re not all supposed to have the same experience. Like trying to teach people that they have autonomy even in like a group experience.
[36:38] Especially when it comes to bodies. Because I think we’re on so many overt and like subtle ways are told that like in some way or another we gotta conform or just get out.
[36:52] We don’t belong.
[36:53] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[36:54] Linnea Solveig: And I haven’t really come across anybody who has escaped that.
[37:00] Cate Blouke: Yeah, no, no. And listening to you, I was like, yeah. Like in school, like you are supposed to all have the same experience and if you’re like doing whatever, that is not the thing.
[37:09] Like you get disciplined.
[37:11] Linnea Solveig: Right.
[37:11] Cate Blouke: And I know for me that was one of the really liberating things in one of the small group practices that I took with you was this idea that like you gave me permission to just do whatever I needed to do when I go to a yoga class that like if I don’t want to do the thing that everybody is doing that I didn’t have to and it like, it blew my mind and I needed that permission from a yoga instructor.
[37:37] Linnea Solveig: Sometimes we need permission to do it. To not have permission.
[37:41] Cate Blouke: Yeah, yeah.
[37:42] Linnea Solveig: To not need permission.
[37:43] Cate Blouke: Yeah, yeah.
[37:44] And that’s been so liberating for me as someone who spends a lot. We were talking about astrology before we hit record and like as an Aquarius rising who spends a lot of time in my head and circling back to what we were just saying about like, I’m very conscious of what is going on in the room and in the world around me.
[38:03] Like I would get so stuck in my head of like, oh, the teacher’s gonna like, I’m hurt their feelings if I don’t do the thing or they’re gonna be mad at me or like everybody else in the class is gonna like think some Sort of this, that or the other.
[38:16] And like, oh, my God, that’s so much pressure to put on myself.
[38:19] And honestly, like, yes, there are people in yoga classes that annoy me, but it’s usually sound related more than anything.
[38:26] Linnea Solveig: Yeah. Yeah.
[38:27] Cate Blouke: Other than that, I don’t care what they’ yeah.
[38:29] Linnea Solveig: And that takes. It’s. It’s a weird, funky line to be the holder of space. As someone who really. I do want to give people the permission to, like, be the weird noise person and also like to know that that might, like, really agitate the crap out of other people.
[38:47] And it’s. It’s a weird. Especially as I get, like, as I encourage people to be even more and more of their individuals. Like, it opens the door for all sorts of things.
[38:59] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[39:00] Linnea Solveig: And sometimes it can be really positive. And sometimes people’s needs cross over and their needs are different and they start to bump up against each other. And obviously, teaching at fame, the place I teach art for adults with cognitive disability, that is actually, I think, has been a really helpful place for me to practice how differently people with really opposing needs can exist in the same classroom.
[39:30] And. And I think they’re. Because they’re a community of people with often, like, really strong, like, needs or aversions or sounds or like, impulses. And everything’s just a little amplified with that community.
[39:43] They’re humans like the rest of us, but it’s usually a little bit turned up the volume sometimes.
[39:48] Cate Blouke: Literally.
[39:49] Linnea Solveig: Yeah. And. But it works. Everybody handles their shit and sometimes they don’t. And think that when. Then we go into kind of a room full of people who are generally pretty good at kind of conforming to expectations without having the expectations even necessarily said.
[40:09] But we’ll all face forward.
[40:11] We’ll all put our mats in the same row. We’ll all be quiet.
[40:15] And those expectations are in somewhat like a community agreement. There’s the ones like, oh, I’m not gonna touch my neighbor, because that could really freak him out. And I believe in.
[40:27] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[40:27] Linnea Solveig: You know, and then so there’s like, some community agreements that are good and then some which are, I think, a little bit more fluid and sometimes part of the practice, although nobody wants to hear this, including myself, is like, trying to figure out, like, how to cope with the people who are agitating you.
[40:46] If there’s the person who’s agitating you next to you. Yeah.
[40:49] Cate Blouke: No, but I think, like, so back to that idea of yoga being a spiritual practice and, like, how all of this just amplifies out into a metaphor for existence in the world.
[40:59] That’s an important skill to cultivate. There are going to be people in the world that agitate us.
[41:04] Linnea Solveig: I know, right.
[41:05] Cate Blouke: And sometimes we have the autonomy to like, excuse ourselves and sometimes we don’t. And it’s. I mean, I have the self awareness to like, be able to notice the like, loud breather driving me bananas and laugh at myself a little bit about it because it doesn’t actually matter.
[41:21] Linnea Solveig: Right.
