197. Transformative Yoga - Lily Allen-Duenas

00:00.00
karagoodwin
Hello and welcome to the meditation conversation I'm your host Kara Goodwin and today I'm joined by Lily Allen doanis lily helps overwhelmed individuals reduce their emotional overload and find balance breath and space for self-care. She's the founder of the wild yoga tribe and the host of the wild yoga tribe podcast. She endeavors to guide others on their path to living a life centered on wholehearted. Well-being welcome Lily I'm so glad you're here.

00:33.52
Lily Allen_Duenas
Thank you so much. It's a joy to be with you.

00:37.80
karagoodwin
So tell us about your journey and what led you to helping so many people through yoga and meditation.

00:43.63
Lily Allen_Duenas
Yeah, thank you for asking so I actually started practicing yoga where I first was introduced to the practice when I was None a gym that was kind of close to where I was going high school one of my friends. Was a member there. Her mom was and noticed oh there's this new class want to try and so I immediately felt like I was just coming home I just felt this amazing connection to the practice and to to feeling like it was something I never experienced before that stillness or that breath or that connection or. But energy just kind of felt so connected to it immediatelyly so I couldn't really practice much in high school. It was just offered so sporadically and then when I went to university I found a yoga studio and started going very regularly but like anything that you know you do in your life it ebbs and it flows.

01:37.69
karagoodwin
Umclusion.

01:38.47
Lily Allen_Duenas
So maybe I would go 4 times a week for six months and then over the summer I would just practice once a week you know so things would really ebb and flow and then after I graduated I continued to practice and then I was working in marketing management for 7 years kind of felt a little burnt out a little overwhelmed this burned out wasn't a term back then too let's acknowledge that this is ah so I transitioned ah well when I was feeling really burned out was like 2016 2016.

02:00.50
karagoodwin
Oh yeah, when was this.

02:11.16
karagoodwin
Okay, okay.

02:12.92
Lily Allen_Duenas
None and then I in 2017 kind of in shavas and I just felt this huge calling in my heart to become a yoga teacher and to help others find kind of wellness from within and I felt like I wanted to be. You know the conduit or the guide to kind of help people. And get more in touch with that or in tune with that. So I ah pretty immediately within like two weeks I had a plane ticket I had my yoga teacher training picked out in cat me undu had the deposit paid I had a a month sabbatical approved from work. You know it was just everything for what really happened really quickly and then.

02:46.28
karagoodwin
Wow, It sounds like it. Yeah.

02:51.69
Lily Allen_Duenas
I quickly realized too when I was there that I was meant to just keep on learning keep on teaching keep on growing and so returned home quit the job sold the car packed everything up and then got a job on a small island in Cambodia moved there at the end of None and then. Spent a few years just traveling and teaching and learning and doing vipassana as a meditation retreats and doing workshops and becoming a reiki master healer and you know just so many different. Amazing modalities I've been able to learn and do trainings and courses on and also offer and workshops and different things that I've learned on the way so that was kind of the the genesis story if you will.

03:38.27
karagoodwin
Oh that's beautiful I love that you just felt that calling within you in Shavasana and then it was like two weeks later okay I'm done here I go you know I'm answering the call right now.

03:50.81
Lily Allen_Duenas
Ah, yeah, thank you I felt like I had spent almost a full year though asking my inner intuition my inner wisdom kind of that question of what am I supposed to do.

03:55.68
karagoodwin
Like that's amazing.

04:05.52
karagoodwin
And.

04:07.39
Lily Allen_Duenas
You know with this one wild and precious life to quote Mary Oliver but you know just that question of I don't feel good where I'm at what's next and instead of being impatient and just running off and wanting to just you know I don't know quickly make a change quickly just move to Nashville move to.

04:13.50
karagoodwin
And you mean it now.

04:26.11
karagoodwin
We.

04:26.47
Lily Allen_Duenas
Wherever you know I just didn't want to take a job and just go but I wanted to make sure that whatever I chose was what I was really my heart and my purpose was kind of calling for so it sounds fast but at the same time It took a year to hear the voice so I had to be patient.

