Dina Cataldo (00:00):
Well, I have a treat for you, my client almond cost again, and I have a candid conversation about building a business while being a full time lawyer. What it's like coaching with me. We talk doubts, fears, all that good stuff. And we talk about her business called beyond yoga for lawyers, and she's built it during a pandemic in case you've forgotten.

Dina Cataldo (01:01):
What's happened over the last year. This conversation covers all things mindset at the very last minute of our conversation, almond shared the most important nugget of wisdom. So be sure to listen all the way to the end, to hear it now, before we jump in, I want you to pay attention to a few things. Almond talks about really pay attention to this because you can use them in your life. She talks about her experience in learning how to make decisions, while feeling uncertainty and how she worked through that. She talks about learning how to have her own back after making a decision. She talks about the value. She places on service. This is so incredibly important for all of us to hear. She talks about how she thinks about perfectionism and moves through it. And I know if you're listening to this, you have at least a little bit of perfectionism happening in your life.

Dina Cataldo (02:02):
She also talks about how she moves away from hustle mode and comes into ease while working and how she brought down the walls in her brain to start talking to the people in her orbit about her business. These are all things that I talk about with all of my clients and they're topics that I talk about here, but she talks about it in a very, you know, real world sense that she, you can like listen to and take away something from it that is very different. You're going to get a little flavor of her in it. You can access everything that we talk about, including some links to beyond yoga for lawyers at Dina, cataldo.com forward slash one 58. It's really important that you go there because almond has something special happening in just a couple of days. So if you're listening to this, when this is coming out on Thursday, June 3rd, then you're going to want to go to the website and up, because she's got something special happening on Saturday that she talks about in this podcast without further ado here is our conversation.

Dina Cataldo (03:09):
I wanted to do a podcast with you because we've had a lot of conversations about how our brains work, like our lawyer brain and all of the doubts and frustrations that come with building a business and having a law practice. And I want to have listeners get a perspective from someone who has really worked on themselves because you've worked a lot on yourself and growing yourself. Can you kind of like, just jump in and tell them who you are, you know, what kind of law you practice, all of that good stuff and tell them about the work that you have been doing on yourself to grow yourself.

Aman Costigan (03:53):
Sure. So, um, I'm a lawyer up in Canada. I'm a partner at a firm where I practice in, uh, professional regulatory law. So professional, uh, discipline with respect to colleges and the self-regulation of those professions. And I also have been practicing for eight years going on nine now, and I've always had this kind of desire to, um, start my own, uh, side business or some business. That was my own. And, um, that's how I came to working with you.

Dina Cataldo (04:29):
Tell me what drew you to coaching?

Aman Costigan (04:34):
Oh, I don't know if I've actually told you this, you know, but, um, I listened to your podcast probably for about a year before I even reached out for a consult with you. Um, the content really resonated with me and was very applicable in terms of like managing my own mind. But what I wanted to do was to take that a little bit further by working with you one-on-one so even booking the consult was a little bit of a struggle for me. Um, I remember it was in December of 2020, and I wasn't sure if like, you know, Christmas time was the right time or not, or, you know, maybe I should just wait until January. And I remember you and I had discussions about that, but I finally was like, okay, I'll book a consult. But then even then when I booked the consult, I was like, what are we going to talk about? It's an hour. I have no idea what we're going to talk about for a nap. Like, so those are some of the things going through my mind just to even kind of get to the consult stage.

Dina Cataldo (05:31):
Mm, okay. That's really interesting. You know, I don't know that you shared that with me. That's so cool. Tell me about the consult. Right? Cause I, I don't think you're alone in that. I think that there are a lot of people, like I can tell when they come to me, like, they're, they're a little nervous. They're not really sure what to expect. Tell me what your experience was of the consult.

Aman Costigan (05:50):
So when we met, Oh, um, the hour flew by, I remember that, um, because there's so much to talk about, right? Because you, you're trying to get a sense as to like how coaching, like how you and I can work together and what that might be. So for me, there's my law practice, which we've coached on, um, in our sessions, but also with that desire to start a side business, which is beyond yoga for lawyers now, but wasn't at the time when we started at our consult session, um, you had also flagged that as maybe something that was something that we could coach on as well.

