Ep #78: Meditation and Yoga with Peloton Instructor Kristin McGee

You are listening to the Overthinkers Guide to Joy episode 78. This episode was
actually recorded prior to my Maui fire update from two weeks ago. But what has
happened since then is my guest today has been very instrumental without knowing this
in helping me stay centered and grounded throughout this crisis in my community.
and that is because she is my daily meditation teacher online. And so it was a
privilege to be able to interview her, talk about meditation, and now to be able to
thank her for continuing to be just a calming voice in my ear every morning as I
start my day. Whether it is a day in which there is a lot of stress or just a
regular day, I am so grateful to her for her incredible guidance as a meditation
teacher. So please enjoy the interview and let's dive in. This is a podcast for
overthinkers, overdoers, and overachievers who are tired of feeling over anxious and
just want to feel better. I'm your host certified life coach Jackie de Crinis.
So, hi friends and welcome back. Today, I'm a little bit nervous because I have a
very special guest on the podcast this week. This is someone who is actually part
of my morning routine almost every single day and who I have a profound appreciation
for. I feel like I know her, but we have never met before this interview. I am
basically just a huge fan girl who made a request and she said yes. Her name is
Kristin McGee, and she is a Peloton instructor, and she happens to be one of my
most favorite meditation teachers. And just to give you a little background on
Kristin, she grew up in a small town in Idaho and had big dreams of pursuing dance
and acting in New York, but ended up as one of the most sought after and
recognized yoga instructors in the city. Throughout her career, Kristin has been a
pioneer in making yoga more accessible. She has starred in yoga DVDs,
has privately trained celebrities, and has written books about the value of yoga in
everyday life. And as a busy mom of three boys, Kristin strongly believes that just
a few minutes of yoga a day can bring more balance and harmony to your life.
Kristin's classes will challenge you, ground you while bringing a strong connection to
your mind, body, and breath. Now, I came to discover her when I got my Peloton
bike about three years ago during the pandemic. And I was actually suffering from
multitude of injuries due to tennis, which I adore my favorite sport. And I couldn't
play. So I got a Peloton bike. And shortly after I started my cycling classes,
I discovered all of these amazing classes on the app. But my most favorite were
actually the guided meditations. And although I love all the meditation teachers in
the Peloton family, Kristen happens to be my go -to favorite. And if you've listened
to this podcast or worked with me, you know that meditation and exercise are two of
my four foundational elements of my daily recommendations. So right before this
interview, I happened to just for fun, check my Peloton app to see how many guided
meditations I've done in the last three years, just on the Peloton app. It was
1400. So because Kristen and I are both lovers of yoga,
meditation, and mindfulness, I invited her to come on the podcast today so that I
can introduce you to her unless you know her already. And with that, I welcome my
guest, Kristen McGee. Oh, Thank you so much. What an incredible introduction.
I was like, wow, that's really me. That's really you. Well, we have another thing
in common now as well, tennis, because I grew up playing tennis and played in high
school and went to state. And it's always been one of my favorite competitive sports
out of like, that's really the only sports board I played growing up. I ski as
well, but that was my one competitive sport and I love it. I love it too. I
started very late in life. So I started like in my late 30s, partly to learn how
to kind of balance my very busy career. And it came at the suggestion of one of
my former assistants who said you should have a hobby and I didn't have a hobby
and I never had a hobby. And she made me a list of hobbies. And at the top of
the list was tennis. And that's how I started playing tennis. Oh, I love that. And
thinking about yoga and meditation, I find both extremely beneficial now that I'm I
wish I discovered it back when I was a high school competitive tennis player, but
now when I'm on the courts, if I can tap into my breath and stay present because
tennis is such a mental game. Even if you're 100 % on, you could end up beating
yourself up so easily. So if you can use the kind of meditative qualities that we
find in our practice and make it a moving meditation and really find that zen on
the court. It makes it so much more fun and also you become just a better player.
Well, what's interesting is you talked about breath, which is so fundamental to yoga
and to meditation. But breath, as you said, on the tennis court is crucial and most
of the time amateur players like myself, hold our breath because we're concentrating
so hard and you have no power in your shots and you have much better follow
through if you actually exhale. Yes, true. So I wish I had learned tennis earlier
and I wish I'd learned yoga and meditation earlier and married all of them because
I would be even a much more consistent and better tennis player, but I do love it.
