Become One Living

Welcome to the BecomeOne Living Podcast!

• Jody & Dan • Episode 1

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Once a fitness enthusiast, Jody’s journey through life was dramatically altered when she faced a life-threatening brain tumor. She discovered the power of yoga and learned to face her emotions rather than escape them. Her insights into the transformative impact of yoga on her recovery and overall wellness are illuminating. As we traverse through her story, we also delve into the practices of body, breath, and meditation, and their role in managing chronic pain and trauma. 

With references to Dick Schwartz's Internal Family Systems and the concept of neurosculpting ©. We offer tools to help navigate life's turbulent times. 

Join Jody and her husband Dan, as they explore the interplay of light and dark in our lives, and the role yoga plays in helping us remain present in our hearts and consciousness. How does yoga play a role in managing chronic pain and trauma? Join us in our latest episode with Jody Domerstad as we delve into practices of body, breath, and meditation.

We would love to hear from you! Email us at becomeoneliving@gmail.com or reach out to us on Instagram at BecomeOne Living.

Jody:

Greetings and welcome to our first episode of Become One Living. We have arrived, Dan. My name is Jodi Dommerstad. My legal name is Jodi Boisitz. Across from me is my husband, Dan Boisitz. Hi, Dan.

Dan:

Hello, Hello everyone Welcome.

Jody:

Become One. Living is a podcast that I feel has been in the making my entire life.

Dan:

It amazes me that you chose the name Become One way back.

Jody:

When I was younger about 18, I realized that there's no magic pill. There's not one thing that is going to heal you or fix you. I started to dabble in different things pilates, yoga, nutrition, then the mind. I was always in the mind Therapy, somatic therapy. Back then I am 48 years old. You're going back 16, 18 years old. I realized what am I going to name my studio? I opened a studio very young, in my 20s. What am I going to name it? I started to watch people doing compartmental modalities. Does that make sense?

Dan:

Yes, pursuing one thing to be the answer for everything.

Jody:

Yes, I saw people fixated on diets and food. I saw people fixated on exercise or talk therapy Back then. Chakras, chakra healing, energy healing, even massage. I started to see because I worked with people a lot at that age we'll get into that but I started to see no permanent change happening, only certain aspects shifting in that one area Become one was this idea of we need to bring this all together to become whole again. We need the food, we need exercise, we need companionship.

Dan:

We need rest, we need breath, we need challenges of concentration.

Jody:

We need philosophy and we need support and self-study. That's where Become One came from, and when I was younger, I thought what a weird name. Become one yoga, become one, this, and so my podcast. Our podcast is called Become One Living, which has evolved over all these years because there are tools that we're going to share with you throughout our time together, tools to transform your life through consciousness and connectedness, using the framework of yoga.

Dan:

One of the reasons that we're compelled to share the information that works for us in supporting our lives is being around the yoga world long enough to be witnessing that. It's been boiled down to just, essentially, a workout, a physical workout, but there's so much more to yoga than just asana.

Jody:

Well, that leads me to why I started yoga Years ago. I had body image issues and I used exercise and food to deal with trauma in my life Over exercising. I was a bodybuilder, misfitness national aerobics and then someone said to me, yoga will help you love yourself. And I thought, oh, that's great, because I don't even know what you're talking about. What does that even mean? Love myself? I do love myself, but I didn't. I was obsessing and using these somewhat healthy seeming tools like exercise to try to run away from my emotions or my mental states. And I heard yoga when I was in treatment, actually for my eating disorder. They said yoga will help you love yourself. But I sought out a stanga, and a stanga yoga, if you all don't know, is a more aggressive form of yoga. It's lovely, but it is very physical very physical and very athletic.

Dan:

And that's what I chose.