Dina Cataldo (06:26):
Mm yeah, because I remember we were having some conversations about that. There were some decision making processes that were happening in your brain that weren't really serving what you wanted to create. Um, but there was one thing that kind of stuck out, which was you had, you were investing time in different areas like you are ambitious. Like I know from talking to you, you are very interested in creating a lifestyle that feels very freeing. And I think that people listening could resonate with that, but that also means that you invest your time in, you know, boards, you invest your time in your legal practice, you invest your time in personal growth that you were having some thoughts about how much time it was going to take and whether or not you should start right now. Tell me, tell me what was going on in your mind at that time.

Aman Costigan (07:23):
Yeah. So as much as I love personal growth and you would think I'd be all over, uh, the one-on-one coaching and going for it, there was some resistance for me. Part of it was, I think I didn't want to make a decision about the side business and I didn't want to be, I was more interested in kind of staying in the researching and the waiting for, you know, I don't know, some sort of shining light that was going to identify which of the three, uh, side businesses I wanted to start was going to be kind of highlighted for me. And that just wasn't happening over the years. And so, um, that was another thing.

Dina Cataldo (08:01):
Okay. So that was like, when you were really thinking about what you were, what you wanted to do and create, I mean, all of that was normal mental drama that we all have. And when we coached on this later in your decision making processes, I think it became really clear. And I've talked about this on the podcast too. It's like, we're going to have mental drama. We make a decision and then more drama happens and we get really uncomfortable. What was your experience in learning how to create a decision, like really going through that process of deciding yes, I am going to do beyond yoga for lawyers.

Aman Costigan (08:37):
Again, I think this is something I haven't totally shared with you, but it was super uncomfortable. I can go back to that coaching session, like in my mind, and I can relive like those feelings. There was a lot of discomfort, a lot of uncertainty for me because it was in one of those sessions where like, okay, we've now talked about all of these things and worked through them in terms of my vision for my life. Um, which is this, I'm building this empire of freedom. And so that's kind of my, my why and my vision. And so we worked through a few sessions going through the different business ideas that I had. And then you're like, okay, we're going to pick one. And I was like, I'm not ready to pick one. And then I remember leaving the meeting, like the session that we had and like telling my husband and being like, she made me pick one and I don't know if it was the right one. Like I remember asking him and be like, what's your opinion? Like, you know, do, and I was spend, I don't know, it was like the last month on talking about like going through the different things. And I was like, I still don't know if it's the right one. So there was still a lot of uncertainty. I didn't know if I trusted myself for picking the right one. Um, but then like, you know, looking back, I, I have no regrets and I'm just so happy that I, I made a decision.

Dina Cataldo (09:52):
I think it's so interesting that you said she made me pick one. I think that when we are, you know, ruminating, we're really staying in, like you had three areas you wanted to pursue. It's very easy to stay in research mode, but we're not getting any learning from that. And so we must decide in order to learn anything. Right. I think I remember this part. I remember telling you, look, you can change your mind. I remember saying that, and I think you said something like that was such a relief. Like you actually said, I could change my mind, which helped me make a decision. It was like, oh, I can make a decision. And when you made that decision, I love that. You said it was like, she made me, you may, when you, when you decided that we had another conversation about the other options and what do you remember about the mind drama that came up, if you had made another decision, would you have had any different thoughts?

Aman Costigan (10:58):
No. And, and I think that it was the same thing. Like whether it was, I picked option two, it was the same thoughts that were coming up and it was all the same. They all kind of, um, related, cause I know we did come back and we did talk about it the next week. And you said like, you know, are you comfortable with your decision that you made? Is this what you want to do? And then I said, yes. And then we had talked about, you know, the same, the same theme of questions was coming through for all of them.

Dina Cataldo (11:25):
Yeah. And, and I don't think we really see it and tell we're experiencing it when we have somebody else looking at what's going on in our brain. Like, we just think there should be a shining light and angels singing that we've made the right decision and then we move forward. But there's actually a lot of discomfort, a lot of, um, mental gymnastics that we do. And one of the things we tend to do is look to other people, is this the right? Like you said, you went to your husband, like, do you think this is right? You're asking yourself, is this right? You know, instead of just choosing and seeing what happens. Yes. Tell me what you have really created with beyond yoga, for lawyers. Like what is it that you have made, not just for yourself, but for the people that you're helping?