I love it. So you still play? I still do as much as I possibly can. It's harder
in the city and finding like the time and a tennis buddy, but I wish actually I
should start playing a little more. Well, if you ever come to Maui, I'd love to
play with you because it's really easy to play here because we have, yeah, because
we have no weather and we have no indoor courts and there's always available
everything. So, oh, how fun. Just to segue for a quick second and then we're going
to get back to yoga and meditation. Have you picked up pickleball yet? I have not
and I need to. It seems that everyone is playing pickleball these days and they
love it. It's really fun and the barrier to entry is really low. So it's like a
15 minute learning curve. Whereas, you know, as a tennis like you really it takes a
minimum of like a year to even have any consistency. Pickleball is about 15 minutes.
OK, Good to know. I'll take my voice out. We'll all play some pickleball. They will
love it because it's so fast to learn. Absolutely. So let me just start off with
all my dummy questions, but I have so many. So I know that from your bio, you
were a trained dancer, but how did you end up segueing to becoming a celebrity yoga
instructor and a yoga instructor to celebrities? Fun story. I wanted to pursue my
acting career. I started in Southern California, transferred to NYU. I was a theater
dance major at NYU, and I chose the Stella Adler track. And in our classes,
they were leading us with morning yoga warmup. And I fell in love with it.
Actually, I lived two blocks away from Jeeva Mukti Yoga Studio, which is right on
Second Avenue. So I would come home from all day classes at NYU and go straight to
do mukti and take yoga class every night on top of that. And it just became such
a passion. And I loved the community. I loved the energy and the spirit. When I
graduated NYU, I certified to teach yoga so that I could support my acting career
and my auditioning. And I found that I just kept getting more and more jobs
teaching yoga. And I thought, okay, this must be my path. So I'm going to follow
my path. And then I was cast in an MTV yoga video. And after that,
I went to an expo in Los Angeles, met a LA yoga teacher who's incredible.
And he said, Oh, I have clients who are often by coastal, would you ever be
willing to work with some of them? I said, Sure. And a month later, I got a phone
call from Steve Martin, and I wasn't and Steve to actually pick up the phone and
call me himself. But he said, oh, I got your number and I hear you teach yoga and
I would love to get started. And that just kind of had a snowball effect. Once I
started working with him and we hit it off and he started referring me to more and
more of his colleagues and friends and producers and talent. It was just, it's so
cool. I often pinch myself and he's still my client to this day. That's amazing
working together. I'd say maybe Almost 20 years Wow,
so you do it on zoom because he's in LA or is he in New York? He's in LA in
the summers and New York in the fall through the school year and so I get to see
in the school year That's amazing. I love that. So when did the meditation piece
come in? Meditation was always a component. It was actually a big component of my
teacher training with Cindy Lee because at the time she was married to David
Nicktern, who's a Buddhist meditation teacher. So as I was doing my teacher training
with Cindy, we also had a meditation component built in, but I wasn't a serious
meditator until maybe at least 10 years later. I would even lead some meditation
classes and always feel like I wasn't quite sure if I should be there or what I
was doing. And I found that for me in my 20s,
I wanted to move. I wanted a moving meditation. I had to process things through the
active vinyasa style yoga. And as I matured and as I continued to practice,
I started to really feel like I needed to sit and be with my thoughts and dive
deeper into meditation. And then I started doing more meditation courses and
trainings, and one that really, really resonated with me was one by light Watkins,
and it would say it's more of a Vedic style meditation where you do to 20 minutes
a day. And that's been the most consistent practice for me and what feels really
good having that second meditation midday is like that second cup of coffee in a
sense. But so much better because it's not like a sudden jolt of energy and then a
crash. It's more of this like steady little pick -me -up that then gets me through
the second part of my day and I just feel so good. That's so great. So, I only
came to meditation about seven years ago and I was trained in transcendental which
is the 20 minutes silence twice a day and I did that for the first couple of
years and love it and still do a little bit. But then I kind of fell in love
with guided meditations. And I ended up recording when I started my life coach
practice. I started because so many people I would work with was like, I can't
meditate. And I was like, okay, I'm going to create guided meditations for people
who can't meditate. That was like sort of my MO, right? And most of it is just
talking them off the ledge of just being okay with sitting with their eyes gently
close. That's half the meditation. They're very short. They're five and 10 minutes.
And so when I came to find the Peloton guided meditations, I was like, oh, this is
next level. And I just love them. And I loved that they were themed. I loved that
there was like courage and patience and healing and breath work and seasonal. I just
listened into your summer seasonal one again today for the fourth time in a week.
