Learning to Listen with Rochelle Schieck - EP 003

 

 

In this episode, I get to talk to one of my favorite people on the planet, Rochelle Schieck. She’s the founder of Qoya Inspired Movement, and author of "Qoya: A Compass for Navigating an Embodied Life that is Wise, Wild, and Free.”

Rochelle shares her wisdom in the field of personal transformation and embodiment practices. She brings a deep connection to nature to her teachings. She has led over one hundred retreats and has a dedicated community of women who have experienced the transformative power of Qoya. 

You’re going to love her approach to movement and self-connection. It goes beyond traditional fitness and focuses on being present and tuning into how it feels rather than how it looks.

This is a juicy conversation and we cover a lot of topics including: 

• Creating a connection with ourselves and with nature. 
• How staying connected is possible. 
• Ways to take small steps in awareness and connection through out your day.
• A morning practice, 5 minutes to 5 hours! 
• How Qoya began and why Rochelle is dedicated to this work. 
• How movement can help you understand what’s true and right and aligned in your life.   

 

Episode Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

01:17 Origin Story of Qoya Inspired Movement

06:01 Living the Teachings of Qoya

07:08 Connecting with Self and Nature

13:53 Influence of the Q’ero People of Peru

14:29 Right Relationship and the Progression of Qoya

26:47 Finding Balance and Alignment

28:45 Importance of Morning Rituals

36:14 Making Subtle Changes and Experimenting

41:06 Upcoming Offerings and Programs

43:18 Compliment for Rochelle and Conclusion

 

Rochelle's unique perspective and commitment to living what she teaches are principles that have made her a trusted mentor and inspiration to many. Get ready to be inspired as Rochelle shares her wisdom and insights on the transformative power of Qoya Inspired Movement.

You can connect with Rochelle and learn more about her work at:

https://www.qoya.love/

https://www.instagram.com/rochelleschieck/

https://www.instagram.com/qoya.love/

https://www.facebook.com/EmbodyQoya

https://www.youtube.com/user/qoyamovement

 

If you’re ready to have a deeper conversation about how to maximize impact, profit and pleasure in your business and life, you can schedule a time to connect with me right here >>>

 

Did this message resonate with you? If you are enjoying the show, it would mean so much to me if you would take a few minutes to leave a review. Reviews like yours help podcasters like me get my podcast into the ears of more people. Thank you in advance for taking a minute to share your kind words. 

 

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Episode Transcript

 

Rachel (00:03.215)

Hello again and welcome to Pleasure and Profits. I'm your host, Rachel Anzalone. And today I have a really special guest with me. I'm so excited to share with you. Her name is Rochelle Schieck. She is the founder of Qoya Inspired Movement, the author of Qoya, a compass for navigating an embodied life that is wise, wild and free. She's also a mother and steward of the land that she lives on in upstate New York. 

Rochelle has led over 100 retreats, of which I have attended probably six or seven at this point and have one on the schedule already for January. 

Welcome Rochelle, I'm so, so excited for you to be here.

 

Rochelle Schieck (00:48.046)

Thank you, Rachel. I'm honored to be here with you, who I adore, being connected to and sharing with, and you being one of my most trusted business coaches. And then also really grateful to be in the shared awareness around the topic of this podcast and all that are called to it in reimagining how our work can be full of purpose, pleasure, and please, a little profit.

 

Rachel (01:17.487)

Yes, absolutely. I will share how I came upon QOYA and what my experience has been. But I first I would love for you to share how QOYA Inspired Movement came to be.

 

Rochelle Schieck (01:18.007)

No, no, no.

 

Rochelle Schieck (01:32.482)

Well, the origin story is really being in a women's circle where one woman rose her hand and said, everyone keeps telling me I need to get out of my head and into my body. And she said, if that's like about fitness, I'm screwed. Cause she said, I've tried the gym, it's torture, yoga's boring, I can never get in the right level dance class, I hurt my back trying pole dancing.

And what I heard was a question under the question, where instead of how do I get out of my head and into my body, this other co-occurring question of, what does it actually feel like when I, my eternal soul, spirit, higher self, lands in the impermanent, ever-changing nature of the body? So this is like the definition of incarnation itself, is the thing that animates our body when it comes in.