04:36.58
karagoodwin
And my yeah, yeah, well then it's a nice balance there between you know the the heating the call and you know like you say being patient for making sure that it's what is actually um. Resonating with you so over the course of a year I can imagine that you would have felt like you heard a lot of guidance during that time like do you remember what it was that really clicked in with that with those moments where you were like oh. Here this is it by calling you know.

05:16.23
Lily Allen_Duenas
Um, yeah I Really vividly do because I was having a phone call with a great friend of mine named Evy backing back from high school. We were just you know catching up on the phone which we. Do maybe once or twice a year. So not very often and she I was kind of describing to her how I felt like a lot of unrest and a lot of like ah you know I don't feel so fulfilled and so you know good where I'm at and burnt out and stressed and I said all I want to do. Just go do yoga and meditate just you know for a while. That's just all I need. That's all I want to do she said? Well why don't you go do that I was like huh. So then I kind of thought oh maybe I'll do a yoga retreat or maybe I'll take a do a meditation you know, go for a Vipasana I Just kind of was like Nah. Maybe I'll do that.

05:54.64
karagoodwin
And.

06:09.43
Lily Allen_Duenas
And then I think it was within a couple weeks of that that something had clicked inside of me saying oh that's what I said I needed. Oh that's what I said I wanted and then in shavas and I'm with you know every time every day asking myself that question spending you know the 5 minutes the 10 minutes needed and the the asana to really just try to.

06:15.91
karagoodwin
You need it.

06:29.27
Lily Allen_Duenas
Listened to that quiet in her voice and you know and I wasn't soon after that that I was like oh yeah, be a yoga teacher.

06:35.30
karagoodwin
And yeah, did it did it seem like it was your voice your inner voice.

06:41.70
Lily Allen_Duenas
Oh Gosh Such a good question I feel like I I Hope that um, all of your listeners have a curiosity about themselves and or maybe it's just starting to spark so I hope it's getting there. But. I Think it's been very important to my meditation journey and my journey inwards kind of having a sense of the voices inside of me, you know you have this like divine Connection. You have this this connection to source inside of you already.

07:08.25
karagoodwin
And.

07:17.97
Lily Allen_Duenas
And so having kind of I have ah you know a visualization of what that would be for me personally. But I also do have a visualization of what my fear looks like oh she like I she has a name I can picture her perfectly I know what she's wearing I know what's you know.

07:31.17
karagoodwin
Um, and then.

07:35.33
Lily Allen_Duenas
How her shoulders are hunched like I can picture my fear perfectly I talk to my fear in different you know, guided Meditations or self-guided visualizations and Meditations and I do that with the source side as well and with that divine connection and so I feel like that voice was my voice but at the same time. Not it's.

07:53.11
karagoodwin
And like a part of you Yeah, like a higher part of you Maybe I I Love how you're describing. You know all of the different aspects and facets of who you are and and acknowledging them and seeing them and talking to them and.

07:54.89
Lily Allen_Duenas
And something a little outside of me. Yeah.

08:12.57
karagoodwin
Um, it reminds me of internal family systems which I didn't know anything about and then it it came up on a podcast recently and then a friend of mine. Um separately because I haven't even released that podcast yet. But um, she has been exploring Ifs too. And it. It sounds very similar to what you're talking about but that you know recognition and I Just love you must be a very visual person like I Love how you talk about? you know I can see what she's wearing I can see how her posture is you know? and um. But that recognition and the inclusion and the you know the instead of like the rejection and and how we tend to reject parts of us and yeah and then getting that guidance. Yeah.

08:58.34
Lily Allen_Duenas
Yeah, it takes it takes so much time I think to to be willing to kind of see the different sides of yourself and there's patience. There's compassion needed. There's love and I'm lucky to have.

09:09.68
karagoodwin
Um, me.

09:15.27
Lily Allen_Duenas
You know had some great teachers and some great therapists and some great books come into my life to help me realize that through kind of visualization and through the act of actually um through the act of actually kind of picturing. And meeting and talking. It is an enormous act of healing of meeting the self wherever the self is and of not resisting because you know anything we're resisting is going to fight us back twice as hard or if we're resisting. There's also usually just such a beautiful lesson there for us.