Aman Costigan (12:20):
Um, I think I, at first it started as, cause I remember we've had we've coached on this before, but it was, I was prepared to like give it up at certain points if it wasn't for our coaching sessions and knowing that I had committed to doing this. Um, but over time it's grown into a business and, um, a passion of mine that I love working on. And we've done, we've worked, I've worked with you on making sure that I'm coming from a place of like ease and, uh, fun. Most importantly, because I, my default is automatically the hustle, the hustle to grind, to work, to not take breaks, to work till late till keep doing like keep researching, making it better. Um, and so really a lot of my work has been and, um, having fun and if it's not fun, like that's why I started it. Right. That's that's the whole reason why I wanted to do it was to have fun, but also to help other lawyers and share this yoga practice that I've learned over the last eight years and how it's helped me with stress and just overall like awareness of myself, my mind, and living a life with intention and purpose.

Dina Cataldo (13:34):
Yeah. Again, I've noticed a difference in you when we make a decision and I'm talking to you, listener person, who's listening. Like when we make decisions, we start to see all of the thoughts between where we are right now and where we want to be. And so tell me, amen. Like when you made the decision that you did for beyond yoga for lawyers, what were, I dunno, like the top things you can think of top two, three things you can think of that were big pieces of your personal growth that you needed to either keep going or to create what you wanted to create.

Aman Costigan (14:18):
Um, I think one of them was, uh, like, do you mean, like, for example, like perfectionism, that was something that I had like ingrained in me, but knowing that I could, um, not be perfect every time. And that was something that was something for me, like, cause I, you know, I didn't want to post on social because it had to be perfect or I didn't want to put it out there because of what people would say or maybe, you know, I was worried about being judged. And so those are two pieces that I've been working through. One is perfectionism and just saying, you know, that email, I got, you know, I spelled a word wrong or um, something like that. Like that's okay because you know what, I got the email out and, you know, they wanted to hear from me and you know, what I shared was valuable and, um, remembering that people are gonna judge you no matter what. And so I have to just keep putting myself out there because I know that what I'm sharing can help other lawyers. And that's really my true, um, purpose as to what I'm working towards. So that's been another growth area of mine. Um, and also I would say the ease and the hustle versus the ease piece and having fun has been huge for me because like, like I said, like my default is just to work, work, work. Um, and it's been a process to kind of, you know, work through that weekly with you.

Speaker 2 (15:41):
What do you think was the biggest help for you? Cause I know a lot of people listening, they're the same, they've got the same default drive. They are willing to work all night to get something done. What's been the biggest difference for you? The biggest, maybe the most impactful thing for you that you've either experienced for yourself, maybe a thought that you've shifted over time. Something that can help someone who's listening right now get out of that drive mode.

Aman Costigan (16:14):
I think the first one is just the awareness of feeling it in the body and that's something that we've worked on as well, but it's also something that I've developed over my yoga practice as well. Right. Feeling into the body and what it feels like. And from our first session and you're like, well, what does that feel like? Well, it's tightness. My body is hunched in. Um, my, my breathing is a little bit restricted. I can just feel like I'm leaning forward towards my computer. If I'm like trying to do something and get it out. My whole body is just like tight. Um, and so just noticing that and then being like, okay, Dina and I worked through, when I feel that I've gotten, I'm noticing it happening. And then I want to kind of just sit back in my chair and just kind of let my, my body go.

Aman Costigan (16:59):
And then let's work towards what like is value to me. Like for one of my values is have fun and ease. Well that doesn't, those feelings in my body are not, uh, ease or fun. So then I come to my thoughts after I've felt, you know, all the feeling and I come to my thoughts and okay. And I know you and I work on some thoughts throughout the week. So usually I'll put them on a sticky and I'll put them on my computer desk and I'll just kind of keep coming back to those thoughts and reminding myself, so one of the ones that was on my radar for a while was I can figure out anything. So anytime I was like spinning the wheel and grinding and you know, just like, I just have to sit here and I have to figure it out. Um, it was just giving myself that ability to think like I can figure out anything.