How do we inhabit our body in a way that we feel like ourselves? So that was really the guiding question. And I thought, hey, why don't we approach this as the opposite of how we've learned to be in our bodies? So instead of focusing on being goal-orientated, it'll be really focused on being in the present. Instead of focusing on how it looks, we're going to focus on how it feels. And we're going to keep self-referencing our intuition to track the times and places where we feel resonance and practice in low stakes of a movement class that's like yoga, dance, and intuitive movement, so that when we move out into the world, in our work, in our relationships, and making daily decisions in our lives, that we can take that feeling of what is truly ours, embody it, and live it.

 

Rachel (03:19.031)

So beautiful. And one of the things that really stands out to me that I've experienced myself is that evolution from, I just want to feel better in my body, to, oh, this is the underlying message of everything in my entire universe. 

And so when I found Qoya, I was recently divorced. I had moved away from the city that I was in. I had left the business that I had been in for a long time. And I moved to a new city, Minneapolis, which is your hometown. Though you weren't living there at the time, you had cultivated a really brilliant community of women there who were gathering for Qoya classes on a regular basis. And somebody told me about it. I showed up thinking I was going to a fitness class in my yoga gear, ready to be a good student and do all the right moves and get a workout. 

And very quickly learned that I was in an entirely different experience that really just over a series of experience of showing up class after class, really transformed my life in an incredible way. 

And I've told you this that I feel like, um, Qoya was my therapy that you probably saved me thousands of dollars on, on therapy sessions because it was, it just became this place where I could reconnect with myself, where I was moving emotion through my body. I was opening up and talking about things and it was really transformative in such a physical and emotional way during that time period. 

But then, you know, I can measure my life in before Qoya, after Qoya, before each retreat, after each retreat, because there's such a transformative experience that happens and the layers just keep unfolding into what has really become my way of being in the world. And it's what I admire so much about you and why I really count you among my greatest teachers and mentors is that, you really live it. You embody it in such a way that just to be around you and to be engaged with you and to see your example of how this work underlies everything is so powerful for, I think, for thousands of women who have participated in classes and come to retreats. Thank you for that.

 

Rochelle Schieck (06:01.782)

Rachel, I feel so emotional.

 

Rachel (06:04.095)

I know me too. Or I'm like, you're my first guest and we're both going to cry. So this is what this podcast will be. Um, I mean, it really just has been such a profound experience for me. And, uh, one of the things that, like I said, that I really admire so much about you is your ability to live what you teach and you know, none of us are perfect. 

What I would say is there are a lot of people out there being gurus or claiming to be gurus and you are the polar opposite of that. That you are just there to ask the questions and to do your best and be an example. And I would love for you to talk about how you have, how you on a daily basis connect with yourself in order to live these principles that you're teaching.

 

Rochelle Schieck (07:08.603)

Thank you. I really appreciate your reflection and the way that it touched my heart because there's so many times where I feel so passionately and kind of have this thing where I'll say to myself, like, if it just genuinely helps one person, it will all be worth it because our lives are so sacred.

And there's so many times where things can get compartmentalized and we can leave the voice of our body, our heart, our spirit, and kind of get on the momentum tunnel of society and so it's like reconnecting with the body and reconnecting with the self that sounds like has just become the way that you live now and that Qoya has been supporting it along. I know you do so many things. There's so many things that are supporting it.

And it’s my deepest prayer that we're really able to come into communities of practice to invite and reflect this way of living and to start to deconstruct the normalization of being deeply disconnected to self-exhausted and not really resonating with what we're doing. So it can get quite existential quite quickly around like who am I and what am I up to?

And I really heard in your reflection this clarity around remembering self and making conscious decisions around moving forward. And so thank you. And then that really goes into the question around, okay, so how to stay connected to self. How do I? 

Basically, I was speaking with someone recently and just sharing about my morning ritual. And they were like, what are you talking about? (Rachel: Hahaha) That is insane. Because it hasn't always been this way, but I used to really struggle against getting a daily morning ritual. And I would notice, I do research, the days when I did it, things would kind of flow. And the days when I didn't, I'd be like “Ahhhhhh!”

And so I started to really prioritize it. I also have a four and a half year old very energetic rambunctious son. So the times that I get are really like these early morning hours. So let's say 5am and we're going into winter now. I'll make myself a fire and then I'll like heat up some coconut oil and put it all over my body. And then do some version of yoga or Qoya or something. I'll pull a card, I'll journal, but I'll basically really be with myself and to that place where I feel embodied. 