[41:22] Cate Blouke: Like.
[41:22] Linnea Solveig: Right.
[41:23] Cate Blouke: Like this. But it does agitate me. And I do think that. Yeah. Just kind of circling back to things we were talking about earlier about like, most of us don’t want to be.
[41:33] We just don’t want to be uncomfortable.
[41:34] Linnea Solveig: No.
[41:35] Cate Blouke: I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. That like, modern life is just this like accelerated march towards how can we be the least uncomfortable possible ever.
[41:48] Right. And that we’re losing the capacity to be uncomfortable. And maybe that’s not a good thing. Actually. No, I’m gonna take the maybe out. I don’t think that’s a good thing.
[41:57] Like, I wonder.
[41:59] Linnea Solveig: I mean, I think that it’s. I feel like our desire to be comfortable is coming also from how deeply uncomfortable everything is.
[42:07] Cate Blouke: Right.
[42:08] Linnea Solveig: In that nervous system sense.
[42:10] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[42:10] Linnea Solveig: So maybe we can like have an. We now have the technology to have like, noise machines and like the coziest, softest fleece instead of like a hard, rough linen or, you know, whatever it is.
[42:23] Those are cozy things. But those are also like. I feel like almost band aids on, like the fact that we’re getting maybe more afraid or maybe we’re always like this.
[42:32] I don’t know. I always get a little bit like.
[42:37] I mean. No, I don’t know. Just like it’s constantly shifting. Maybe we’re always doing that. I think that there was, I mean, like, I don’t know a ton about like religion, but I feel like there was like more like, like spiritual discomfort in some ways in the past where it’s like.
[42:54] Well. And that’s why some religions really, like, took off. Because then there was like a promise of some sort of comfort in.
[43:01] Cate Blouke: In the afterlife.
[43:02] Linnea Solveig: Afterlife, yeah.
[43:03] Cate Blouke: Yeah. I mean, I don’t know a ton about history either, but I can. I feel pretty confident having now watched many different farming shows about farming in the Victorian area and the Edwardian era and the Tudor era.
[43:17] Like, it used to be like real hard and real uncomfortable. Yeah. And like people didn’t bathe very often and had fleas, you know, like, there was a lot of stuff that was really uncomfortable, just differently.
[43:30] Linnea Solveig: Yeah. But they didn’t Want that I didn’t hear the buzzing sound of their computer.
[43:33] Cate Blouke: Right. And they could see the stars at night because there wasn’t so much light pollution. Right.
[43:39] Linnea Solveig: Although if I had to choose between buzzing sound, a computer, or fleas, I’ll say computer. Yeah, no, same.
[43:44] Cate Blouke: Right. That’s the thing. Like, I’m not, I’m not, you know, I’m not like sometimes I’m like, oh, whatever period of time would have been neat except, like, I exist in a female body and there isn’t a time that doing that was better.
[44:00] And I don’t like being hot.
[44:02] Linnea Solveig: Yeah. Yeah.
[44:04] I mean, yeah. I have so many lovely conversations and then I often, I’m just like, oh. And this is the conversation that two people who both have houses and like, yeah, access to our essential needs get to have about like.
[44:24] Well, these days people just, you know, fill in the blank and I’m like, right, oh, well, these days people in our situation.
[44:31] Cate Blouke: Right.
[44:33] Linnea Solveig: Which I mean, not to like bring it down, but I do. I’m like, oh, so that always kind of just like helps me be like, maybe it’s always a variety pack for us humans, but being, I mean, nobody wants to be uncomfortable, right?
[44:47] Nobody wants to be uncomfortable. But actually I have some friends who like sometimes don’t wear socks in the winter and they’re just clomping around in their clogs. But it’s like my outdoor friends who like to, they get a little sort of thrill from being uncomfortable.
[45:00] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[45:01] Yeah. I mean, I am a long distance runner, so like running 13 miles isn’t comfortable. Like, it’s not.
[45:09] But I, I don’t know, I’m just on my like, little. It’s especially because like post holidays and like Amazon trucks being everywhere and I’m just like, AI and like kids these days and don’t know how to have conversations and they don’t know how to stand in line.
[45:26] And I mean, I hate standing in line. So it’s just funny to me because I do, I do think like something I have often said to sponsees and in recovery meetings is that like long term sobriety is all about learning how to tolerate discomfort.
[45:44] But I also think what I’m saying is that like being a human in the world is about learning to tolerate discomfort.