09:34.96
karagoodwin
And. Um, way.

09:50.50
karagoodwin
Yeah, yeah, and it shows up. It tends to show up Anyway, you know if we reject it and we don't want to see it. It's like okay well you can ignore that about yourself. But it's going to show up in in your neighbor.

09:51.34
Lily Allen_Duenas
Be learning.

10:07.88
karagoodwin
Or it's going to show up in like your colleague or whatever you know it tends to like we have to see it even if we don't want to see it in ourselves which is why? Also it can be so beneficial to really accept and. And integrate all of those pieces of who we are. Yeah well I am fascinated by the time that you've spent in Cambodia and Kathmandu and you know all of the.

10:28.47
Lily Allen_Duenas
Absolutely.

10:42.16
karagoodwin
You know you mentioned you touched on like the traveling that you were doing during all the the training and um and I know that before we um before we met today that you have some transformative experiences that you mentioned. And I don't know the details but I'm fascinated by that kind of stuff. So um, do you want to share some of like your vipassana and silent retreat like just some of the transformative things that you've been through that have been so so powerful and in this shift into. Who you are today.

11:21.58
Lily Allen_Duenas
definitely definitely well I would be remiss if I didn't mention my None foray in the meditation was actually when I was like 12 or 13 at a ymca summer camp. There's a counselor there who offered morning meditation classes.

11:30.59
karagoodwin
And.

11:35.84
karagoodwin
O.

11:37.92
Lily Allen_Duenas
You know for five days in a row and each morning for 30 minutes is a different technique like you know, envisioning a a candle and putting words you know or thoughts into a candle flame. You know, just different techniques every day and for me to be a you know preteen and get to learn that was just so.

11:54.61
karagoodwin
Yeah, um, right.

11:55.50
Lily Allen_Duenas
Special and I acknowledge that like what a gift that a Ymca Summer camp offered that and I got to kind of check that out and it was something that I I came to I would sit cross-legged. You know, not that meditation is sitting cross-legged. But I know you know things felt particular. Particularly chaotic in my life or my mind I would try to sit and try to breathe and try to do a couple of the techniques that I felt alignment with so I was curious about it was not something my family did it was not something my parents or a best friend or I didn't have like a buddhist in my life to to introduce me. But.

12:27.72
karagoodwin
I right? right.

12:33.59
Lily Allen_Duenas
It was something I was naturally kind of attuned to and curious about and so that was the none foray that I do consider transformational as it was my introduction and then when I became a yoga teacher. You know that was a 200 hour intensive and catmandu at nepal yoga home and it was just. Incredible. You know 10 hours a day of Asana Meditation pranayama history philosophy ayuveda like just you just feel like you're in a crucible but not in a painful way in just like oh this expansion way and so that was very precious and an amazing time. But.

13:06.67
karagoodwin
Movement.

13:12.64
Lily Allen_Duenas
My first vipasana I like to kind of describe it as vipasana light. It wasn't a Gowinkka or mahaspi it was a just ah a thai buddhist monastery retreat center outside of Cheng Rai and my young song if anyone else is. Familiar any listeners familiar with the north of Thailand and so in this retreat you got to choose whether you wanted to do full silence or only silence during you know the allotted 8 hours or something so it was.

13:43.67
karagoodwin
And for in case, anybody is not familiar with the term Vipassana can you expand on that a little bit.

13:51.24
Lily Allen_Duenas
Yeah, good. Good question. So vipassana it's a term that was I don't know if it was coined by I I definitely don't want to say it was probably made up ah but it became more in the realm of laypeople's knowledge. Um, with sn goenka and he passed away and I think it was none so he's a relatively you know a modern the the father of modern vipassana meditation. So vipasana is a translation of and of a buddhist term in the pali that means. Kind of special or super seeing can also be translated as insight. So it's a way of training the mind and there's vipassana meditation which can just be 10 minutes of a certain type of meditation type. But how this vipassana term here in them. You know last we'll say 40 years has been used has kind of been to describe a meditation retreat and this retreat is is very intense. It's a 10 days of silence and usually involves 10 hours of meditating per day. Usually starting around 4 am usually you're not allowed to have any books any phones any technology any pens any pencils any paper nothing that could provide any type of stimulus stimulus or stimulation outside of the meditation practice.