And then the biggest thing that I'm also doing is really invoking nature as a teacher. So whatever questions I'm holding, there's a stream that's like 100 feet from my house, so I'll often go out, put my feet in the stream, but ask, like, aloud the questions to the nature that is right there, listen very deeply, and also see. So for example, today I went out to the stream and I made like a little offering and just kind of shared a little bit about what I was going on today.

And what I, I just was listening to the water. And as I was listening, I heard that love is listening. It's like this art of our attention. And so much of my prayer is often, you know, how do I weave this deeper purpose, this love that I feel inside of me, into my relationships, into my work, into my parenting, into all the things I'm gonna do today. And I really feel that. And I feel like I'm listening more.

And it was from the experience of really listening to the creek that I felt like I was able to experience and receive it. But I've guided thousands of people through this simple, like whatever question you're holding, like look out the window, walk outside. And so many times people get such profound wisdom of, you know, over the weekend it was like someone like, oh, all the leaves have fallen off the trees. And I can see how exposed the branches are, and that's exactly how I feel right now and what I need as I go into the conversations I'm gonna have today. 

And so I feel like one of the things that I'm most passionate about is really demystifying. So it's like you can be with your body in any way, just finding a way that you enjoy, a way that you feel nurtures your embodied presence. And then the connecting with nature for me is also that it's not abstract. It's not the conceptual idea of nature. It's literally having a personal relationship, like how you and I are connected, and we'll sit down and talk, to develop a personal relationship with nature. And for those that are following neuroscience attachment styles and things, this is a secure attachment. This is what nature is offering us. It's offering us a source of unconditional love every day of our lives, everywhere we go.

 

Rachel (12:28.591)

Wow.

 

Rochelle Schieck (12:34.462)

And so for most of us that are struggling with connection to self, others, purpose, whatever it is, nature is this incredible way to practice the love and as a guide, like when we're young and we're held by something that's bigger than us, our body relaxes. So also from a nervous system perspective, nature offers us something bigger that we can be held in.

And most of us feel this intuitively, but making it really conscious and practicing receiving support is going to open up all these other aspects of our life. I would say that the majority of challenges that we're facing as individuals in a collective are going to be this disconnect from nature, this disconnect from the body and this disconnect from compassionate curiosity, which could sometimes be described by engaging with an archetypical feminine inquiry. So those are the things that bring a sense of balance and harmony of elixir and salve to the challenges that are just part of the way our modern society is constructed. So we went a few different directions, but that's my answer.

 

Rachel (13:53.187)

It's beautiful. And I know that so much of your connection to nature, I mean, I'm sure that you have many influences in the area, but I know that your connection with the Q'ero people of Peru and that influence on the development of Qoya, which is a Quechuan word, is a huge component of that. Would you talk a little bit about how you found yourself there, how that became part of this and what that relationship looks like now.

 

Rochelle Schieck (14:29.806)

Mm-hmm. Yes, so I had started teaching the class, like I had mentioned, after that women's circle in New York City in 2009. And then my life interpersonally fell apart. I found out this boyfriend that I loved and wanted to marry, had this double life. And so in my sense of being full of despair, I was curious around, how do we actually heal from heartbreak?

Like what actually helps? And I found that through looking at the situation from a soul-based perspective, there was a lot of medicine there. And so I signed up for this program in Peru studying energy medicine, soul retrieval. And when I was there, I was going with this big prayer around my purpose and in hiking this mountain called Selcantay.

I went and basically said, you know, “Dear spirit, please tell me what to do and if you make it clear, I will listen.” And it was a five-day pilgrimage up the mountain, got my journal, and basically what I received at the top was as you're working with this class, it's really all about feeling. And feeling is what helps us sensitize after being desensitized from the challenges of modern life, and that as we feel, we're really looking at awakening this sense of living a lifestyle of reverence, living in alignment with ourselves, our heart. 

And the Q'ero teachings, the culture, has one main law, one rule, and that's a right relationship. So the progression, that was 14 years ago, so I've gone on a very, very big journey. Qoya translates in Quechua as queen, as if the Inca were the king, the Inca empire, the Qoya were the queen, and that it was also this, it's this energy force that brings creation, that brings things to completion. It's the harmony, like the yin and the yang. The Qoya would be the yin energy to the Inca yang.