Jody:

So I went from lifting weight to lifting my own body, missing that piece of philosophy. And yamas and niyamas, what those are are eight limbs. There's eight limbs of yoga. It's a system, but when I was young I was only introduced to Asana. And then one day I met Joe T, my one teacher, and people told me she will teach you how to live yoga. And I got out of treatment, off the plane and drove to Montclair, new Jersey, banging on Joe T's door, begging her to let me in. And I told her if you don't let me into your training, I'll die. Now this woman didn't know me, had no idea who I was. I said I will die. And she said you tell me why I should let you in? And I said because on the weekends I eat and throw up till I almost die.

Dan:

and I need to be with you on the weekends to fill that time, to learn something, to save myself right, and one of Joe's first experience with experiences with Jotie was Jotie showed up late for one of the initial classes of a teacher training and Jotie locked the door, said you're out. And that creates a framework and the realization that there are principles, tools and guidelines and challenges, but it's also outside the box. It's it's the way you live your whole life it's like. So you can't show up to teacher training late. It's just that's not acceptable. You shouldn't show up to class late. You shouldn't be sliding in late to yoga. If it's something you're taking seriously as a support or Something to help you grow in your life, which are very feasible and, in fact, very probable Possibilities if you practice regularly then then you want to start to show up on time. So one of the first lessons of getting involved in something that speaks to you is to show up on time, and Jotie locked the door and said you're out.

Jody:

She told me I was out. I was so mad that she threw me out and wouldn't let me in and I went to the car and I cried and cried and I waited and I went back and I begged her to let me in and she said I will let you in if you show up on time, because you're not taking this serious, you don't want to heal, you don't want to get better, and I was young, I didn't understand that. Then I said I'm here and she said but you're not here. You weren't here, this isn't serious and I take this very serious. That was the first time I really learned the potency of choosing something, how impactful it is to say I want to do this, and by not showing up on time and respecting her, I really wasn't respecting myself.

Jody:

And so finally she let me in and it was life-changing due to the philosophy, an Immersion of the philosophy, because it gave me a framework to look at myself Against yeah, you're invited.

Dan:

Once you begin to Engage, you're invited to set so. For instance, you're invited before you move in Asana, you're invited to set an intention that that immediately contrasts an exercise, a regiment or an exercise practice with yoga. So if you go into a classroom and you're going to move your body and focus on your breath and set an intention, immediately you're setting yourself up for Empowerment, you're setting yourself up for growth, you're setting yourself up to be mindful, you're setting yourself up to be more present, as opposed to other things that we call workouts, which are bad. It's simply different.

Jody:

So Jodi chose yoga and pursued that from an early age for the sake of her life and Going back to our why Yoga can't heal you, therapy can't heal you, diet can't heal you, you heal you. These are all tools we'll talk about, because I've experienced osteomyelitis, a bone disease, an infection that I had to get three to five bone surgeries to remove bone. It went into cardiac arrest and kidney failure, and Eight years ago I experienced three strokes, one massive, caused by a brain tumor that was living in the middle of my brain, feeding off of the main blood supply and slowly growing over time, impacting my ability for executive functioning.

Dan:

So the the tumor. The tumor was located in the left frontal lobe, which affected executive functioning, organizing things, a discerning things, decision-making initiating projects, also because of yoga and my practices.

Jody:

They actually allowed me to function, living with this tumor. Because I practiced. We did not know how Much I was affected for so many years living with this thing. It wasn't until I started to have many seizures and a full-on stroke that we learned that this could have been growing for 15 to 20 years. And after it was removed, they quarterized the area and I had a blood clot. So I lived in the hospital for 30 days. 30 days. I had no TV. I couldn't look at it, I couldn't listen, I couldn't read. I could barely write from the stroke. All I had was my yoga.

Dan:

Yoga supported Joe Through the most challenging. You know we're not here pretending that other humans don't have just as many challenges in their life, but we have discovered the power of the rituals and the tools To allow us to live the fullest life that we possibly can. I don't know what Jodi's life would look like without yoga. Her pursuits of the philosophy, her pursuits of Asana, sure, but she's Always been just as curious about the philosophy. She's been just as curious about, you know, building her ability to concentrate, which is a, a prerequisite to being able to meditate. And the practices and the rituals Create a sense of a, a Framework to feel safe.