And I just love them. And so what I started doing for my clients who,
now, if they were long time meditators, I never changed somebody's practice. I'm
like, please do whatever works for you. Same with exercise. You know,
I have gym rats and I have runners and I have people who are like, I don't
exercise. I won't exercise. I'm like, then will you just dance? Will you turn on
music and dance. Great. But with meditation, I never change somebody's meditation. But
if they say, "I can't meditate," I'm always like, "Start with Peloton guided
meditations." Oh, I so appreciate that you do that. Oh, it's like a must. And I'm
like, "You don't have to have a Peloton bike. Like get one if you want one,
because then you kill two birds with one stone." But if you can't, it's the app is
not expensive. It's on your phone. You put your headphones in, you do it for five
minutes first thing in the morning, work up to 10, work up to more. But I
recommend it to everybody 'cause I think it truly is, it drops the barrier to entry
from being hard. - That's a wonderful way to say it. It makes meditation extremely
acceptable. And I do love that for me when I'm leading a guided meditation,
oftentimes I create moments and pockets of space, of quietness, but it's not so much
that someone who's newer to meditation feels lost or like nervous or what's going on
now just gives them a little kind of segue into like okay now you can start to
sit even longer with those moments of stillness and even longer and I also love
introducing the mantra because I feel like mantra meditation is so empowering.
I find that a lot of my students end up using the mantras throughout their day and
I'd love to see people taking their meditations off the mat. That's, I think,
ultimately the goal of the yoga and the meditation practice is to be able to use
it in your daily life and be responsive and listen to your heart voice,
less reactive, less guarded. It just gives us such an amazing toolbox for being a
better person, right? It's like being a student of life. 100%. In fact, I was going
to ask you in a few minutes, but I'm going to jump ahead because we're on the
subject and I want to not forget. I was going to ask you, number one, do you use
your mantras outside of your meditation practice? And the answer is yes. And not to
put you on the spot. It doesn't matter if you can't think of one, but do you have
like a go to, I love your mantras, by the way, I love them, but do you have one
or two that off the top of your head that you're like, Oh, this is my favorite.
Like if I'm ever having stressful day, this is my go -to mantra. Is there one or
two? You know, it's a very interesting one that I often love. And I'll do this
with my boys, too, is the ebb and flow come and go. Because it reminds us just
like everything in life, there is an ebb and a flow. And you just have to allow
things to come and go. I think so often, we get stuck when we feel the need to
clasp or grasp or control things too tightly. And sometimes we just need to really
just take that deep breath, remind ourselves that we're all a part of this universe
and the natural cycles, and then allow that ebb and flow to come and go.
And it reminds my boys too to just kind of like take a break. I loved what you
said about talking to people off the ledge. It's almost like, okay, just sit back a
little bit, feel yourself. It's almost like you could imagine yourself being rocked
by a gentle wave. So I really love that one. A recent one of mine that I really
like is the, I am powerful, I am fearless, I am unstoppable.
That's a great mantra for - - I love that. - I just think harnessing your inner
confidence and courage and reminding yourself to keep going, that there's always going
to be those falls and failures and setbacks. That's how we learn. But as long as
you remind yourself that you are unstoppable, you're fearless, and it's like a very
empowering one. So I like that feeling of, I use that with my voice as well, to
give them that extra dose of just confidence. So that segues to my next question.
This is so good. It's like answering all my questions without even asking. Do your
boys like yoga and or meditation? That was my next question. They do. They love it.
And it makes me so happy. And it's not in a traditional sense where they used to
be actually a little bit more structured because they would come and do yoga poses
with me and they would let me teach them. Now it's a little bit more unstructured
where I'll just notice them doing little things throughout the day, like even maybe
holding a tree pose on their own. And it's like, oh, that's great. You needed some
focus or concentration or doing some stretches, the down dog stretches, those big
stretches in the morning. I won twin, Robert still loves to come over on the mat
with me when I'm doing yoga, but he kind of plays around me and then makes his
own shapes. The meditations, my older son who just turned 10, he and I do a
meditation every night before bed. That's pretty much-- - I love that. - He'll go to
sleep. - I love that. That's another great segue. So one of the things I love about
your guided meditations and every meditation teacher is different and I appreciate
that too. I love the variety, but one of the things I love about your style is
you often tell stories. - Yes. - And your telling, not just your voice quality,
which is fantastic, but the intimacy of your storytelling. There's one you do a few
weeks ago, where you talk about having your son focus on blue cars and counting the
blue cars on the way to school. And then you tell him how many white cars there
were, and he didn't know there were any, because it's all about changing your focus.
And it was just so powerful and so intimate. And I wondered, Do you script your
guided meditations, or do you kind of have a general feeling, sit down and just
feel it, and it comes out? - Well, that's a good question. I think for that one, I
actually did put a little note in to mention that story, because I felt like it
worked so well with the theme of my meditation for the day. And then oftentimes,
if I'm in a meditation and I'm reminded of something. Like the other day I was
reminded of a story and I wasn't even going to tell it, but I was reminded of a
story that I had seen that someone had shared with me about a father and his son.