15:24.98
karagoodwin
Um, you.

15:27.27
Lily Allen_Duenas
There's Vipassana centers the sen Go andka the most traditional type are um, it's forbidden to make eye contact. You know it's forbidden to make hand gestures at another person. You know it's complete isolation.

15:33.81
karagoodwin
I Oh well.

15:42.60
Lily Allen_Duenas
So that you can have no experience outside of your own mind. It's very important to kind of go in in in in deep deep deep as ah as deep as you can go to your own mental formations and kind of seeing them clearly which is how the the term translates to insight or seeing and. Then there is these other type of vipasanas the s and go and is there traditional if anyone's curious. There's a website called damadh a MMADotOrg dama dot org is where you can find vipassana centers all around the world. There's hundreds and it's always free. It is free to go to a meditation retreat. You get free accommodation. You get None free meals a day but you you can't leave and you can't ah talk and you can't have your phone. You know it's very It's not like 1 of those you see maybe on Instagram where everyone's taking beautiful selfies on a beach. It's it's not that type of.

16:25.30
karagoodwin
Not home.

16:31.96
karagoodwin
Didn't.

16:39.36
karagoodwin
And.

16:40.46
Lily Allen_Duenas
Retreat It's really for inner work and it's amazing. But it's good to know that it's free. It's donation based so if you can choose to donate at the end if you wish which is beautiful and beautiful opportunities all around the Us all around the world If that's something they're curious about.

16:56.30
karagoodwin
Okay, well thank you? So so you were on a Vipassana retreat and you were saying that it was like a comp you could choose how how silent you wanted it to be you.

17:06.99
Lily Allen_Duenas
Yeah, this is ah a vipas in a light I like to say because it's a forest monastery. We walked barefoot in the mountains every day we did walking meditations. It wasn't just the traditional seated as well. There was dharma talks with the monks. So you had conversations so that was my none one in Thailand in 182. We'll say roughly may and then my next one was about a month and a half later and the official sngoka in Sri Lanka at um dama onnahonda. I always mispronounce it. But if anyone wants to find more information. They're welcome to send me a note or on my website http://wilducottribe.com I do have a blog all and links and everything if they're curious to go a little deeper into these different centers I visited or need more information so this one was the official the full ten days

17:43.79
karagoodwin
And.

18:02.18
Lily Allen_Duenas
Very very much acc crucible this time less pleasant. You know with ah all of the restrictions and limitations the 4 am this 10 hours of just seeded meditation. It's also forbidden to do yoga forbidden to do anything physical. You're allowed to walk very slowly.

18:15.67
karagoodwin
Um, how are.

18:22.60
Lily Allen_Duenas
You know to the Dharma Hall or to your little how little hut but like that's the extent of what you're allowed to do is just you know the slow walk to and from where you need to go. But other than that every other physical exercise is Forbidden and as I said no phones. No no.

18:29.10
karagoodwin
Who.

18:41.95
Lily Allen_Duenas
Pens No I was reading my shampoo bottle because I was just like you know you just go a little bananas so you just start to read anything. You can you can go because you every day is just such a different journey you have days where you feel like oh I got this? Oh this is great. You have days where you feel like.

18:44.10
karagoodwin
I That's fightinging.

18:57.65
Lily Allen_Duenas
Um, my gosh I'm a crazy person I literally have monkeys rolling barrels down my head filled with Gobblygook and I'm just bananas like this is just but it's amazing to learn in that discomfort in that mental kind of pain. What do you reach For. What is your fantasy land that you create in your head to create provide comfort or how can you sit with more pain and how does that look like when you feel like you're meeting your edge and your threshold what what happens then and so discovering more and more about. My habits my patterns my mental conditionings and formations. It's like an incredible experience to just kind of peel back all of the layers of the onion and then you're staring at there's no more Onion. You're like oh my gosh. There's no more onion like what else is there but you go you go deeper. You go.