Dina Cataldo (17:42):
Yeah. That was huge for me too. I, when I, I started yoga what over 10 years ago now, and that was the biggest hurdle for me in yoga is feeling anything except anxiousness and stress. Like it was almost like my whole body was a rock and I had no connection with any part of my body. So I imagine that some of the people listening right now are like, I have no idea what you're talking about when it comes to feelings. It's like, yeah, I feel hunched in my shoulders. Maybe I feel shortness of breath. And maybe that's as far as they get, no, that that's okay. Right. Like have you, have you come from that perspective? Like if you come from that place and move towards more awareness, like I'm explaining, did you have a different experience?

Aman Costigan (18:30):
Oh, a hundred percent. I started off, I think for a years in the yoga class that we do with our teacher, she would say things like, feel it in your body or just like let the energy flow. And I'm like, I don't even feel my body. Honestly, I had ignored my body for so long and just acted out. So like as if my body's this machine and it just like keeps going and um, it's not allowed to stop. I've just kind of treated it that way for so many years that when I got to yoga, I think honestly it probably took me like three to four years to actually start being like, I can actually feel different parts of my body and what things feel like. Yeah.

Dina Cataldo (19:08):
So if you're listening to this right now and you're thinking like, I have no idea what you're talking about, feeling anything in your body know that you're, you're feeling it all the time. You just don't have a name for it yet. And we're not taught to feel our feelings. I don't know about you, but I was not taught to feel my feelings. I was told to ignore my feelings and get over it. So when you're thinking about like a person listening right now who maybe has having trouble connecting with the feelings in their body, what do you thinks? One thing that they can start doing right now to help them get a little bit of a way.

Aman Costigan (19:54):
I think some of it can even just be done in our day to day, like a warrioring. Um, I think a lot of it like the anxiety and the tension and the like hustle and the urgency and like, oh, I gotta get that done. Or I got to respond to that email or so-and-so called. And like, you know, I got to get back to them. Like I think that the automatic or my natural reaction is like, oh, like I'm on edge and I need to kind of respond or do something. So just like taking even like two seconds to just pause and notice that happening, like, and just feel that because there is, there is a sensation and there is a feeling, right? Like whether it's you get sweaty, like physically, like your body physically tells you things. And so just like taking a moment in the day to day, um, you know, even between tasks or something, um, can be helpful.

Dina Cataldo (20:44):
Our body's always trying to tell us something and when we ignore it, we're ignoring a tool that we can use to not only be more productive. Cause I know we're all interested in being more focused and efficient and all of that, but also just to feel better every single day. Um, and I think we ignore that. We just think, oh, well, I'm just gonna, you know, feel what I feel. That's just what it means to be a lawyer. It means being stressed out. It means feeling rushed and pressured. Um, but one of the questions I wanted to ask you was what do you think, like some of the biggest lies we're taught in, in the legal profession that you've discovered are totally false?

Aman Costigan (21:39):
Um, I think one of them is the, one of the big ones for me. And one that I'm still working through is like that you're just a lawyer. Like you can only be a lawyer and for some people like me who want to have different, like who have, who are multi-passionate want different things, want to do different things. Um, I think that giving myself that permission was huge. Um, and probably one of the reasons why it took me so long to start something like beyond yoga for lawyers. I also there's the judgment piece that comes with that because I think one of my thoughts was like, you know, people might think that I'm less committed to my practice of law, but actually that's not true at all. Um, in living out the last five months of beyond yoga for lawyers, I'm like, you know, I'm committed to my law practice.

Aman Costigan (22:28):
And then I know that with my law practice, I'm also helping lawyers because I want to talk to the lawyer. So I like live out all the realities of what it's like to be a lawyer. And then I can take those experiences over and share them so that I'm coming from a place of like love and service of, of, um, my clients. And I think the other one, or, sorry, I'll just add to that other one is that, you know, people like you, um, who I know are lawyers and doing other things, right? Like I know you do yoga and I know that you have your coaching practice and I'm like, wow. So, you know, and that's like in that whole year I was listening to your podcast. I was learning all these things about you. And I'm like, oh, she's doing more, he's a lawyer. She's all these other things. Like I can do that too. So that was a really big one for me. And then I think the other one is that hustle, like you always have to be hustling is a big one and you always have to be working and grinding. That has been one again that I'm still working through, but I think is not a sustainable way to practice in the law.