[45:52] Linnea Solveig: Yeah. In yoga there’s a lot of talking about kind of distancing yourself from your senses, which in the past has kind of graded against me because it kind of like, it’s like sometimes it’s taught in this very, it feels very like rigid and like like, the sensual world is a little like.
[46:13] Like detach from it. It.
[46:15] Cate Blouke: You should.
[46:15] Linnea Solveig: Should be, like, separating from it.
[46:17] Cate Blouke: Oh, so I’m not allowed to want my, like, cozy fleeces.
[46:20] Linnea Solveig: Yeah. Or just, like, not getting attached to it. And. And I don’t know. I. I haven’t always. I. I haven’t really even explored that a whole lot. Cause it just rubs.
[46:31] It rubs against, like, kind like, ooh, the sensual world is bad and sinful. Or, you know, other things I’ve picked up from other places where I’m like, I’m not interested in that.
[46:42] But I think I had a teacher once talk about that, like, the separation from our senses is more of taking a pause. And some people won’t teach it this way, but it really resonated with me of, like, there’s a pause between the.
[46:58] Like the thing that we think is going to make us comfortable and the result. There’s just a space in between the aversion or the desire. Yeah. And so we’re gonna have aversions and desires.
[47:12] Unless you’re really going for a specific kind of practice in life where you’re really trying to separate from that, which some people are. But I’m not. I’m trying to live a big human life.
[47:25] Cate Blouke: Right.
[47:27] Linnea Solveig: But the pause between, like, I want. I don’t want to just hang out there, which is hella uncomfortable, before you grab or push away. That resonated with me a lot. And again, I have other teachers who teach that relationship a little bit differently, Our relationship to our senses.
[47:48] But that really resonated with me because I think it’s totally reasonable that we’re gonna want and not want things really ferociously to stay cozy. We’re okay in our life.
[48:01] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[48:02] Linnea Solveig: But we could also. I think sometimes we get so frenetic with our. Our immediate desire to give ourselves that comfort that, like, we’re actually not pausing and maybe knowing why or.
[48:17] And then. Not that we always need to know the why or the full narrative, but I think that there’s that frenzy which is then fueling all those Amazon trucks that are making.
[48:28] Wanna explode.
[48:29] Cate Blouke: Right.
[48:30] Linnea Solveig: Frenzy to kind of just. Just pacify or keep at bay. Which, I mean, my biggest interest at this moment is basically how we’re all just a frenzy of fear. That’s. Basically, we’re all just motivated by our fear of death.
[48:53] And that’s pretty much what I’ve been thinking about a lot. And. And that’s the most uncomfortable thing and the most human thing I think is the fear of death is the fear of Death.
[49:04] Well, the relationship of death. I don’t think it’s human to be fearful of death, but I think it’s culturally very big and that we’re really afraid and don’t want to talk about it.
[49:14] And there is no. Like, the minute I think we have, like, the frisson of our mortality, everybody’s, like, freaking out. They’re like, I gotta go eat a snack. I gotta go take a nap.
[49:24] I gotta go, like, to the gym. Or, you know, like, I turn on the tv. Just anything to escape the reality of our mortality. And that’s where a spiritual practice is really helpful is because ultimately, like, no matter what it is, I think it is the point, like, the root of most spiritual practices is to help us find peace in our mortality so that we can more fully live in our lives.
[49:51] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[49:52] Linnea Solveig: And be present. And, you know, and that’s why we’re all like, oh, I can’t do yoga. I’m not flexible. And then if you start, like, spiraling, I’m not flexible. Then I can’t touch my toes.
[50:01] And if I can’t touch my toes, then I might fall over when I’m old. And, you know, it’s just like, oh, my God, I’m gonna die.
[50:06] Cate Blouke: Right.
[50:07] Linnea Solveig: And like. Like, I don’t think people are consciously. Yeah.
[50:10] Cate Blouke: Like, I’m listening to you. I’m, like, thinking about. I’m like. Because I don’t.
[50:14] I do occasionally have the thought of, like, you know, like, if I die tomorrow, like, I’ve lived a pretty good life.
[50:20] Linnea Solveig: That’s cool. Like, yeah.
[50:22] Cate Blouke: Yeah. So that. So that thought does occur to me. So I don’t consciously identify with being afraid of death.
[50:29] However, as someone who has spent a lot of my adult life single, I do often have the. Like, I’m going to die alone. And that feels terrible.
[50:38] Linnea Solveig: Yeah.
[50:38] Cate Blouke: And when I get into that headspace is then when I want to fix. Right. Like, I want to, like. Yeah, do whatever. And what you were saying earlier, that, like, sort of frenetic and frenzied desire to not be with whatever the discomfort is is certainly true for addicts and alcoholics.