19:46.53
karagoodwin
I.

19:51.83
Lily Allen_Duenas
Pass the onion into you know what? what else you can't name quite yet I Know there's I'm very inarticulate excuse me or to your listeners because I some of this stuff really just feels like it transcends words. But I I am doing my best.

20:03.37
karagoodwin
Um, right? Yeah for sure. Well, that's amazing that like getting to I love that that analogy to the onion. You know it's like. Keep peeling it away and then what are you left with and um and that and you're so it's really fascinating that you can't even have a pen. You can't even journal. You can't read because we have so many distractions in this. In this world in this especially in these times and I notice you know I mean we all can notice about how we we just immediately start to distract ourselves in this day and age the minute we have you know if we have to stand in line. If we have to wait you know sometimes waiting at a stoplight or whatever it is. It's like oh let me grab my phone or let me jot this down or whatever it is um I know I was talking to somebody at one point and they were like you know I was. Flipping through Amazon or something like that like I was online shopping because I had I was feeling overwhelmed and I noticed that in that so scrolling I felt kind of meditative. You know I because I felt like it was. Helping me, you know Ah, the way that she was describing. It was like basically it it helped her get into a different zone but it was like okay, that's it. That's helpful but it it is. It's a distraction. You know you're not facing what your.

21:45.49
Lily Allen_Duenas
Smith.

21:50.90
karagoodwin
You know you're not, You're not sorting anything out. You're not, You're not progressing exactly there's no, there's no progression through it. Um, so it's just going to hang there or it's going to get buried and which doesn't mean it goes away it just means that it could manifest in some other way. But.

21:54.25
Lily Allen_Duenas
It's not pro productive. Yeah.

22:10.14
karagoodwin
But we can have these I mean None of all, it just points to how how important distraction is for so many and in in modern times. But also um that we can notice how that makes us feel to shift I mean even though it's. You know there's a higher way to Shift. You could say um, where you're actually you know dissolving what it is that is ailing you or or upsetting you or whatever it is. You're trying to distract yourself from you're facing it head on letting it dissolve letting it integrate processing it. Um, but releasing it and that takes work. Um, but it it was just funny that there were so many gold nuggets in her description of that of like okay there's the distraction piece. But there's the shifting like you're recognizing. That you're able to shift out of it. Um through that act. But yeah to be deprived of any ability to distract even down to being able to write or draw or anything. That's that's full on for sure.

23:21.61
Lily Allen_Duenas
Oh yeah, full on indeed. Yeah, but I love that you gave that example of a friend saying oh I I was noticing that I got meditative when I was scrolling on my phone shopping when I felt anxiety like what a gift that she even noticed.

23:25.20
karagoodwin
1

23:37.90
karagoodwin
Right.

23:40.34
Lily Allen_Duenas
1 what she was doing just noticing it 2 how she was feeling how it was changing her state like wow that is amazing that she could kind of have that metacognition that ability to take a little step back I love the example of Jim Carey with the mask. It's like if the mask is on his face. He just can't he's the mask. But if.

23:43.46
karagoodwin
For now.

23:51.31
karagoodwin
Um, yeah.

23:59.56
Lily Allen_Duenas
He pulls it just a little off. It's like then he gets to to have that perspective right? You you you feel more like yourself your real self when the mask is just pulled a little bit away from the face. So I don't mean that in the term of our artificial self I Just mean that in the term of.

24:03.99
karagoodwin
Ah, writes. Yeah.

24:14.15
karagoodwin
Brian.

24:17.94
karagoodwin
To the least.

24:18.40
Lily Allen_Duenas
A little bit of distance from our thoughts provides so much clarity and so much. Um, just fodder for learning and for observation of okay, our habits because scrolling technology That's an addiction.

24:25.50
karagoodwin
Um, when.

24:31.97
karagoodwin
Um, and.

24:34.70
Lily Allen_Duenas
Shopping and addiction alcohol and addiction. You know food and addiction. There's There's all these things we turn to for comfort and distraction because they work they do work which is you know that is true. They do but they don't work in the long term they as you said they don't.