And the son kept trying to run up a ramp and get to the top and he kept falling
back down and couldn't make it up and couldn't make it up. And finally, the father
brought him over and gave him some like words of affirmation, almost like giving
someone a mantra. And the boy started repeating it. And the next thing you know, He
made it all the way to the top of the ramp, and it just goes to show how
powerful the words are that we speak to ourselves are. So that just came to me
while I was in the meditation, but it's, I think it's a little bit of a balance
of both. A lot of times when I'm creating my class plan, I'll think of a story
and I'll write it down and incorporate it and, for sure, introduce it. That reminded
me of when I was growing up, and I'm sure it's still true of children's books
today, but how there is a subliminal message of well -written children's books, which
like if you think about the train, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I
can," that really is mindful mantras, right? Because eventually the train climbs the
mountain. And so we actually, as children, get all of this positive reinforcement in
good children's books. And then I think as adults, we forget that those mantras are
really powerful. And we kind of let it go as adulthood gets noisy.
If you kind of go back to basics, Robert Fulgham, who wrote Everything I Need to
Learn, I Learned in Kindergarten or some of the title, I mean, that's kind of what
that was about, which was if you want to learn mindfulness or you want to learn
how to take care of your body better, go back to kindergarten. You know, take a
nap in the afternoon, right? That's kinds of things. Be kind to others,
color, you know, like just basic stuff. So I love that you bring that quality of
storytelling to your meditation. I appreciate that. And I agree.
There's, you have this meditation coloring book, even it's for adults. there's
beautiful mandalas in page after page. And then hidden within each mandala is a like
one word, like whether it's peace or love. And it's such a great way for adults to
what you were saying, like go back to even just taking some time to color. And it
might seem like you're wasting time, but you are not at all. And I find it's
interesting that as adults, we almost get embarrassed by some of I am affirmations,
it's hard for us sometimes to speak. I am kind,
I am brave, you know, I think it's really good for adults to get back to that
feeling of like really owning your person, your authenticity, your strength and your
power. And so it's nice for people to come back to having that wherewithal.
And the word I'm thinking of is like, I can't even think of it, but like just
that feeling of taking like command of who you are,
because we are all such unique, incredible, amazing people. And the noise is what
sometimes drowns that out. - Yeah. Is the word you're thinking of empowerment?
Was that what you were doing? - Definitely empowering, something like that, exactly.
- Yeah. Well, so much of life coaching is about reframing your thoughts, right?
'Cause the thoughts get very noisy, can be very negative. And particularly when we
have an inner critic that's left over from our childhood, or maybe a toxic boss,
or maybe a narcissistic partner, I mean, it can come, it doesn't matter at what
angle it comes from. There's somebody else's voice that is seeping into our psyche
that's telling us you can't, or you're stupid, or you're old, or you're this, or
you're that. And changing that narrative, not with falsehoods,
not with like, you know, as you're eating whatever boxes of donuts and going, "I'm
thin," right? Like, we don't do them, or drinking yourself with alcohol into
oblivion, and then being like, "I'm healthy." Like,
coordinated with the thoughts. But just even I listen to a lot of different
psychologists, psychiatrists, life coaches, and I read a lot. And they talk about
even when you're trying to heal, rather than saying, I'm sick or this is broken,
just turning it around and saying, I'm healing or I'm healed. - I'm already in that
state of positive energy and vibrations, And that's why I was thinking of the I am
being such an important way of speaking to ourselves is because what you were saying
about those other voices that come in. It's typically a you are this you are that
you know like you're saying the negative voices so just being able to even say I
am. It gives you so much like affirmation and it gives you so much strength and it
reminds you that like I'm the one who's the caption of my own shit. And it's my
job, actually, to take that power and onus and find ways to really speak kindly to
myself. Well, so again, when you have a great meditation teacher,
yoga teacher, cycling coach, whatever your place of happy is,
you get mission to say that because they start with that. They say I and then you
just repeat it. So you don't feel like you're practicing narcissism or kind of
selfishness because then it's community. So when I hear you say I am powerful or I
am beautiful or I am healthy or I am strong or I am courageous, then when I'm
repeating it in my meditation, I feel community with you and I feel safe in that.
And so it's one of the other reasons I so love guided meditation for that reason.