[50:58] Right. Like, that’s what’s going on is like, we don’t like how we feel, and so we throw alcohol and drugs at it. But I think it’s endemic of, again, humans in modern culture and instant gratification and, like, having so much access to so many ways to change the way we feel.
[51:15] And mindfulness. And yoga is a mindfulness practice, to me at least, is all about cultivating our capacity to Pause.
[51:26] To be in that pause, to find the pause. And it really, for me, has certainly been a long unfolding practice of being able to create that space for myself and not be so reactive.
[51:43] But it’s hard and it takes a.
[51:44] Linnea Solveig: Long time, and it might just always take the whole time.
[51:49] We might not actually figure it out. We just can either engage with it or ignore it. Yeah, that’s my. I mean, I don’t know. I just turned 40, so I’m into the next phase.
[52:00] Feeling it, loving it. And also just kind of.
[52:04] I don’t know, I think this idea of then someday figuring it out, like, yes, things are getting easier and better, but I also.
[52:14] I’m letting go of the, like, gonna have it all figured out. Because that’s another kind of instant gratification.
[52:20] Cate Blouke: Right.
[52:20] Linnea Solveig: It’s like being motivated by then, like, having succeeded at it instead of just the continual practice of being.
[52:29] Cate Blouke: Yeah, I know. I’ve heard you talk about this in classes. A lot of. Just, like, our bodies are gonna keep changing.
[52:36] We’re gonna be able to do poses and then we’re not gonna be able to do poses like that. There’s not gonna be an ul movement that we’re gonna get to.
[52:47] Linnea Solveig: No.
[52:47] Cate Blouke: And oh, my God, like, in some ways, that’s so annoying.
[52:52] Linnea Solveig: Yes.
[52:52] Cate Blouke: It’s so normal to be like. But I wanna. But I wanna be able to.
[52:56] Linnea Solveig: Yeah. I mean, it’s way easier to sell how you’re gonna be young and perfect forever because everybody wants that. But it’s actually like the biggest, like, collective thing that we all share is that.
[53:10] That we’re not going to. Yeah. Like, if we get the chance to age, then we’re going to age.
[53:16] Cate Blouke: Right. Yeah. Like, I was just thinking about that. You know, it’s like, bless her heart, like, younger me. I wouldn’t go back there.
[53:24] Linnea Solveig: No.
[53:24] Cate Blouke: Like, I like who I keep turning into.
[53:29] Linnea Solveig: Yeah.
[53:30] Cate Blouke: You know, me too.
[53:31] Linnea Solveig: Oh, you can’t pay me.
[53:32] Cate Blouke: Like, it’d be nice if my body didn’t ache in ways that it does now. That in my. I just entered the lake kind of sometimes needing to wear glasses, but mostly for eye focus reasons.
[53:47] Like, I’m not at the, like, have to wear glasses phase, but, like, I get to embrace that and be like, glasses are cute. Like, whatever.
[53:54] Linnea Solveig: Yeah.
[53:55] Cate Blouke: You know? But, yeah, I don’t actually wanna go backwards and I don’t wanna be young forever. Cause, like, bless yalls hearts if any of y’all are listening. But the twenties were just silly.
[54:05] Like, I don’t.
[54:05] Linnea Solveig: They were hard.
[54:06] Cate Blouke: They were hard.
[54:07] Linnea Solveig: They Were hard and talk about discomfort. You move through some discomfort, and then.
[54:12] Then you do change. You do grow, and there is. There is some relief sometimes. I mean, and that’s. We don’t. It’s like, just because all these practices help us with discomfort doesn’t mean that sometimes there isn’t relief.
[54:24] And that’s really nice.
[54:26] Like, there is relief, and there is, like, ease to be found.
[54:31] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[54:31] Linnea Solveig: And I think it doesn’t. It doesn’t have to be huge or everything or all the time, but I do also feel like sometimes we are all just working so hard to, like, change and fix it and find the relief that actually we overlook the relief that’s there.
[54:47] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[54:48] Linnea Solveig: Which is usually just so. So simple that it’s really hard to. Well, you come to a lot of my yin classes, and the amount of people who are like, I can’t do yin because I can’t possibly be still and fair.
[55:02] Like, that is just not. That’s out of some people’s range of nervousness.
[55:06] Cate Blouke: Yeah. And me, 10 years ago wouldn’t have been able to do that either. But now I’m like, oh, I just get to, like, hug a pillow on the floor for, like, five minutes.