24:42.20
karagoodwin
Nothing like.

24:52.70
Lily Allen_Duenas
Not productive. They don't solve a problem. They don't make you a better person. They don't help you grow. They don't make you a better partner a better lover, a better friend a better student those things that take you away from yourself.

25:05.20
karagoodwin
Um, that's so beautifully said Lily I love that. So thank you for taking us through.

25:07.31
Lily Allen_Duenas
And meditation and yoga is about giving you back to yourself right.

25:20.53
karagoodwin
Everything that it took to sort of transform you and get you from kind of you know the the maybe more the mass con you know, kind of like in with the the corporate world. You know I've been there too and then.

25:36.50
Lily Allen_Duenas
Is this.

25:39.92
karagoodwin
Going through like it was It seems like you had your big learning phase where it was like I just have to absorb a lot in a short time and then now you're on the other side of that where you're giving back and sharing with others and with what you've gained. Um, to be able to help others to transform so you're doing this through wild yoga Tribe. So Can you tell us about that.

26:04.43
Lily Allen_Duenas
Yes, and I just it will definitely note that I am not on the other side in terms of I'm still a student for life still of course learning always and I'm I am just so lucky to get to have the opportunity that people let me teach them and that is.

26:11.80
karagoodwin
Um, well yeah, yeah.

26:23.70
Lily Allen_Duenas
I suppose the other side as well of the coin but I still have both so the wild yoga tribe. But I found it back in None when I was just getting started but it has just been such a beautiful growth as I've progressed and as I've had new offerings. There are new connections or new abilities. The wild yogaka tribe is this community of yoga teachers or students spiritual students or meditation. Um people are interested in that or in traveling or anything kind of that would fall into that kind of realm of I'm curious about. Wellness I'm curious about connection I'm curious about growth. It's this community that has has come together and I do offer a weekly podcast myself. It's called the wild yoga tribe podcast where I interview None yoga teacher each week from a different country around the world. Because I just think it's so important and so gorgeous and so lovely and vital for us to connect beyond our backyard beyond the corner yoga store studio that's maybe you know next to the Starbucks and you've walked by it a none times and you've thought you've looked in you think you know what yoga is.

27:28.70
karagoodwin
So.

27:40.57
Lily Allen_Duenas
Seen it on the 98000000 yoga instagram accounts that are out there as last reported really 98000000 so you think you know what it is but what's amazing is it's not. It's not what you think it is and it's probably not something that you even could guess and which is amazing because but.

27:45.89
karagoodwin
And oh wow.

28:00.48
Lily Allen_Duenas
Through hearing stories through hearing philosophies and so you know backgrounds and and methodologies from people from every corner of the world from every religion from every race from every kind of background. It's just amazing. What we get to learn from each other just like you and I today like. We don't live in the same city and I love that we get to connect in this way. It's it's similar I'm grateful that you're shining light and as well.

28:22.82
karagoodwin
And. Beautiful I love that and it sounds like you because you kind of mentioned about you talked to a different yoga teacher from a different country every week but then you mentioned all of the different like theologies and religions and so forth. So it's yoga in the broader sense. It sounds like not everybody is really related to to yoga per se but that is that fair.

28:59.77
Lily Allen_Duenas
Oh um, so yoga does originate with hinduism you know back ten thousand years ago there's evidence of yoga in the texts of um, however I would say that.

29:04.41
karagoodwin
You have.

29:15.84
Lily Allen_Duenas
You know yoga just translate directly to union or even inner communion which I think is such a beautiful definition inner communion and so I think yoga and I've studied yoga in India I've spent a lot of time in India as well. It's.

29:17.66
karagoodwin
In here.

29:33.44
Lily Allen_Duenas
Doesn't belong to hinduism and just like meditation does not belong to buddhism. You know it. It doesn't It's not ascribed to a particular religion at all. So while it did originate with a specific religion and in terms of.

29:33.79
karagoodwin
And. In.

29:51.32
Lily Allen_Duenas
That was the culture. It was born out of but I love that it transcends meditation preates buddhism is that you said it that sure does it sure does None approximately right for sidartha katama. So.