Jody:

When I laid in that bed every night, I Meditated, I visualized, I prayed Not to live, but I prayed actually to meet my highest potential and I promised myself, if I survived, I would meet every emotion that I had repressed or hidden or quelled or tried to numb for my whole life. And that has now been. It's eight years or nine years. Brain surgery is eight years. Next year will be nine.

Dan:

Maybe 2016, 2016?, 2014. Oh, 2014, wow, 2014.

Jody:

And being also in that bed, I realized my identity, how my identity was wrapped up into this external world. Oh, I'm a yoga teacher. Oh, I could do this. Oh, I'm that. And I realized in that moment that could all be washed away. So who would I be without that?

Dan:

When Jodi arrived at the emergency room and they did the initial tests and the initial brain scan and they came back and test and shared with her the results, jodi's response to them telling her you might have a brain tumor, was do you know who I am? Her identity was so so much about the yoga and remains obviously so much about yoga, but it's been the depth and the richness over the last decade has grown so much that you know it's just. It was a funny moment amidst a very serious challenge.

Jody:

I couldn't believe he was telling me Jodi Damerstad, who eats healthy, prays, is a good person, who lives this yogic lifestyle. That was my thought. I can't have a brain tumor, I couldn't just have a stroke. What are you, nuts? And the doctor looked at me and said call your family because we don't know if you'll make it through the night. I looked at him and I said well what the heck you stand in here for. Go get my drugs, go get me meds, do something.

Dan:

That was to the nurse practitioner who was in the emergency room, right.

Jody:

They giggled and they went and got me steroids to bring the swelling down. Just coming back to our why again for this is I believe in hope, hope and holding onto the hope and the light that everything is possible. But it takes work and dedication and we want to share some of the unglamorous, ugly, choppy parts that no one shares on Instagram or on Facebook and in pictures. It's always sexy. Change is sexy. I'm here to tell you change was gut-wrenching, it was re-traumatizing, it was scary, it was lonely.

Jody:

But the framework of yoga, the eight limbs, are a logical framework that I could keep going back to, to the yamas, which are how do you behave in the world? The knee yamas, how do you behave with yourself? Checking myself always, and during that time I didn't pray. Let yoga heal me. I said may I remember my tools so that I can survive? Living in a trauma unit for a month, consciously hearing screams and death all around me while I'm trying to thrive and live. These practices are very serious to me. That's why I want to share them, because part of me feels yoga has become a mockery.

Dan:

Yeah, I just wanted to pause and say along the way, in the Western medical in the hospital there had been mention from those professionals who are great, but there had been mention that if Jodi hadn't had yoga in her life, her recovery and her journey through all this probably would not have been as swift or easy that other people with the same situation have found it difficult to come back from. I remember the speech in cognitive therapist coming in for one of the. This was a woman one of her first visits with Joe, asking Joe to say the alphabet and that was something to see because it was challenging for Jodi honestly.

Jody:

Well, I thought I was saying my ABCs. In my mind I'm singing ABCD and that was not happening, correct? It was mumbled, jumbled.

Dan:

It was slow.

Jody:

And no intonation.

Dan:

Right, yeah, One day I came in during those 30 days and Joe had the bed inclined and her feet up there and she's like I'm doing yoga. She goes how do you? What do you think they'll think about me now? And another time a doctor came in looking for her and she's like they're like panicked, Where's Jodi? And she was on the side of the other, the opposite side of the her bed, away from the door, doing yoga on the floor. They were like panicked looking for her. She's like I'm doing my yoga.

Jody:

They were so nervous Because of the blood clot I couldn't do my legs up the wall, but I was starting to get a little kooky. 30 days in the hospital.