Dina Cataldo (23:27):
Yeah. Um, that's a big one. And thank you for that. That, that is part of what, you know, we talk about in coaching is really being the person that we want to be just impacts other people. So that was a very nice example for sharing that with me of just, you know, you being, who you are naturally impacts the people around you like that is going to have an impact that could change someone's life. Um, and that's something that I don't think we give enough weight to just, you know, we, we think this is my, this is my brain at work, right? My is like, oh, well, we, we need to be, you know, Oprah to have an impact in the world. Like somebody who has, you know, uh, a billion people in her orbit and that's not true. Like we can have an impact on, you know, 2000 people who are in our orbit, a hundred people who are in our orbit. And so we discount the impact that we can have by building a business on top of a law practice or creating and growing our law practice, whatever it is that we want to do, we underestimate the impact that we can have, like even within our circle of friends. Um, so I think that's a really important point. What do you think was your most, I know you've described a little bit about this, but what, what do you think was your most difficult hurdle during our coaching sessions together?

Aman Costigan (25:06):
I think putting myself out there was probably one of the biggest ones. Cause I know that when we started, ideally we had talked about posting on Instagram and so I was like, okay, I'll do that. And then I was very anti posting on LinkedIn, which is where all my professional network lives. And so I was very much against that. Um, Facebook was a whole other thing. Cause then that was my like friends and family group. So I was very resistant to doing that. Um, but then we worked through a number of sessions together, um, of how like a post can help and like what I'm doing and what my purpose is. And um, that other people's judgments of me, like, so what, um, really was like, what, like, so what they're going to say, something about you, like, okay, I think it was one of the comments that you had to me and I've kind of worked through that to go, you know what?

Aman Costigan (26:04):
I am sharing something that I truly believe in and that I'm passionate about. And I know that I am helping people that I have helped people and that I can help more people. And so that kind of trumps any sort of what other people are gonna think about me. So now I post on all social media platforms, um, the same content. So there's no sort of, um, walls up for me in that, uh, anymore. Although we still come back to some of the things throughout the weeks, but it's become less and less of a concern. Yeah.

Dina Cataldo (26:31):
I mean, that's the natural progression, right? We all start with something and then we start to kind of chip away at it. We start to see the reality and that, you know, the sky's not gonna fall in people. You know, we see these nightmare scenarios in our brains and they don't come to fruition. And even if they did come to fruition, cause we'll take our brain there. I love taking people to that. Well, what's the worst case scenario. It's like, oh, well, so the worst case scenario is, you know, nothing really bad happens. Like I don't, nothing happens. I'm still have a house I'm still employed. I'm still, I'm still safe. You know, there's, there's all of these worst case scenarios that our brain doesn't want to go to. But when we take our brain to the worst case scenarios, we realize we're actually safe and that's all our brain wants to know is that we're safe. It's like, okay, she's she's okay. You know, what's, uh, what's something that you wish bef um, that you knew about coaching. Like you didn't know anything about coaching, um, going in, but what is it that you like wish that maybe you knew or you wish somebody else would know about coaching, like going in?

Aman Costigan (27:46):
I think two things, one of it is that it's somewhat organic in the sense that it works for what's going on. Like for us, we, we meet on a weekly basis on Sunday, which I really love because that means for me, my week is upcoming. That really works for me in terms of my planning for the week. And so it's, we can deal with kind of what's going on for me that day or that week, or what's happened the week before. And so I really liked that it's organic because it can apply to both my law practice and the audio for lawyers. So I've had the ability to work with you, to coach on my law practice, which sometimes I've needed coaching on because I have this anxiety or this stress and overwhelm the week that's coming. But then in our one hour session together, I've been able to completely leave the session feeling totally different about my week.