But everything in that tradition is of the harmonization of complementary opposites. So it's this harmonizing energy. And basically where I am now, after 14 years and after the last four or five years, studying very much in depth with the Q'ero, before I would go to Peru once a month, excuse me, once a year for about a month. 

And now because of COVID, an online school opened that through the We're a Coach of Foundation, Elizabeth Jenkins, who I love and work with and teach with, and been on Zoom three hours every Sunday with the Q'ero for the last four years. So my teachings have been able to really deepen. And basically where I am now is that right relationship is the founding exploration in our practice of Qoya Inspired movement.

So the class, the movement part is, how do we come into right relationship with ourselves? All those things you described. There's a lot of sharing components in the class. How do we come into right relationship with one another? Actively listen, reflect. Then there's always an encouragement to come into right relationship with nature, making offerings, really inviting nature's wisdom in, honoring that anything we wanna learn about, Mother Nature is already a master teacher of. 

And then asking the question once we've come into a deeper sense of our own individual wellbeing, how do we be in service to collective wellbeing, and how do we come into right relationship with society and culture? So that's the bigger progression that's been happening in Qoya of moving from an awareness, and specifically in an individual awareness practice, to really looking at the right relationship between ourselves and our role in the world we share.

 

Rachel (18:49.583)

It's really beautiful. I have eight side topics I want to go to now. (Rochelle: I know it's how it is, right?) I know. So one is first I would like to, I would love for you to share about the relationship with the Q'ero and what their experience is of teaching you and others on Zoom which I think is really cool. And I've actually been on a couple of calls where they were teaching and sharing, and it's really beautiful. And I know that some of the women came to Costa Rica this year for the first time. I would love to hear a little bit about that and how this relationship has evolved that is really allowing them to share their information in a greater way to the world through teachers like yourself and like Elizabeth.

 

Rochelle Schieck (19:46.19)

Hmm. Yes, well, let's see here. I feel like one place to start is that I had done a formal ceremony with them a few years ago to ask permission to use the name Qoya. And the response was one of the things that I love so much about working with them is I feel like so many of the things that they'll share feel like brilliant common sense. (Rachel: Hahaha)

And so after I told the story about going to Peru, teaching the class, it growing, and really wanting to be in right relationship, they said the first thing you need to understand is you're not special. Like, thousands of people from all over the world come to Peru for personal healing and insights on their purpose. 

And Mother Nature is sharing the same message with everybody. This is a time to reconnect with the earth. This is a time to restore the feminine. This is a time for really coming into harmony and finding the practices that do that. And they said the difference is you did something about what you heard. And so congratulations, you can hear mountains.

This is the message of this time, this is the medicine of this time. But they're like, they really wanted me to understand like you didn't get a special message. (Rachel: Hahaha) This is just, this is like the world we're living in now. And so that being said, I share that because this is really their purpose. So for them, the messages they're getting from Mother Earth are “share with everyone, empower teachers, tell them to share with people.” 

It basically can be really you know, simplified and to get your feet on the earth and listen for your instructions. And so everything that the Q’ero are going to share with you are practices around how they get into a sense of right relationship with nature and trust what they're hearing. But that it's time to re-establish personal relationships with nature. 

And so one of the main ways that one does that is by making an offering. And there are beautiful traditions of ways to do that and at the center of it they'll often always say “the most important thing is that you do it with your whole heart.” And so when I work with people in retreats, often I'll do that through storytelling. So instead of saying like thank you to the water and water becomes abstract or intellectual. Like think of a time in your life where you had a deeply healing experience with water.

And I'm sure everyone that's listening can think of that time they jumped in the ocean, you know, and like their tears came down, that time where they took an incredible bath, that time where they jumped in a lake, whatever it was. And then tune into the feeling of where your experience with water was an interface with the consciousness of water. And then from that place, say thank you and make an offering. And in that offering, you have opened up space for yourself to receive. Ask the question that you have and remember how to listen. 

And I think that there’s so much wisdom in nature when we remember how to listen. But it takes a little time to build our own trust. And I think the easiest way is also to track your nervous system. If you feel anxious and worried, you know, maybe that's not it. But if you start to hear the thing that you exhale, okay, you know, noticing the state of your nervous system that you're in. 