[55:15] Great.
[55:15] Linnea Solveig: Sure.
[55:15] Cate Blouke: Do like, I. Because. Because I won’t do it at home by myself.
[55:20] Linnea Solveig: Yeah.
[55:20] Cate Blouke: And I know my body really likes it. And I’m now in my 40s, and I’m like, okay, body.
[55:25] Instead of trying to, like, push and shove and force you to do things, I’m gonna listen. I’m be like, what do you need, buddy? Yeah. What would be helpful to you?
[55:35] I will get the accountability to make sure that you get that. Because I’m not actually capable of doing it by myself in my living room.
[55:43] Linnea Solveig: No. And it’s. Well. And then you just like. Because sometimes the body will ask for weird ass, too. You know, like, sometimes if you’re really listening, you’re actually like, maybe the teacher is being like, time to do a lunge.
[55:57] But your body’s like, I have to be doing some weird little fetal position and kind of, like, shaking on one side. And so it is kind of, like, funky to listen to your body sometimes, because it sometimes wants to do funky, funky things.
[56:09] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[56:09] Linnea Solveig: And that is really exciting to me and that my practice really looked like me kind of rolling around and, like, doing strange contractions on the floor for a long time to heal some stuff.
[56:21] But that’s why you’ve got a raccoon shirt on right now. And that’s how I imagine my practice, which is why I’m a movement teacher sometimes instead of just a yoga teacher is because I’m a scavenger.
[56:32] And I feel like I’m a raccoon. Just, like, squirreling around, grabbing all the different. Like, I’m like, ooh, that’s a tasty morsel. That’s a tasty morsel. And like, putting it.
[56:41] I guess my raccoons are marsupials. Cause it’s putting it in his pouch.
[56:46] Putting units in the pouch. And then. And so. But then, like, the more little morsels you have, then you have a bigger buffet to choose from when you are then on the floor with the pillow.
[56:58] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[56:59] Linnea Solveig: I don’t know how we got there.
[57:00] Cate Blouke: But I love it, though. I mean, I feel like that’s why I have gravitated towards particular teachers. I think for many people, it’s less about the specific, like, we are going to do these poses in this class at this pace than it is about how the person who is holding the space is holding the space and showing up.
[57:24] And like, some approaches are good fits for some people and not for others, you know? And I don’t know, this feels like a lovely. I want to briefly segue into creativity.
[57:36] And that just makes me think about, like, anytime we’re doing creative projects, it’s so easy to be, like, trapped in the. It’s supposed to be like this, or these people do it that way.
[57:48] And I can’t do it like that, so I’m not good enough.
[57:52] Nonsense.
[57:54] And I really have been trying to embrace personally, this idea of just, like, what if we all treated ourselves like what we’re doing is what we’re supposed to be doing?
[58:06] Linnea Solveig: I mean. Yeah. And it simply is just what we’re doing anyway.
[58:11] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[58:12] Linnea Solveig: Yeah.
[58:13] Cate Blouke: But just that, like, we’re all little scavengers that have scavenged different things and are going to put together different combinations. And we’re not supposed to try to do it like that person.
[58:23] No. Like, because we’re us.
[58:25] Linnea Solveig: Yeah, yeah. The supposed to thing is so. So it’s so prevalent and it’s pervasive everywhere. Everywhere. And it really gets in the way of. It gets in the way of people thinking freely and.
[58:41] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[58:42] Linnea Solveig: So we all know then like, that why that’s not exactly promoted or encouraged because that’s dangerous is to have people be thinking outside of the box.
[58:54] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[58:55] Linnea Solveig: But besides that, it’s scary because it requires a huge amount of trust in yourself to trust that how you put together all your little morsels to make your thing, whether your thing is a painting or a movement.
[59:11] Practice or your life. The amount of self trust it takes to like stand behind that then and not compare it to other people. We’re not like compare it to expectations or just like weird shoulds that got baked into our like, I don’t know, our genetics or whatever is going on is really hard for some people.
[59:39] I’m. Luckily I think I, I got, I got a little bit of a free pass karmically, I don’t know. I grew up with, I grew up, grew up in like a pretty, with a pretty untraditional household with a pretty groovy mom.
[59:51] Okay. And also I’m. Sometimes I’m just like, I don’t really understand karma, but I think I’m working with a lot of like past lives stuff that I’m grateful.
[59:59] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[01:00:00] Linnea Solveig: But the shoulds are pretty minimal compared to some people, which it does feel that I’m like, or maybe it’s astrology, who knows? But I do feel like I have a little bit of extra juice to then share with people and be like, hey guys, we can just do what we want.