Jody:

He walks in, my legs are up the bed and I'm like what do you think? What do you think they're going to say, huh, huh. And he's like, okay, let's calm down. And I think that's a perfect example of yoga. Doesn't change you or take away these emotions. Yoga actually allowed me to get better acquainted with my emotions. The practice of yoga doesn't take stuff away. I was losing it. I was yelling at people, sometimes in the hospital. It wasn't pretty Life is not pretty but the practices allowed me to be aware of those things, aware of my behaviors or aware of what I needed.

Dan:

Yes, you see, this is one of those difficult things to say. Well, this is the outcome of having done yoga for so many years, but it was notable to the doctors that her recovery was pretty quick and in fact they said, oh, you're doing laps down the hallway. People after surgeries like this didn't walk right away like that. So my point is that, like you see, you cannot make a B line, you cannot connect point A with point B. That, like, doing yoga yielded this result.

Dan:

However you can, you experience the experience for each individual with regular, regular rituals and practices supports your overall wellness and the ideas that life is a marathon and an over. Ideal is that it's not that you do exercise or practices to make your life one day longer or a year longer or five years longer. It's like how good do you feel today from your practices? Qualitative, it's doing the practices so that you feel good today, not to extend your life, and that's what Jodi's practices have supported her in and that's what Jodi shares in her asana classes, in her every all of her private practice practice with one on one with individuals with yoga therapy. All of Jodi's life experience pours into each session, each class that Joe offers.

Jody:

I sought yoga to live because I was dying mentally, emotionally, physically. Religion didn't work for me. I don't know why it doesn't matter, but the philosophy just spoke to me that in the yoga philosophy, in the eight limbs, you also have breathing, and I learned throughout the years I was never breathing, I was always holding my breath, just waiting for something to happen, due to the complex traumas that I had experienced as a child. Then you start to realize I can't concentrate, oh, but I wanna meditate, yeah, well, good luck.

Dan:

How can you?

Jody:

meditate if you can't concentrate.

Dan:

And just for reality's sake, Jo was had her own feelings of skepticism as she was being introduced. One of her teachers was doing a Dharma talk and sharing this and sharing that and how positive it is, and Jodi interacted with the person. It was like you tell me that this, if I do this, that this is gonna happen. She's like I don't believe it, no way. And the person's like, okay, let's talk afterward. I'll talk to you one-on-one so that I can share with you how this works. But plenty of a healthy, abundant amount of skepticism from Jo, which is, in part, how she operates. But it also yields a real, direct responses and answers to things that Jodi has pursued. So it's a twisted ball of taffy and wax that you are hard pressed, as a regular practitioner, to share with others who aren't practicing the experience of it all. Anything that you can positively gain from this has got to be is is from your effort, is from your showing up.

Jody:

I remember there was 100 people in that class. We were in Miami and I was in the back row hiding because I didn't want us to be seen Hiding in plain sight, and my teacher sat there discussing this concept that no one is innately bad. We are innately good. We just misalign sometimes and make not so good decisions, not healthy decisions for ourselves. And that hit me so hard because at that point I hated myself, I was in my addiction, I was self abusive, I hated my body, I hated everything I did. And this man is telling me you are innately good.

Dan:

Well, I didn't believe him.

Jody:

So I went up, as Dan stated, and I said to him you're lying, I am not good, I'm not that one that you're speaking of.

Jody:

It just can't be, because I had dealt with life so dysfunctionally, mainly harming myself, that I couldn't even conceive that if I was a good person, how could I hurt myself? And that's why I went back, because I wanted to figure it out, I wanted to know, I wanted to feel the love inside myself, but I was so dead. But I kept going and going and everything that I have pursued I have over 10,000 hours of study for myself because I couldn't figure out why I was so dysfunctional. And if you were around me you may not have thought that because I was functioning fairly normal for society, but inside I felt off. So I sought meditation and philosophy and neuro sculpting and craniosacral and source point therapy, interlight method, and these are things we'll share with you. We want to start to share these tools that maybe there's one thing out of all of these things that may turn that light on for you that aha, and be the key to support you in doing the work and taking the action that needs to be taken to create change, because yoga is action.