So in collaboration, it’s been a dream come true. So we did a retreat in Costa Rica with myself, Elizabeth, and the Q’ero Nustapacos. The Nustapacos are the women that's focused specifically with the healing forces of nature. And what we would do is they would teach, and then the next day I would offer a Qoya-inspired movement session to integrate their teachings. 

And so I'm working on doing that with the Paco School, like creating videos and Elizabeth, who's been working with the Q'ero and teaching this tradition alongside them for 35 years, shared that her experiences, Qoya really supports because the transmission of these teachings comes through the heart. It's not a worksheet. It's this ability to connect through the heart so that by coming into the body, she's found that the more people do the embodiment practices in Qoya, the quicker they understand and the deeper their prayer and the more open their heart is to learning. So that's exactly the format. I'm actually headed to Peru next week. So we'll be with the Q’eropacos every afternoon. And then the next morning, I'll offer an embodiment session to stretch out to allow more space to track and notice in the body the teachings and the transmissions that are coming through. And I'm really committed to that. We did a huge fundraiser in the Qoya community, and we're able to raise $75,000 to open a cultural center for the Q’ero in Cusco. And I feel like my life is really looking at the ways that Qoya Inspired Movement can continue to be a way to amplify the teachings of the Q’ero around reconnecting with nature, around exploring right relationship, and that the ways that we can collaborate and...

Another thing is I'm bringing a documentary filmmaker to Peru. So also hoping to share with people that way so that all that are feeling the stirring inside themselves can have more access points to work directly with the Q’ero and these indigenous teachings and acknowledge that they are feeling called to share. And so many people are feeling called to learn.

 

Rachel (26:17.743)

Again, eight topics I want to go to. But I do really want to talk about this underlying message and this theme of reciprocity and listening specifically in the context of business and in your business. And for me, what that represents in the work that I do is finding this balance between the impact that you want to have in the world, the experience, you know, not putting yourself into a state of overwork, over-stress, exhaustion in order to reach these external goals that we often set for ourselves, profitability, which is the thing that allows us to give $75,000 to an organization and build and support who we want to support, and that… so much of what I see and while I've worked with you as a coach and a mentor in some ways, I'm also learning from you simultaneously around all of this. 

One of the things, and I think I shared this with you at the time, you messaged me one day and said, I didn't get the thing done because I woke up and I was called to go to the river and then I went to the river and then all of a sudden hours had gone by and I thought, I just love that you listened to that because then while you were there you received a message that impacted what it was you were going to create. And if you had ignored that calling and sat down and made yourself do the work regardless, you would have then had to redo it at some later point or it wouldn't have been entirely resonant.

Let's talk about that and how you have built your business, grown it, and how you continue to involve it with, I mean, you're a smart business woman. You're not just often the ethers like woo woo, like not connected to anything that's going on here. You're a smart business woman. You've built something that really has had significant impact and you listen to yourself, and you are in this, you're focused on this reciprocity through the work that you do.

 

Rochelle Schieck (28:45.916)

Thank you. It is, it's such a dance to… complete the tasks and things that need to be done, but it's also this thing around not about what you do, but the state of consciousness you're in as you do it. And so I would say one of the things I hear so often with the Q’ero is get connected. And if you're not connected, that's your priority. And then once you get connected, stay connected. 

And so what does that mean? You know, how do you feel that you are in alignment with your life force, with the things that are happening around you, but that where you're in resonance, you're in relationship, you're connected, versus I'm completely disconnected but I'm just checking off things. And I've found that when making decisions, I want to get into the most connected conscious place I can because the quality of content and decision making is extraordinarily exponentially higher. And of course, very human and days where it's like, okay, today is a trudge day. Like who is gonna read these emails if it's not me? I've been at the river all week, but you know. 

So I guess I just mean to say that I have a deeper trust, but I really push the edge of, you know, completing things quote unquote ‘on time.’ However, I think for me, it is that deeper noticing of alignment. And if I'm not aligned, this is just not the place. This is not the time. 

And so I pay for that, you know, I always give myself permission to do an experiment. Like sometimes there's deadlines and it's like you just have to have it done. And so I'll be like, okay, this contract said is it needs to be signed for this retreat center. I don't have a hundred percent, but I have like 85% so ‘Sign it, let's see what happens.’ Hahaha, You know, and then I'll just notice. And because I don't want to over romanticize this like holy moment of like full on connection and then I can only make decisions from that place. 