So tell me, are there authors that you follow either in the meditation or yoga
world or even in the self -help world that you just love that you kind of go to
and reread or re -listen to or are there people who were really fundamental in your
training? I love Pema Shodran and I love Ebbotson and Susan Verde,
I really love because she has all those empowering children's books, speaking of
coming back to, you know, children's books being so beneficial as well. She also
wrote a book recently that's more for adults, but it's a lot of the I am enough,
I am love, I am peace. So I read those with my boys and I find so much
inspiration and insight. I love Light Watkins. I'm actually reading his book right
now on spiritual minimalism. And it's less about, you know, he actually took
everything he owned and got rid of it and lives out of a backpack and travels the
world. He said it's actually less about the physical stuff you're carrying and more
about the mental stuff you're you're carrying. So it's, again, that being able to,
you know, get rid of the stuff that we don't need. And as you start to clear that
out in your mind, you might find that you're clearing stuff out of your junk drawer
and getting rid of things that you've kept in your home for years or not. But so
I really love his work as well. And he has a really neat newsletter every day that
has a daily insight. That's a really simple, easy, just like you can read it and
it starts your day off well. There's another meditation teacher, a longtime colleague
and friend of mine named David Rominelli. He and talk about storytelling. He is
incredible at storytelling and he's got these beautiful, his meditations are longer,
they're 25, 30 minutes. Yeah, but he'll have some really beautiful insights and his
are actually a little more tied into the world and what's going on right now.
So he might even take like a news article or something that just happened in the
news and talk about it and then relate it to what's happening in our own lives and
in our, and then, so it makes you think it's very, they're very thought -provoking
meditations. Oh, I love that. I love that. I think when you're in this world,
whether you're coaching, teaching, writing, podcasting, you're always on a quest for
learning more. I find myself really more of a student now than I was even when I
was in college. I'm just so curious about all the different philosophies and what
works and what doesn't. And when I say what works, I don't mean what's right and
what's wrong. I mean, what works for the individual and so much of it is
experimental. Like we were talking about for some people, trans and dental meditation
is just perfect. And for other people, it's just too difficult for 20 minutes in
silence twice a day. And that's why I said, well, there's other ways to meditate.
It can be five minutes, it can be guided, it can be with music, it can be without
music. And I love trying to kind of figure that out, particularly from my clients,
about what works for them. And it's a lot of trial and error, like everything. I
completely agree. And I love that you said it's not right or wrong. It's all
experimentation. And also what might have worked for you at one stage in your life
and what works better for you now at a different stage in life. To also remember
that we're in flux. And I used to love power yoga classes and crazy arm balances.
And now I'm, I just love yin. I love to sit on health stretches and that's fine.
And it changes and I still like power, but I think it's great to be open and to
be curious and to be that lifelong student. That's what keeps me so excited about
life and so fascinated to learn and to grow and to read other people's insights and
to experiment with different kinds of meditations and different kinds of movement.
Even now in my life, what you're saying with getting people to dance, I'm drawn
back to my dancing again. It's been so long since I've done formal dance and I'm
dying to take more dance classes. And it's just fun to be more open to the I'm
taking piano lessons again, which I've heard is really wonderful for your brain as
you speak to the comfort of musicality or learning a musical instrument. - Yeah,
there's a lot of neurological research on how to kind of reset the brain.
I mean, look, there's no guarantees for anything and genetic code plays a big role
in all those things like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's dementia, etc. But they do find
that things like crossword puzzles, Sudoku puzzles, rich art of all kind,
dance, yoga, chair yoga, and puzzles, jigsaw puzzles are a big one in terms of
helping flow the brain from its natural atrophy, you know, because it doesn't get as
much oxygen and things like that. And they say all of that is really good. But the
key to most of that is it has to bring you joy. If you don't like jigsaw puzzles,
if they frustrate you or they create anxiety, then that's not the modality for you
to help rewire your reign or if you don't like Sudoku, because numbers freak you
out even though there's no math in Sudoku. But yeah, finding what works for you.
And that's what I always say to people. Like I have two left feet. I can't really
dance. It's amazing that I can play tennis, but I'm not a good dancer. So dancing
would probably stress me out if it weren't just like at a wedding. Dancing and like
following routine, I would not do well at. But you can put me on a tennis court
for three or four hours and I'm okay. - That's awkward. You're still playing too.
'Cause you mentioned some injuries, but now you're-- - Yeah, well, I just struggle
with them and everyone in my family is always like, "I think maybe you should give
up tennis." And I'm like, "No, I just have to file through the injuries." But the
biggest thing that's actually been helpful for me in the injuries is meditation. So
I do go to physical therapy and I do all those things to rebuild and strengthen.