Dan:

Tadah.

Jody:

Tadah Dan, I feel that there's so much more we can keep discussing, but let's take some time to wrap it up. Bring it in. But I want to ask you what's your why? Why are we? Why are you here with me?

Dan:

Why this why?

Jody:

now.

Dan:

There's a couple of things that are coming to mind, one of them being that I had my own trauma. You know there's a lot of things that we share and common that have Directed the way our lives have gone. So when I was about six years old, my family unit had an experience that I can get into more, but it was a traumatic experience for my nuclear family. I I, yeah, I found the partner of of my lifetime Because we have Attacit deep understanding of Of the way life is for us and it's congruent. We're really balanced and in tune with how we operate and and born out of traumatic things that have happened. Jody has numerous Things that have happened to her that are considered traumatic and are traumatic.

Dan:

I Didn't have so many, but the ones that I didn't have were powerful enough to shift and wake me up to like alright, if I don't sort this out, I Could go down a wrong road. So I had to Get tempered and balanced and moderate feelings and thoughts and you know I'd say I felt From like six to ten to fifteen, that I was always an odd person out. It wasn't ordinary, I didn't fit in, I was always kept on the outside of the inner circle, but that was because I was deeply affected by happenings in my life and the the influences of my family. In terms of spirituality, let's say we're not supportive of Recovery or we're not supportive of living a wholesome life. So by the time it came to Meeting Joe, or seeing Joe in my first yoga class with Joe, then I I instantly felt really comfortable and compelled. I Felt really comfortable and compelled and the funny thing is is that my ex-wife brought me to that class.

Jody:

That will be one whole episode on how I Did a reading at Dan's wedding.

Dan:

That's my first wedding, his first wedding.

Jody:

I actually was part of the second wedding because it was to me. But yes, I did a reading and I remember that day. Clearly, when Dan walked into my yoga room with his ex-wife Thinking how did she get that guy? That's what I thought as I sat up there.

Dan:

And you were doing a Dharma talk and I was like, oh my god, that's so great.

Jody:

I think the Dharma talk was about New York Times and food. I Remember it because it was about my dad. Actually, the you said you mentioned the word wholeness and it's a beautiful way to wrap up. Our yoga studio is called become one wholeness. This podcast is become one living to Take and share and offer tools, contemplations, ideas and conversations that could perhaps create some expansion in thinking, in a ha moment, a little Shaking you up, just a little offering that Maybe there is Another tool out there that you don't know about that could help you transform your life.

Jody:

You don't have to suffer. That's what this is about. I don't suffer and some days I live with chronic pain. I Broke my face in 47 places. They're not sure how many places I broke my jaw, and there are times I live in chronic pain and no one knows. I Only suffer when I try to change it or when I feed it.

Jody:

So we will discuss how can we live with chronic pain, mentally, emotionally, physically, how, how can we navigate this world that seems so chaotic Sometimes and live with more ease and be able to show up In your heart and in consciousness, even if you don't like what's happening? That's yoga. How can I show up to this moment, when I don't even like what's happening. That's what we're gonna share and it will be through the system of yoga to hold it, and then it'll pulse, just like the dance of Polarity. It pulses and it dance darkness winds, lightness winds and then they come together as one. When we talk about asana will dive into the body more body work, craneal, sacral what does that even mean? When we dive into breath, we're gonna dive into trauma, because I've studied trauma so that I could heal. And when we talk about meditation will dive into neuro sculpting and IFS internal family systems by Dick Schwartz. We have so much that we want to share and we hope that you will join us through this New journey that we are embarking on.

Dan:

Yeah, you're invited.

Jody:

Thank you so much. Become one living, we're out.

People on this episode

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Dan Boisits

Co-host
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Jody Domerstad-Boisits

Co-host