But I think it's just wherever you are noticing where you are and then being in that experiment and then the best that we can of course all day every day. How can I drop into a more authentic, resonant, honest place where I can listen?

 

Rachel (31:47.135)

I think that's a really important thing you just said, which is we sort of have this idea that it's going to be this, you know, angels coming down singing like this is the thing to do. For me, what I notice often is it's like, this actually just doesn't feel good, this thing, right? Like, I'm not excited about it, or it feels like I'm pushing a little too hard, or, you know, I've been procrastinating it. 

Why am I procrastinating? Is it because it's not a good fit, it's not the right thing, it's not the right timing, because I need to go take a walk instead of like forcing myself to do the thing right now. That is often just having the awareness of this doesn't feel right in my body in this moment and sometimes it's just an hour later now it does feel right or a day later or a week later and not being attached to the timing that so often we create these plans and these strategies and these goals, and then we get so caught up in hitting them that we lose track of feeling good in the process.

 

Rochelle Schieck (32:53.918)

Yeah, I mean, I think that's a beautiful way to articulate the inclusion of your body, mind, heart, soul, of just noticing how you feel. And again, like uncoupling from the conditioning that feeling awful or things feeling dissonant is normal. Because I think there's like you know there's a lot of subtle energy here too where there's resistance or growth edges but then there's also like knowing your own system and your own body well enough to know what yeses and nos and maybes and growth edges feel like.

 

Rachel (33:45.623)

Yeah, I feel like that's the key thing is that there isn't, there's no right or wrong, it's just getting to know yourself well enough to know what's right for you.

 

Rochelle Schieck (33:56.306)

Yeah, and permission to really get a little journal down. I made a decision journal. I made this decision, and this is how I felt about it. And what happens?

 

Rachel (34:09.615)

And there's no, it's not, there's no like class that you take and then you're just like, and now I know how to do this. It's really just like any relationship, it's the relationship you have with yourself and it's about getting to know yourself in layers or remembering, which is a word that you use a lot that I think is really important is that, much of this we knew as children and then we've forgotten it through conditioning. And so it's remembering those things that were true to us then. We knew when we were hungry, we knew when we needed sleep, we knew when we were ready to play, we knew when we needed a hug, and we lose track of those things through the conditioning of life, of our society or culture.

 

Rochelle Schieck (34:57.77)

Yeah, and I think that from a nervous system perspective, it's also like those things are gonna happen. And so let's say you do have to override, you have to do something even though you're tired, you have to, you know, whatever, it's just also noticing that and then offering the repair, offering the compassion, like, okay, I have to push for these three days, but then I'm gonna take a day off and take care of myself. So that there's space for, you know, living a human life in 2023, almost 2024, and also that by living life, there's also an inclusion of the honest experience we’re having.

 

Rachel (35:47.659)

Yeah, and back to this idea that we often have that things need to be like big and flashy and profound. I want to go back to you talked about your morning routine, which I think is epic. And and I've had various versions of, you know, longer or shorter morning routines at different times, something that I think is really important to think about because people have different circumstances. They have children, they have spouses, they have busier schedules or less busy, you know, like whatever those factors are that contribute to the amount of time that they have in their day is that the key thing that you said was finding the things that allow you to really be present and be connected with yourself. And that could be five minutes or that could be five hours. 

 

Rochelle Schieck (36:44.66)

Yeah.

 

Rachel (36:45.055)

And there is no formula. It's finding what works for you. And I think that's true throughout your day that sometimes it's just taking three minutes to do some heart breathing or just, you know, maybe you don't have 20 minutes to take a walk, but could you step outside and just let the sun hit your face for 30 seconds and take a breath and then go back and finding those small ways to reconnect with yourself in the morning throughout the day, to set yourself up to be able to be more present and to make decisions from the heart and all of that, that it doesn't have to be, I threw my whole life out the window and started over, that it can be just subtle changes. And the more you make those subtle changes and the more you get a little bit more connected and a little bit more connected.

Magic sort of happens, life evolves, opportunities show up, relationships change.

 

Rochelle Schieck (37:44.174)

Mm-hmm.