But getting my mind around that thought back to what we were saying of, "I am
strong. I am healed." instead of "I'm injured." - Yes, 100%,
there's another mantra I love is the safe, healed and whole. - I don't know that
one. - As opposed to being fragmented, we're coming back to that sense of feeling
whole and connected and united. And then it works with the healed because you're
already, you're saying you are healed. And then the safety, right? I think we all
want to feel safe in our bodies, comfortable, safe with others, loved,
accepted. And going back to what you said about like this selfishness you mentioned
at one point, I feel like it's kind of quite the opposite with meditation. I feel
like we're coming back to our self. And with that, we become a better person
because we understand who we are so we're able to communicate better and then we're
able to express ourselves in a way that's very kind and loving and then we actually
become less selfish because we realize just how connected we are and we actually
want to be more what you said about group meditation even or being together it's
almost like we want to be even more connected once we're really connected to
ourselves. Yes, 100%. I'm taking a course right now with Martha Beck, who is
obviously a New York Times best seller, and I think was Oprah Winfrey's life coach,
and then also was a journalist for the Oprah Magazine for many years, and Harvard
educated and all the things. She's so bright, but one of the things she talked
about, because the class is on the art of calm, and because that's my wheelhouse
for coaching, I'm always curious, always learning, wanting to learn new techniques,
things I can share with my clients. But one of the things she talked about was
that for people who feel anxious about big things, you know,
like world peace and global warming and clean water and just ginormous things.
Or maybe you're concerned about your adult children who don't live at home, right?
You know, whatever it is, she says, it always has to start with you. You have to
heal yourself first. And that's kind of the fundamentals of my coaching practice,
which is, yes, we will get to the thing that you want to either achieve, solve,
problem solve, donate your time or money to whatever it is. But you can't be a
good mom or a good wife or a good friend or a good daughter or sister or employee
or whatever until you are whole. - True. - And so it's so hard,
particularly because I see women quite often in their 40s and 50s who have devoted
their entire lives to either raising a family and /or having a career.
And if they have both, like we do, then they're really just like fried at the
edges. There's nothing left because all day is about work, work, work, work, work
and all night and weekends are about yeah, laundry, cooking,
driving, birthday parties, planning them or going to them, whatever, whatever. And
then the women are so burnt out, they don't even know what they want, you know,
like they get to the point where they're like, I go out for dinner with a
girlfriend and I like just stare at the menu because I like, I can't even make a
decision, because I'm so used to making a million decisions for other people. And so
one of the things that is sort of the foundational part of my work is what I call
homework, H -O -M -E. And it's just an acronym for hydration, observing your levels,
which just means eating regularly and sleeping well, and then meditating and exercise.
So the meditating and exercise is why I wanted to have you on the show today
because we share that and since that's two of the four fundamentals of my daily
habits, I love that that's, you know, your entire brand is the exercise,
the meditation, the lifestyle and you do all those things. You have a big career
and you have three small boys at home and yet you carve out time for yourself to
make sure that you are taking care of your mind and body.
- Even today when I had the play date over, so we had four boys in the house and
they wanted me to take out the couch bed so they could jump on the couch bed. But
there's a teacher of mine who's one of my favorite yoga teacher. She and I were
colleagues way back in the day. And what is so cool about Lisa is she's also a
massage therapist. So she was first a massage therapist, then became a yoga teacher,
and now she's a therapist. She's a therapist. She went back to like the analytic
thought because on the massage table, so many people were opening up to her and she
also saw through yoga, the whole mind, body connection. So her classes are just
filled with insight and wisdom and I love them. So at noon, I'm like, you know
what? I'm gonna jump on this class and take a yoga class and there was so much
craziness going on around me but I was able to just take my class in my bedroom
room, like that the boys have fun. They had already been fed and they had lunch
and I was like, "I'm going to go take a yoga class." And maybe in the past, I
might have felt guilty about that or I have to stay out here and micromanage
everything. And in reality, they had more fun. I got my yoga class in. I felt
great afterwards. I wasn't upset about any sort of like major mess that I'd have to
clean up at this point because I had already taken care of myself. Yeah. Yeah. I
was talking about that yesterday about how often people will say, "Well, I don't
have time to do that," or "I don't have space to do that," and I get that a lot.
The biggest hurdle in my home model that people say, because they have no problem
just starting to drink water and being more mindful of what they eat and paying
attention to how much they're sleeping, and there's no prescription on how much to
sleep. It's just going to bed at a decent hour, getting up at a decent hour, just
being mindful of it. And they'll even exercise a little. But the one that's always
the hardest is meditation. They're like, "I can't do that." And I'm like, "You can't
do that. You can't do five minutes." And they said, "No, I can't. You don't know
my house. I have dogs. I have cats. I have children. My husband's always bothering
me. I work from home." And I said to them, "Part of Meditation is learning to be
okay with the noise around you when you're meditating. And what you did by taking
your new yoga with four boys in your house was you knew that like they weren't
going to run out in the street, so they were safe, but you have to make sure of
those things. And of course, for people with infants and toddlers, you do kind of
have to keep an eye on them. But if your toddler is or your infant is napping or
they're in a safe playpen, you do have five minutes. You always have five minutes.