[01:00:17] One of my bestest friends when I met her, I think I was 18 when we met. And she would look at me whenever we were gonna hang out and do things.
[01:00:26] She’s like, we’re adults, we can do whatever we want.
[01:00:29] And I know we don’t us feel that way, but I still try to like feel that way sometimes. I’m like, I’m an adult, I can do whatever I want.
[01:00:36] Cate Blouke: I love that.
[01:00:38] Linnea Solveig: And, but it is kind of true. And of course, like we don’t do some things. Those of us who have a sense of values and morals, respect for others.
[01:00:46] Cate Blouke: We can do whatever we want that is not harmful to others.
[01:00:49] Linnea Solveig: And we don’t want that. Usually, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it’s just so freeing. If I had walked into one of my yoga classes or creative practices, like painting classes, if I was younger, I would have been the person walking out because I would have been like, this is not enough structure.
[01:01:06] And who is this crackpot who’s not even coming over and showing me exactly where my foot should go? I just would have been so furious with myself.
[01:01:16] Cate Blouke: Now as a teacher, the supposed tos, right? Like, this is how teachers are supposed to show up. This is what yoga class is supposed to be. This is what an art class is supposed to be.
[01:01:24] Linnea Solveig: Right?
[01:01:24] Cate Blouke: They’re supposed to tell me, because if.
[01:01:27] Linnea Solveig: You don’t have a lot of self trust or maybe self worth, then it really is imperative that the guides around you are giving you gold Stars.
[01:01:37] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[01:01:38] Linnea Solveig: And I just. That is. I mean, I think most. Most people teach what they need. So I have always felt really passionate about not being.
[01:01:49] I’m not holding the gold star pack. Like, I don’t even. As somebody who grew up going to Montessori Preschool, like, I love a good. Like, I love a good completed task and a good job.
[01:02:00] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[01:02:01] Linnea Solveig: It’s very motivating. But it’s not, I don’t believe, the pathway to then just finding satisfaction within yourself. Then you’re always looking out for outside.
[01:02:11] Cate Blouke: Right. I mean, I am a big fan of gold stars, and I do talk about gold stars, but I think it’s like, the. I’m an adult. I can do what I want is like, oh, I’m the one that has to give myself gold stars now.
[01:02:22] Linnea Solveig: Yeah.
[01:02:23] Cate Blouke: Right. That when we can get to a place of, like, I am the arbiter of the gold stars.
[01:02:29] Linnea Solveig: I want that T shirt too.
[01:02:33] Cate Blouke: Yeah. Like, we are the arbiters of the gold stars, and we’re also the arbiters of our own joy.
[01:02:39] Linnea Solveig: Right.
[01:02:39] Cate Blouke: And, like, I have encountered that, like, being a joyful person in the world pisses people off.
[01:02:46] Linnea Solveig: Yeah.
[01:02:46] Cate Blouke: Too. Which I was really surprised about. The more I’ve been leaning into it and really coming up against resistance and coming up against it against people who are kind of miserable and then want to spread the misery.
[01:02:59] And I’m joyful, and I just want to spread the joy.
[01:03:02] Linnea Solveig: And I think. I mean, it’s very threatening to be faced with someone who is the arbiter of their own joy. Because it does then mean that that person, the person who’s feeling threatened and is not feeling good, that means that they’re the arbiter of their joy and they haven’t chosen it or finding access to.
[01:03:23] So that’s hugely threatening. Yeah.
[01:03:25] Cate Blouke: Like, they’ve got a big. Like, what’s coming for me is just like a very strict headmistress in their head. That’s like no slapping the ruler. Like, there will be no joy here.
[01:03:35] Linnea Solveig: Like, I think it really feels maybe either out of the realm of possibility or just, like, too much hard work to then just to take some of that joy.
[01:03:47] Because nobody’s gonna give it to you. You.
[01:03:50] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[01:03:51] Linnea Solveig: And that is. Well, that’s why practices are helpful. That’s just why rituals or community. That’s why having the, like, goofy lady at the front of the room just to be like, roll about, round and breathe is really helpful because you chose to go.
[01:04:08] Cate Blouke: Right.
[01:04:09] Linnea Solveig: Chose to go to the practice or the ritual or the thing and then you don’t have to like fix everything. You don’t have to be an arbiter of your own joy and gold stars by the end of an hour and 15 clothes class.
[01:04:21] But at least like you have there is some structure around choosing to do something. Generally that amount of like action or choice is empowering. It might not give you immediate joy or bliss, but empowerment is.
