The Power of Integrity and Authenticity
In this Changemaker Challenge conversation, Carly Banks chats with yoga health coach Luisa Doerstel about getting real, experiencing connection, and practicing integrity.
Like many YHC members, Luisa is a yoga teacher who was running around with a full schedule, trying to make ends meet. She felt ungrounded, unstable, and frustrated, especially because she knew that she was out of integrity with what she was teaching. She came to a point where she knew she needed to either quit or shift. So she shifted. She brought her struggles into her classes and integrated what she was learning with what she was teaching. By revealing herself, she deepened her connection with her students. She now leaves her classes feeling energized rather than depleted.
As a yoga health coach, Luisa’s approach is the same. She emphasizes getting back into flow, rhythm, and integrity with your authentic self and with nature.
What you’ll get out of tuning in:
- How the ten habits of Body Thrive leads us to deeper connection with ourselves and others.
- Why wellness pros sometimes feel out of integrity with what they are teaching.
- What you can do to establish connection and authenticity on and off the yoga mat.
Links Mentioned in Episode:
Show Highlights:
- 2:30 – Like many YHC members, Luisa is a yoga teacher who was running around with a full schedule, trying to make ends meet. She felt ungrounded, unstable, and frustrated, especially because she knew that she was out of integrity with what she was teaching.
- 5:15 – In our Western culture, yoga is often viewed as just another form of exercise. Too often, we focus on asana (the poses) and ignore the other 7 limbs. The 10 habits of Body Thrive are a deeper dive into the eight-fold path of yoga that brings us into integrity with and to a deeper understanding of our selves.
- 7:10 – Luisa has used the tools of Body Thrive to show up in a different way to her students and course members. Rather than creating an illusion of a teacher who is perfect in all ways, Luisa started to reveal her true self: someone who isn’t always happy, someone who doesn’t always feel good, and someone who was suffering from hormonal imbalances. She brought her struggles into her classes and integrated what she was learning with what she was teaching. By revealing herself, she deepened her connection with her students.
- 11:30 – As a yoga health coach, Luisa’s approach is the same. She emphasizes getting back into flow, rhythm, and integrity with your self and with nature.
Favorite Quotes:
- “I feel like the ten habits of Body Thrive really brought me to that place where I was finally connecting and understanding what my body needed.” — Carly Banks
“I think you really need this connection to yourself first to connect with others because only then do you get this opening. But at first you have to ground yourself. You have to feel this heartbeat, this breath. Get to know yourself.” — Luisa Doerstel - “If you’re unstable and if you’re kind of falling apart and trying to be something or someone in this search . . . you lose your essence.” — Luisa Doerstel
Guest BIO:
Luisa Doerstel is a yoga teacher living in Cologne, Germany. As a certified Yoga Alliance Yoga teacher RYS 200 , she teaches a mix of Iyengar, Jivamukti and Vinyasa Flow with elements of dance and martial arts. In her yoga practice, Luisa seeks to convey special qualities of movement by combining static postures with vinyasa flows to cultivate flexibility and strength, tension and relaxation, and sensitivity for one’s own body. She is currently in training as a Yoga Health Coach with Cate Stillman. With constant curiosity and a deep desire for knowledge and development, Luisa continues to educate herself through workshops, trainings and further education. Contact Luisa Doerstel on her FB page and her website.