And you can close your eyes. And if it's noisy or your neighbor's house is going
off, part of the meditation is like choosing to accept that that's noise and chaos.
And people say to me, "Oh, but don't you have to have it perfectly silent? Don't
you have to have like the right meditation cushion?" I'm like, Nope. It doesn't have
to be perfect. You don't have to look perfect, feel perfect. The sound doesn't have
to be perfect. You just have to do it. You don't have to hold your hands in a
certain way. You can have some back support. You don't have to sit any certain
special way. The second meditation was the hardest one for me to commit to. It was
the same thing, you know, but I'll be at elite gymnastics and the boys are taking
gymnastics and I was like, so I can sit and meditate at elite gymnastics, why not?
So I just sit in the corner and do my 20 minutes of meditation, and then sure
enough, I get to see them do some of their tumbling, but they had different spaces
anyways. I didn't get to see everything that they were doing anyways, but on a
subway, in a park, on a park bench, after, you know, a class, if I'm on my way
home, in a car, there's so many opportunities and spaces and times that you actually
can meditate. I think people are afraid to initially just take that time to sit
with themselves 100 % people will say to me Well, I can't meditate tomorrow because
I'm flying back east and I'll be like so you'll be on an airplane by yourself for
five hours Yeah, you can actually put in your headphones Perfect time and close your
eyes for five minutes and they're like I can I'm like Yeah Yeah,
and it's just - It's really kind of an old story we tell ourselves. And I think
part of it is that when you close your eyes, you're vulnerable. - True. - And so I
always say, we'll make sure you feel safe. So I tend to not meditate in places
that are public and outside, 'cause I don't want my eyes closed when I'm in a
random park. But when I lived in Los Angeles, I used to, before I'd go to work, I
would lock the doors of my car in the parking garage and I would meditate in my
car for five minutes. Yeah, why not? Because I felt I felt safe, but other people,
you know, it's fine. They if it's their neighborhood park, they feel safe there and
it's daytime. It's all good, but it really doesn't matter. And I have this little
barky dog. I have this one of those little like called a coton and it's about 11
pounds. And he does not like to be away from me. So if I'm behind a closed door,
he would bark to say, can I come in the whole time. So I had to teach him to
meditate. And he barks because we live in nature and he hears birds and he barks
all the time. And after seven years, now he just sits quietly and sits next to me
while I meditate. And it's his favorite time of the day. That is the sweetest. My
cat does the same thing. I do my first meditation usually around 5 30. I wake up
before the boys wake up and Lucky always comes in and sits with me and does that
20 -minute meditation in the morning with me. And then the boys have come to,
there's William, you can come in, that's okay. Hello.
The boys have come to, it's funny, during the school year, I always try and get my
second one in before I pick them up so that I can be with them. And if I don't,
then that's when I oftentimes will like do it while they're at rock climbing in
class or, you know, maybe do it when I get home in those 20 minutes when one is
unwinding before we make dinner. But I'll try and do the second one before I pick
them up from school. But in the summer, we're usually all together. So now they've
come to just pretty much acknowledge and /or appreciate it. It's so funny, I'll tell
them, I'm gonna do a 20 minute meditation now. Does anyone need anything? And then
sometimes I'll be in it and they'll run back into my bedroom where they'll be
playing a game and they'll be like, oh, shh, mom's meditating, mom's meditating.
- But it's such a-- - It's so much fun to sit with me, it's so cute. It's such a
good foundation. First of all, the greatest part of that story is that they grew up
with a mother who respected her mind and body so much that she took time out to
take care of herself. True. And that messaging in and of itself will pay dividends
for the rest of their life because they'll say it's okay for me to take time out
to take care of myself or if they end up with a partner, they'll say,
"My partner needs time to take care," or, "My child needs time and space to take
care." And so that's just such good modeling. - Oh, true. Yeah.
- And it's good for you because you're coming back to parenting refreshed and given
space. And so that's what I try to explain to everybody. Like, you think you're
stealing time from your partner, your family, your boss, your colleagues, your
neighbors, your whatever, whoever you're responsible for. But when you take time for
yourself, you're coming back 10 fold with more energy, more clarity.
And by the way, energy, like with your cat, your cat wants to sit next to you
when you're meditating, because energetically, your cat's plugging into that really
positive, gentle energy. - Yes. And now I love that I can hear my sons verbalize.