[01:04:40] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[01:04:41] Linnea Solveig: Having the capacity to choose to do something is like so, so expansive. There’s so much possibility there. Like choice is hope, I think.
[01:04:51] Cate Blouke: Yeah. Yeah. And I think about joy not so much as like the instant moments, but as a way of like moving through the world. And one of my favorite sayings that I picked up in 12 step recovery is this idea that like self esteem is built on esteemable actions.
[01:05:10] And so that like every class that I go to, regardless of like how it goes or whatever mood I’m in or how stretchy I am, is like a gold star in the gold star bank.
[01:05:22] Linnea Solveig: Yeah.
[01:05:23] Cate Blouke: And it can be, I think for many of us can be so easy to focus on the like, not enoughness or the like, oh, well, I couldn’t do this or didn’t do that or I haven’t been all week.
[01:05:33] And so I don’t get credit. But I think so much of like, I don’t know, my philosophy on life comes down to the like glass half full.
[01:05:44] What did I do? Well, like, how can I be nice to myself? Like, what is good even. Even when things are hard.
[01:05:51] Linnea Solveig: Yeah.
[01:05:52] Cate Blouke: And that all of that is a practice that, that we just get to keep showing up to.
[01:05:56] Linnea Solveig: Yeah. I mean people keep saying that like those practices of taking note of gratitude comes to mind. Like researchers are like, there’s a ton.
[01:06:06] Cate Blouke: Of research on like the actual benefit of if you.
[01:06:10] Linnea Solveig: Yeah. Take note of the things that are giving you, you joy or that you feel grateful for, not take note of the things that you feel guilty about or stressed.
[01:06:20] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[01:06:20] Linnea Solveig: Like just that taking note of does seem to be really helpful for, for people.
[01:06:26] Cate Blouke: Yeah. It is statistically proven to improve overall well being.
[01:06:33] Linnea Solveig: Yeah.
[01:06:33] Cate Blouke: And it’s effortful.
[01:06:35] Linnea Solveig: It’s really hard.
[01:06:36] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[01:06:37] Linnea Solveig: Yeah. And so having someone at least just. Or just having community around then being. If not grateful, just like taking. Not note of being. Taking note of being like baseline. That is really helpful because that’s just like what’s just one step away from taking note of being grateful.
[01:06:58] And at the very end, like, I mean sometimes people are like pissed and mad they came to yoga, but generally.
[01:07:04] Or like same with like sitting down and painting like, gosh, is it hard to sit down and make a painting? But then even if it’s kind of bad afterwards, it’s like, oh, I’m so glad it’s that, that non stop continual gold star.
[01:07:17] It’s like, oh, you put in your time, you get a little boost from that.
[01:07:22] Cate Blouke: Yeah. What do you mean? I mean, as we sort of like wind down, I’m curious, like, what do you mean by taking note of being? What would your invitation around that be?
[01:07:33] Linnea Solveig: It means starting to separate a little bit from past narrative future planning, I think, for me at least.
[01:07:45] And then I think what I mean when I say that is very much connected to the Earth. So take note of being is very physicalized experience. Whether it’s bone and muscle tissue that you’re feeling or like breath or the floor underneath you.
[01:08:05] But like, essentially I think I’m trying to like follow the string that takes us right to the earth. Whether it’s like, oh, well, we’re in, we’re in a building that is set up on that earth.
[01:08:16] But. But that’s more just kind of orientation to then feeling like that we’re part of the Earth. Because just like your grumpy shoulder isn’t like a separate entity from the rest of your body.
[01:08:27] Like, my belief is that we are not separate in any way from absolutely everything else. Like we’re just like one image in the fabric or the tapestry of this universe that we’re in.
[01:08:39] And I feel that on a really physical level and taking note of that, like actually taking a pause and not just conceptualizing it, but finding ways to feel that connection is.
[01:08:55] It’s everything. Yeah. Because then. Because that’s what we came from and that’s where we’re going back to and that’s what we’re part of. And this feeling of your one. My individual string.
[01:09:07] Your individual string inside the fabric, I think is really what I mean of taking. Taking note of being is really just feeling one’s place amongst everything. Because we’re always in community, even if we’re isolated.
[01:09:20] We are just one string in the tapestry. Whether we feel it or not is like the practices we choose and the ways we choose to focus on.
[01:09:30] Cate Blouke: Yeah, I’m having this like delightful image of like a two dimensional like tapestry, like little cartoon versions of a Sun Saver and it’s just, it’s just a treat. So thank you for that visual image and thank you for like such a lovely, sprawling conversation.