Aman Costigan (28:37):
And honestly, that was like mind blowing. Um, when that, when that's happened, um, for my law practice, just because I didn't really think that coaching could have such an impact on my law practice as much as it has out on, um, beyond yoga for lawyers, because I know that like those things, those ongoing fears that are happening, but I didn't really look at it the same way for my law practice that there's ongoing fears even at, you know, eight years out. And so that has been completely, um, like beneficial life changing all of the things that just your thoughts can have, um, impacts in all your areas and that coaching can help with all of those areas.

Dina Cataldo (29:16):
Mm yeah. That's I hear that a lot. Like it's almost as if we think, yes, this is one area of my life I would like coaching on and we think that it's going to just stay in that one area of life, but recognizing like, oh no, this thought work stuff. It really works in every area of our life. And I CA I remember that, like, I remember that really vividly, cause you had commented to me after the, and you had said, whoa, that was impactful. And it's, even for me, when I hear that, it's such a great reminder that just changing the way that we start really thinking about something can change our whole experience of our week of our whole month, you know? And that's so important that we focus on that. What do you think I'm going to start wrapping up and I want to make sure we talk more about, um, beyond yoga for lawyers.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
Cause you have a program coming up and I want to make sure all the listeners stay tuned for that. Cause um, I know that this is going to be life-changing for them when they go to this. Um, what do you want to share with people who like these lawyers they're on the cusp of like booking a call and finding out if coaching is the way to go? Like they are like two millimeters from changing everything for themselves. Like you were saying, like, you were like took like you a year to like, just get on a call. Like what do you want them to know?

Aman Costigan (30:47):
Yeah. I think I visited your consult page, like five times looking for like, you know, when is the right day? When is the right time? When is this going to work for me? I have no idea what we're going to talk about. Um, I think my advice would just be, just book it. Like don't overthink it, just put it in your calendar and like, just make sure it works for you. Um, you don't need any prep beforehand. It's basically just a conversation, um, like to get to know each other and to see if it's, if it's a fit, if there's something there to, to coach on. And, uh, I would say as lawyers at the, you know, the law practices is like hands down an area to get coaching on that can get so much value. Uh, no matter what you work on, whether it's just like surviving in the law or whether it's, um, you know, trying to scale or, um, or build a business or anything like that. So I would just say just, don't be like me and go to your signup page like five times and then, you know, put it off and put it off. I'd say just book it and just don't overthink it.

Dina Cataldo (31:48):
Awesome. Okay. So let's talk about what you have upcoming for beyond yoga for lawyers. Cause this is coming out on a Thursday and I think it's like the first, it is the first Thursday of June. So with that in mind, tell us how people can like tell us what you have coming up right now and then how people can connect with you.

Aman Costigan (32:14):
Sure. So I am offering a free class on June 5th. So that's this coming Saturday at 8:00 AM mountain standard time and it's free and I don't do very many free classes. So that's why I want everybody know about it. Come find out and share it because I'm sharing exactly the things that I share in the program. So I am bearing it all and it all and hoping that, you know, everyone can just take even one thing or one or more things away that will work into their daily life, into their law practice and just make, um, stress a little bit less. Um, and also maybe increase a little bit of that awareness and decrease the kind of fear about yoga and how it's really hard because I'm actually on the relaxation side of yoga. So it's actually not hard at all. Um, and then I also have the summer program that is starting. So this, uh, summer program is starting on Wednesday, June 16th, and the classes run every Wednesday night from six 45 to 8:00 PM mountain standard time. And it's going for eight weeks. So from June 16th to August 4th, is that program

Dina Cataldo (33:26):
Awesome. Tell, tell us what lawyers can expect in this eight week program.

Aman Costigan (33:34):
Sure. So what we do is we start by learning principles, but I integrate them through poses and exercises that we do, and it's going to be all about stress reduction and different ways that we can stretch out our shoulders because a lot of us are at our computers, um, typing throughout the day or we're on our cell phones. So for me, I'm just kind of naturally hunched over now. And so I really like to get into the shoulders and to work into the hips as well, because for me, sometimes I have a standing desk sometimes I don't and so my hips get really tight. And so I also do a lot of hip work. It's very relaxing. It's not strenuous, it's not any kind of like hot yoga, but it's also a go at your own pace. So I give lots of different varieties. All the equipment that we use is all things that you could use at home, but you can also get, um, all the equipment as well if you want it. Um, so it's all about just focusing on ourselves and coming back into our bodies and gaining that awareness of anything that we can feel and connecting back in with, um, the star ourselves and giving ourselves time to just connect in and allow for that clarity and like peace of mind come through.