Timothy is really good at it, but he'll even say to his brother sometimes, he'll
say, okay, I need a little quiet time now for myself, or I need a little bit of
space for myself. And I love that he can just verbalize it, and he's having fun
and they're having fun, but he just lets them know, okay, I need a little quiet
time now. - It is so Fantastic. It is just so great. And like I said,
you're modeling for them how to take care of themselves. You're modeling for them
also how to manage their own mind and body. And it's just great.
And I think kind of the earlier we start, it's like what we were talking about off
camera, where I wish I had started playing tennis earlier. And we talked about
meditation and tennis and how they go together. I think the earlier you start
anything, the more it becomes ingrained and less of this having to learn to practice
or exercise a new muscle when you're older and you don't think you can. >> Very
true. >> Yeah. This has been just so delightful for me,
and I can't tell you how exciting it is to just have a conversation with you
because you are in my ears every morning. I start my day with you and your voice
and your words of wisdom and your tranquility. And then I follow you on Instagram
and all the things. But I just loved getting to talk to you and sharing you with
my client base and my listeners. And so I'd love to have people know how they can
follow you, learn from you, find the Peloton app, all the things. So will you start
with just your Instagram account? Yes. So Instagram, it's my name, Kristen McGee, and
it's spelled with an I -N. So K -R -I -S -T -I -N -M -C -G -E -E.
And then from there, you can go to Peloton. I have it even listed in my bio. And
there's the free app version. So you can at least get started with it for free.
And then we have really awesome tiers that make it accessible for people to enter
at any price point they want to. Like you mentioned earlier, you don't have to have
the bike or the treadmill or the equipment. And so you can find me on Peloton. And
that's mainly where I'm at the most social. I do have a website. I don't really
update it much, but it's just the same christenmagi .com. I think my chair yoga book
is on my website. So I did write a book called chair yoga, "Sit, Stretch, and
Strengthen Your Way to a Happier, Healthier You." And that was published by Harper
Collins in 2017, and I started working at Peloton in 2018. So it's been such an
incredible experience for me because actually the most beautiful thing about Peloton
is mentioning the work -life balance is it really does allow me to have such a
great work -life balance and spend time with my boys and manage my schedule when I'm
off camera, whether it's class planning or doing my social media or doing interviews,
but then when I'm on camera, I can be fully on and fully present because they're
just such a great company to work for. And I find that having a community where we
can all meditate together and practice yoga together and Pilates. I also have the
family meditations and family classes, which are really fun and just bring me so
much joy. And it's like a way I could get to meet you. You get to meet people
from all around the world. - It is an incredible community And I just love the
variety of it. Like I said, I got the bike and the app thinking it was just going
to be a way to exercise during a pandemic where we couldn't go out. And it ended
up being so much more than that. Fourteen hundred meditations later. Love that.
I know. And tell me just really quickly. And then I'll let you go because I
promised I would have you off. How did you come to Peloton in 2017? That was
actually the first question I was going to ask you and it got buried. - This is a
really fun story. So in 2015, I was working on a campaign, a big like photo
campaign, photo shoot campaign. And I was on set with Robin. Robin and I were both
ambassadors for this company. So we did a photo shoot together. And then I reached
out to her later because I was so blown away at what she was doing now at Peloton
and the company. And I loved the workouts. And I said, are they offering yoga? And
she reached back out like a month later and said, why don't you come in and
audition? And I did. And that was it. Oh, wow. So you started their yoga program.
There was Colleen Seidman, who's Rodney's partner. I love Rodney and Colleen. I
actually did a training with them in 2009. She had some classes, but they were like
in a different section in the library. They weren't really like the live ongoing
yoga classes. So that's why I was curious to find out more. And so I kind of
reached out with some curiosity, like, what's going on? Are they doing yoga? Are
they not? Will they do yoga? And so, yeah, it was the first pretty much, you know,
yoga person to join. And we watched in December of 2018.
Wow. And then I joined in 2020. So I was just a few years But yeah,
it's just love it love what you do love what your colleagues do love the app love
it all It's just all great. So I thank you and I thank you for taking this time
with me today Thank you for having me and I'm just so glad that we're connected
now Amazing definitely will be in touch. Okay. Thank you so much Awesome day you
too Thank you for listening to this episode of The Overthinker's Guide to Joy.
If you're enjoying these episodes, please subscribe or follow this podcast so you can
always be in the know when the next episode drops. If you would like to learn more
about working with me as a coach, you can connect with me through my website at
jackiedecrinis.com. That's J -A -C -K -I -E -D -E -C -R -I -N -I -S .com.