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Yogaland Podcast

Cyndi Lee: Building Resilience Through Meditation and Sustainable Yoga

Yogaland Podcast

Andrea Ferretti

Health & Fitness, Yoga, Yogaland

4.81.5K Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2019

⏱️ 62 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today, we're talking to Cyndi Lee, who was the first Western female yoga teacher to combine Tibetan Buddhism and yoga. 


Cyndi and I worked together many times when I was an editor at Yoga Journal and I have so much respect for her. You'll see why in this candid, down-to-earth interview. Cyndi is is not only inspiring, but she's a living testament to how practicing yoga and meditation for many years can help you navigate life's ups and downs with grace.


We talk about:


* Cyndi's career as a professional dancer in the 1980s--including what it was like working with Cyndi Lauper


* The journey that led Cyndi to open the legendary Om Yoga studio in New York City


* Her recent studies that led her to become a Buddhist chaplain, what that entails, and how that intersects with yoga for her


* Cyndi's double hip replacement, what she learned from it, and how the healing process is going for her. Plus, she shares what advice she’d give to others who are facing a similar situation.


Show notes; http://www.jasonyoga.com/podcast/episode152


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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey everyone I'm Andrea Ferretti and this is episode 152 of Yoga Land.

0:09.2

Today my guest is Cindy Lee and I feel like squealing like a little teenage girl or something. I just adore

0:16.8

Cindy. I worked with her a lot while I was at Yoga Journal and for years and I always just felt like we connected really well.

0:27.0

So having this conversation with her was so much fun, genuinely.

0:32.0

And I also have a great deal of respect for her. So I'll just

0:37.1

give you a snippet of her bio even though I'm sure you know who she is.

0:41.2

Cindy is the first female Western yoga teacher to fully integrate

0:44.6

Yoga Asana and Tibetan Buddhism in her teaching. In 1998 she founded Ome Yoga

0:50.3

Center in New York City which became a total Mecca.

0:54.0

Cindy is the author of five books, including Yoga Body Buda Mind, which you have probably heard of or have,

1:02.0

and also a memoir called May I Be Happy, a memoir of Love, Yoga,

1:06.8

and Changing My Mind.

1:08.8

In this conversation, I got to know a little bit more about Cindy's history, how she went from being a professional dancer to becoming

1:16.3

entrenched in yoga and Buddhism and founding Oom. I also got to ask her a question. I have always, always, always wanted to ask her and we had fun time talking about that.

1:26.5

And then we talked about the most recent part of her life, which includes doing a chaplain

1:30.9

sea at the Upaya Zen center under Roshi Joan Halifax and having a double hip replacement.

1:39.3

Not easy, right? So it was really helpful, I think, to all of us for her to share this story and to share how all of these years of

1:50.0

meditation practice and Ossina have given her a strong foundation to go through this type of surgery and quite frankly this type of life change.

2:01.6

She's really honest and I just appreciated it so much and had a

2:06.4

great time talking to her. So enjoy the interview with Cindy.

2:10.5

I actually do want to begin with some of your personal history because I think it's so interesting and it really feeds into where you are now.

2:23.0

So I know that you started out as a dancer and after college you moved to New York as a professional dancer and you were dancing.

...

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