Dina Cataldo (34:46):
Yeah. I mean, that was something that we've talked about and I really loved that component of what you were creating for lawyers is that it was something where you are teaching them skills they can use on their own before a hearing, right? Like you're about to enter a hearing and here's a tool that you can use. You are in trial. You are, you know, working on a brief and you're noticing that you're starting to feel more pressure or you're feeling tension in your shoulders. You're teaching them a skill that give them an immediate relief. So that, and it's bringing not only, you know, relief in that moment, but it's helping them gain an awareness that they can take in like every area of their lives. Like we were talking about coaching. It's like, it's, you don't recognize until you start experiencing it like that. Yes.

Aman Costigan (35:36):
Yoga is going to help you relieve stress in this moment, but it's also going to help you when you're having a difficult conversation with your partner when you, um, you know, cooking dinner and you've got the kids, you know, screaming like you, you have this, a tool that you can use in any area of your life. So I really liked that you packaged it in a way that you can give them that experience. And I think eight weeks is such a great, um, it's such a great timeframe for them because they'll start gaining these things progressively like week one, like yes, you start gaining tools, but when you show up every single week, you start to like gain all of these tools in your toolbox and they become more of a habit that you get you go to. Can you speak to that a little bit?

Aman Costigan (36:23):
Yeah, no Dina, that's exactly it. So we start with, um, like rib breathing, which is one of the instantly calming breathing techniques that I teach you can do with equipment and without equipment, you can do it for one minute. You can do it for five minutes. You can for 10 minutes. So it's one of those things that you can just take, you know, zoom call between zoom call or before you unmute, uh, on a meeting, anything like that, or even, you know, in the bank lineup or in the grocery store, like it's one of those things you can just do, um, without any props or with props and four, depending on how much time you have. And so what we do is we start with kind of learning, um, a breathing technique and then the next class we'll do, um, some poses or sequences, but then we'll incorporate that re breath.

Aman Costigan (37:04):
And then the next week it's like, okay, now we've got, you know, those two things going on. Can we notice anything going on in the body? So, you know, a lot of the times the answer is no, and that's okay. And we just kind of give ourselves permission to really develop that relationship with ourselves. It's taken me a long time and I'm still working on it, but developing any form of relationship with myself to be able to talk to myself, um, in a kind and loving way. And so it's also just about that. Like I know through our coaching together, we do that, but also my yoga teacher told me like five years ago, she's like, Aman, you need to talk to yourself like sweetie, it's going to be okay. And I thought she was crazy. I am not talking to myself that way. Um, and then when I met, when I have the calls with you, you're like, how would you talk to yourself?

Aman Costigan (37:50):
Like, oh, here we go. But thankfully after the years of yoga and kind of developing that trust and that love for myself, I've been able to have a really like, I'm able to have a relationship. And so we just build on that week after week and I kind of incorporate new things or, you know, here's something you can do at the kitchen sink. Here's something that you can do, um, in the middle of something before bed, or maybe when you get up. So just different things that I hope can, um, go over to daily life. And I've actually heard that from other lawyers of all the different things that they've loved and I've taken over, um, into their practice life and also into daily life.

Speaker 2 (38:24):
Yeah. Where is the best place for people to connect with you? And I'm going to link to all, everything that, um, almond is telling us in the notes. So I want to make sure, you know, what, if you're driving it's okay. It's all going to be in one place for you.

Aman Costigan (38:41):
Yeah. So I hang out the most in link at, uh, sorry. Instagram is where I hang out the most, um, in my stories as well as, uh, in posts and videos where I do breathing, uh, poses techniques, all that kind of stuff. Um, and I also am on LinkedIn just with my name and then I'm also have a private Facebook group for beyond yoga for lawyers.

Dina Cataldo (39:02):
Okay. So, um, at beyond yoga for lawyers is for Instagram and I will link to, um, Ahmond's links for LinkedIn. And can you send me the Facebook group blink if that's something like, if they're, if they are joined, do they get a link to that? Is that how that works?