29:52.79
karagoodwin
I Think it actually predates Buddhism meditation. Yeah yeah.

30:07.56
karagoodwin
Yeah I mean it's referred to in the Upanishads which is I don't yeah right right? So yeah, well I love that I mean that is you know, kind of the the secret definition of yoga is union and um.

30:11.61
Lily Allen_Duenas
Thousands appear. Yeah, so.

30:26.73
karagoodwin
So that's beautiful, just getting to highlight. You know the the union and the connection and um and how that goes it goes beyond our religious practices and traditions and cultures and so forth. So that's really beautiful. Love that. So how can people find out more about you and connect with you. Lily.

30:45.27
Lily Allen_Duenas
Definitely.

30:49.92
Lily Allen_Duenas
Well, if I would love to connect with anyone who is curious and my website is wildyogatribe dot com I'm on social media wherever you are at wild yoga tribe you know Instagram Pinterest Twitter wherever you are I'll be there too and. Of course my podcast wildlygo tribe podcast on Apple itunes Youtube Alexa. Whatever you want it on and so I think the best way to reach me is on any of those channels and it would be a joy to hear from you respond to a question or whether you're looking for some you know, private classes or just. Curious about retreats coming up or something you know I would love to connect.

31:33.41
karagoodwin
That's wonderful. Where are you physically located? Um, um.

31:34.42
Lily Allen_Duenas
Um, I just moved this is a good question I just moved I've been living in France for a year and a half and I just moved to the us back I am from the us originally I probably should have mentioned that I'm from California and now I moved to Iowa.

31:46.52
karagoodwin
Um, no kidding oh wow, that's amazing. So where were you in France.

31:51.29
Lily Allen_Duenas
So we're apartment my husband and I are apartment hunting in Des Moines we were my husband is french born and raised so we were where he was from originally which is in the north of France we were in Calais which is just you know right on the beach right on the english channel. It's where the euro tunnel goes and all the harbors to take the ferry over to the Uk. So.

32:06.42
karagoodwin
Ah.

32:13.58
karagoodwin
Ah, that's cool. That's awesome I yeah, my husband's english so I lived in England for 4 years on the other side of the channel that was that was a long time ago. But more recently we were in italy.

32:19.50
Lily Allen_Duenas
Yeah, was ah was a fun time.

32:26.11
Lily Allen_Duenas
Um, hey.

32:31.56
Lily Allen_Duenas
Oh beautiful. We're in Italy. Okay, how fun were you living there or.

32:33.47
karagoodwin
So yeah bologna so we were yeah we were there for 4 years we moved back in 2018

32:41.74
Lily Allen_Duenas
Wow. Okay, yeah, that's amazing that you guys I Guess we should have a conversation offline see you about it because it's ah it's a gift to be married to someone from another country but also of course comes with so much red tape and bureaucracy and.

32:48.48
karagoodwin
Yeah.

32:57.42
karagoodwin
Right.

33:00.45
Lily Allen_Duenas
Forms like I couldn't get a driver's license in France approved and I still to this day. They just like rejected my application and it's like this is ridiculous because anyway, so just all of the red tape all of the shenanigans.

33:05.38
karagoodwin
Um, I really oh my god oh yeah, yes. And I can only imagine that well I bet France is similar to italy I mean red tape when we live there. Oh my gosh couldn't believe it was like oh yeah, yeah, right.

33:20.15
Lily Allen_Duenas
Yeah I would say so. And it doesn't make sense too right? You're always like but it would be logical if Xyz they're like no, it's definitely qpl and you're like ah that's not logical. Ah.

33:35.97
karagoodwin
Ah I Love that.. That's so funny. Well well this has just been delightful. Thank you so much Lily for being here and thank you for everything that you're doing to spread your light. And really help people to transform and connect to their their to themselves to their higher selves and and and get that whole wholeness within them. It's really beautiful.

34:07.35
Lily Allen_Duenas
Thank you so much for your kind words and thank you for having me. It's been such? Yeah, such a delight and a joy to be with you.

34:14.41
karagoodwin
Wonderful. Thank you.