[01:09:46] We sprawled.
[01:09:47] Linnea Solveig: We did. Which A goal.
[01:09:48] Cate Blouke: I mean, appropriate, right?
[01:09:51] Linnea Solveig: Who needs a goal? We’ll go Lateral.
[01:09:53] Cate Blouke: Yeah.
[01:09:57] So one of my favorite things to ask. I mean, we’ve touched on this a little bit, but in this moment, in this moment of being part of the tapestry, what brings you joy?
[01:10:06] Linnea Solveig: Oh, gosh, I truly. I mean, I said it again and again. Moving, moving. And also being as close to the natural world as possible. Hugging a tree, like sniffing moss. Taking off my shoes outside, touching cat’s fur, having dogs, like, do their little, like, snoof thing with their little whiskers and wet noses.
[01:10:32] Just the physical sensations that come with connection to Earth. Earth.
[01:10:38] It gives me the most joy. And my mini trampoline.
[01:10:42] Cate Blouke: Oh, you have a mini trampoline also. Okay, I will. Now I’m gonna go sniff some moss because I have no idea what moss smells like, but I have hugged trees because I live in Portland.
[01:10:52] Yeah. And it’s a thing.
[01:10:54] Mini trampoline.
[01:10:56] Linnea Solveig: Yeah. My sweetheart gave me a mini trampoline for my birthday, and now I jump on it for 10 minutes every morning. Morning.
[01:11:03] Cate Blouke: Amazing.
[01:11:04] Linnea Solveig: Yep. It’s amazing. It’s so fun.
[01:11:07] Cate Blouke: Is there any, like, strategy to the jumping or is it just jumping?
[01:11:11] Linnea Solveig: Nope, just jumping, which is part of what gives me joy, because there’s no. Oh, my God.
[01:11:16] Cate Blouke: You literally jump for joy every morning.
[01:11:18] Linnea Solveig: I literally jump for joy every morning. I do.
[01:11:23] Cate Blouke: Oh, my God. You might need to acquire one of these. You do.
[01:11:26] Linnea Solveig: They’re so fun. It’s so fun. Just. I mean, everything’s moving, everything’s changing. So what gives me joy is, like, feeling that. And movement usually feels. That’s part of what weaves me into the tapestry.
[01:11:38] Because the tape racing is not stagnant.
[01:11:41] Cate Blouke: It’s.
[01:11:42] Linnea Solveig: Everything’s moving, everything’s changing, and that’s really alarming for most humans. Everything’s changing. Ah, anxiety.
[01:11:48] Cate Blouke: Right.
[01:11:49] Linnea Solveig: But actually, like, when I’m moving and I’m changing and I feel really connected to that, then I feel even more connected to being part of the tapestry.
[01:11:59] Cate Blouke: I love that. And just the tapestry. Ness of it. Right. Everything’s moving, every changing. But you’re not. You’re always a part of it. Yeah. Like, you’re not going to fall off.
[01:12:07] Linnea Solveig: No, you’re not going to fall out.
[01:12:08] Cate Blouke: You’re not going to, like, lose your string. Like, it just. You’re there and it’s.
[01:12:11] Linnea Solveig: No. Yeah. So, yeah. You really just can’t. I mean. I mean, that might be claustrophobic to some, but you can’t escape it. You’re stuck in the tapestry.
[01:12:21] Cate Blouke: You’re stuck in the tapestry of life, like it. Or not. Oh, I love it. Awesome. Linnea how can people find you?
[01:12:28] Linnea Solveig: Oh well, they can come take my yoga classes. If they’re in Portland, they can find me. Well go to linneasolveig.com and you can find my schedule there. You can find me can find me on Instagram if they want to see my art lovehelmet and if they want to see kind of a combo meal of the tapestry.
[01:12:48] Linnea Solviig Amazing.
[01:12:51] Cate Blouke: And I’ll put those links in the show notes. Thank you so much Linnea.
[01:12:53] Linnea Solveig: Thanks friend. Thanks for having me.
[01:12:59] Cate Blouke: Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please help me grow the podcast by subscribing, leaving a review and sharing it with anyone you think would benefit from hearing it too.
[01:13:10] Your support means the world to me. If you’d like to get updates about new episodes, posts and offerings, please visit settlingisbullshit.com to subscribe to my newsletter. You can also find information there about working with me one on one to build your most amazing, amazing life.
[01:13:25] Until next time, remember that I believe in you and that you are awesome.
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