Speaker 3 (39:20):
No. Um, it's for anybody it's I kept it private so that people can have, we can have those conversations about stress and lawyer life and all of the things. Um, but I can send you that. And then also I met beyond yoga for lawyers.com is the website with all the information about the program, free classes, um, and past events and stuff that I've done. Awesome.

Dina Cataldo (39:40):
And so if they want to sign up for the free event happening this Saturday, how do they do that

Aman Costigan (39:47):
On LinkedIn or, sorry, not only on Instagram, directly through my profile picture. That's on there, so right directly through the bio. Okay.

Dina Cataldo (39:57):
And that, so the link in your bio there, and then if they want to commit, they want to sign up, they are ready to go for the eight weeks starting on June 16th. How do they do that

Aman Costigan (40:08):
At the website, beyondyogaforlawyers.com and then there's a dropdown for registered for program

Dina Cataldo (40:15):
Register for program. Okay. So I will make sure that I link to all of this in the show notes. So you will get all of the goodies. Is there, are there any parting words you want to give, anything that you feel people need to know about coaching, about your experience as a lawyer as being coached?

Aman Costigan (40:36):
Um, I've I think that there's always like work to be done. Like I kind of thought, um, that it would end, um, that at some point my brain would just kind of like, come on board or something like that, I think. And so I just now have more awareness that noticing like when my brain is acting like itself and how to manage it. And so I would just say like, I wish I would've signed up sooner.

Dina Cataldo (41:01):
Hmm. That's that's really interesting because I think I had that thought too. I thought, okay, there must be something wrong with my brain. And almost like, there's something wrong with me because I didn't have it all figured out. Like I should have it all figured out by now. I should know what I'm doing. I should know all the things. And I could use that against myself and not talk kindly to myself, beat myself up. But when you know that this is just a process that you are going to have a human brain with human thoughts for the rest of your life, then it makes it easier. Lisa did for me to really say, oh, okay. That's just my brain having a thought that's okay. It's not a problem. It doesn't mean anything about me. It doesn't mean anything about whether or not I'm going to achieve my goal. It's it just means I'm having a human brain moment. Like that's normal. Is that kind of what your, your experience there is?

Aman Costigan (41:59):
Yeah, exactly. And I have one really good example. It was when we were talking about, um, which business I wanted to start and I said, oh, I've never done that before. Or I have no experience in that. And the more we got talking or the more you got me talking, you're like, wait a minute, you said you didn't have experience doing that, but you just told me that you've done one, two, three, four, five, six things. So it was really helpful. And I think like every week it's like that, but like being able to have that second guessing of the brain be like, oh, we've never done that before. So therefore I don't know how to do it. And then being able to pull out and be like, well, actually your brain is lying to you basically is what I'm trying to say. And I'd be like, one of my brain's lying to me. And it was just like the changing of that perspective. And that information has been like so critical and helped me move forward.

Dina Cataldo (42:51):
Oh my gosh. That's such a great way to end this. Thank you so much for joining me, everybody. Who's listening go to beyond yoga for lawyers.com go to her Instagram account. I know that there's a lot of you who are on Instagram. Cause I see you there too. She has some really great content too. She's been like creating videos, you know, all of that and make sure you join her free class for June 5th, because that is going to help you so much. Just getting into everything we've been talking about. Like you are going to start to see and feel everything so much differently when you start connecting the way that she's going to help you connect. Thank you so much for being here.

Aman Costigan (43:32):
This was a fun conversation. Thanks for having me, Dina.

Dina Cataldo (43:36):
Wasn't That fun. Okay. You want to get into Aman's orbit. So be sure to get connected with her and let her know where you heard her first. You can get all the links to everything we talked about dinacataldo.com forward slash one 58. I hope you have a wonderful week and I will talk to you soon. Have you been putting off coaching? Does this conversation that you just heard really resonate with you? It's time to join me in a strategy session. You and I will have a conversation about what you want and how we can work together to make it happen. Go to Dinacataldo.com and click on work with me and schedule your session now. Or you can go to Dina, cataldo.com forward slash one 58, where you can find everything we talked about today, including a link to join me on a strategy session. I'll talk to you soon. Bye.