The Birth of Amplified Yoga with Donovan McGrath | Yoga Scussion Preview

[00:00:00] Speaker A: I went to a Kundalini yoga class yesterday. Never heard this word in my life. And he said, we were chanting, we were moving, we were breathing, we were crying, we were laughing. And of course I lit right up because all you want to do as a young actor is feel and emote and have these experiences where you can just throw your guts out on the stage. And so I was like, sign me up, let's go. And I went the next day to HB Studio in New York City and took my first Kundalini class. And it was for real. The moment that lit the passion of my fire that still burns today, it completely changed my life. I had never done anything like that, experienced anything like that. I've been in my body in that way, although I was, you know, athletic and fit, you know, but I had never just like worked with my breath and with my concentration, moved my body in these particular positions. And I believe in that first day I had a minor Kundalini awakening and. And I walked out onto the streets in New York City and everything around me just looked different. It looked more vibrant, more beautiful. I was more grounded on my body. I was in a state of bliss and high energy and that's what started me on my journey. And luckily I was in a space where the yoga scene was just burgeoning in New York, you know, so Jeeva Mukti was there and, you know, so many places were just popping up and incredible teachers were coming. So I had like, you know, a huge opportunity to learn. And I did. I just became obsessed with no idea that it would become the thing that I would always ultimately put all of my, or most of my attention to in terms of my work. At the time, it was just to increase my ability as an artist and to be in my body and just to, to react more truthfully on stage and things of that nature. But so many things about the theater and acting and empathy and energy and were going hand in hand with the, with the yoga and the Kundalini especially. So it wasn't long after that that I did my first yoga teacher training at Shivananda and all the rest is history. [00:01:50] Speaker B: Well, and that's such a fascinating connection, right? Because, you know, on the surface there might be people or listeners who look at Amplified Yoga and then maybe they'll have thoughts on like, well, this is not traditional yoga, but you started from these like traditional lineage based yoga systems, right? So like, how does one get from there to Amplified Yoga? [00:02:12] Speaker A: Well, it was just an opportunity that came. I had no idea that this was going to come through. Amplified Yoga came many years later. This was around 2018, 2019 at Wanderlust, which, you know, Wonderlust, they created some of the biggest yoga festivals in the world that were also incorporating music. Many teachers that I'm sure a lot of your listeners know went through the Wonderlust, you know, festivals and taught there, et cetera. And so I was teaching at their studio in Hollywood and somebody called me from there and said, would you like to teach a deep house yoga class? And I said, okay, sure. A DJ brought this idea, we'll do some yoga. Let's be clear. Asana Vinyasa is what the expectation was to some house music. And so that was a Sunday at 6pm at the beautiful stage of Wanderlust. And I think I did some semblance of a sun salutation as the music was going. And something just really opened up in me and I just started speaking. I was like, get up. And had people start moving their body in different way. And I started asking them questions about their psyche, their energy, their heart, to imagine things that they wanted to create, manifestation things along these, these lines, you know, liberating their body from just things that are held in there. As we know, you know, the body keeps score and to, to release and liberate themselves from long held beliefs and physical restrictions in their body. And the hour and a half passed and ended and people were kind of in shock and, and so moved. And some people came up afterwards literally in tears because it can be a very emotional, cathartic experience. And they're like, what did we just do? What just happened? And I was like, I'm not quite sure. Come back next Sunday. Let's see where this goes, you know. Yeah. And you know, right after that, I just started doing it every Sunday. The classes were packed. Within a year, I was headlining all the Wonderlust festivals. I went even more deeply. I just started what I felt, receiving information about what the next steps were. It was just so organic, you know. And one of them was to go deeper into my Kundalini training. Although I had been practicing Kundalini for 25 years at that point I just wanted to go deeper. So I went to Yoga west and I met with a man named Guru Singh, who's still an incredible teacher and somebody who really inspires me. And I just went into another teacher training for Kundalini at the same time as this was all evolving and just went very, very deep into that practice because it became clear that it was not going to be a Vinyasa yoga experience. Kundalini really speaks to me. And then there's so much more that I bring to it other than the traditional Kundalini teachings. [00:04:41] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, thanks for that. [00:04:43] Speaker A: And I love that you said that a lot of people might look at this and say, this isn't traditional yoga. And I do definitely do get those comments. And as I was. Because very traditional Kundalini was taught at Wanderlust. And some people were like, well, that's not yoga. That's not Kundalini. And I beg to differ. I think a lot of people actually have a big misconception about what yoga is, and they think it is the asana. They think it is the Vinyasa or the Ashtanga's theories by Pattabhi Joyce, which was invented in the, you know, in the 19th, 20th century and, you know, for. For young boys, for. For athleticism and things of that nature, you know, and that's what people think are yoga. But what we're doing in that space in Amplify definitely is using many, many aspects of the yoga practice and philosophy. So it is. It might not be what people consider traditional, but it certainly is using the yogic principles and technologies, no doubt.