Yes, and I think it goes back to that like get connected, stay connected. So whatever helps you get connected, whatever that frequency of time is, and I think it's just prioritizing noticing what does, you know, like the connection could be like the coffee mug, you know, if that helps you get in your body, great, like whatever it is. And then also like from a work perspective, I did this experiment once where it was, I'm going to go into the day like without being connected and just do all the things I'm supposed to do and I'm going to track the progress. 

And this was maybe 16 years ago. I was working, I was trying to find visionary architects. A friend of mine had a business and was like, you need to find me like 10 visionary architects. So he gave me like all these lists and it was a very silly job. Anyways, so I would do like the cold calling and like just trying to talk to people.

And then I would do this other thing, like the next day, where I would just get myself into the most pleasure-based state I could, and whatever that was. And then I would work. And what I found very quickly, very easily, is like the cold call just go through it days. It was like I wasn't getting people on the phone, they weren't connecting. And then on like the pleasure-focused days, it was like they just, they never answer the phone, but they answered the phone, or someone called me, like they heard that I called someone else and they weren't interested, but then they gave someone else the number. 

It was such a wildly obvious example of energetics at play that I offer that to people too. It doesn't, you know, just to experiment, like, okay, I'm going to do this the way I've always done it. Okay, great. Notice what happens. And then I'm going to really prioritize. Like even though I don't think I have time, I'm gonna make time just to get into the best feeling state, whatever that is, a yoga class, a hike, a bath, you know, you do you, and then I'm just gonna notice how it practically, measurably impacts the work that I do that day.

 

Rachel (40:01.179)

is a brilliant and fantastic place for us to end, I believe. I think that's a great, a great tip, a great experiment for people to walk away with and just play with in their lives on a daily basis.

Rochelle Schieck (40:16.246)

I mean, what's the harm? It's like, oh no, I should have really, I should have not connected to myself. I can't believe I took 30 minutes for that class. It was so stupid. You know, it's like, no. There's like no one that like isn't in their body enough or couldn't like do with a little like reconnection time. So like the, in this experiment, there's very little harm. Ha ha ha.

 

Rachel (40:42.391)

There's very little harm. And I love that it's an experiment because you're just testing. Like, let's just see what happens if I show up this way instead of that way.

I love it. Thank you so much. I would love for you if you would just tell us where you're at now, what's evolving, what's coming up, anything you wanna share with us about what's going on in the world of Qoya Inspired Movement.

 

Rochelle Schieck (41:09.61)

Yeah, I've been working on a new website for a long time, so once that's up, there's gonna be a free offering called Resonance, and it's really about nourishing your nervous system, and so it's these really simple ways to drop in, and then there's also a program called Return, and it's a 10-day journey to come back to your body, and so it's getting these daily emails that are so beautiful with movement rituals and opportunities to take some of the ideas we've talked about here.

And then I also lead retreats. I also do facilitation training. I think that's one of the things after leading a hundred retreats over the last 14 years, I do deeply love it. And I'm feeling really called to support this next group of people that really wanna focus on facilitation. Whether that would be movement, being a teacher of something else, or a community organizer and bringing people together in ways that create a lot of embodied presence through movement, heart connection through ritual. And I also am really passionate about something I do called LORE, which stands for Lifestyle of Reverence Every Day. And it's a monthly membership community where there's an invitation to drop in for live sessions or access recordings. 

But like what we're talking about with this daily practice is really this, LORE stands for Lifestyle of Reverence Every Day. So what do we do to bring us into a place of presence and of being able to navigate the sacredness of our lives in ways that are nourishing and fulfilling.

 

Rachel (42:48.547)

That is beautiful. We will certainly be sure to share your links to all these things. And I just want to add that you are teaching facilitation, you support other teachers in learning to be better facilitators, and you are without a doubt the most skilled facilitator I've ever been in the presence of. 

We'll end with one beautiful compliment for you, which is always your ability to be present and just allow things to unfold and to trust that people can be there for themselves, to trust that we all have the ability to get what we need and to care for ourselves in the way that we need to be cared for is really a beautiful experience. And it's just a testament to you living the work that you're teaching.

So thank you for that. (Rochelle: Thank you, Rachel.) And thank you for being here. And thank you, everyone, for listening. And we will catch you in the next episode. Have a great day.