Guest host Rachel Autumn converses with Goli Gabbay, a pathfinder in health, wellness, and sustainability, about personal healing and planetary activism.
Join guest host Rachel Autumn as she welcomes the incredible Goli Gabbay, a pioneer at the intersection of mental health, wellness, and environmental sustainability. Goli bridges the worlds of mind and earth, speaking to the connections between the human home of our body and the bigger, Earthly home of our planet.
As Goli says in the interview, “What we’re doing to the planet, we do to ourselves. What we are doing to the planet harms us. Our wellbeing is intrinsically tied to the wellbeing of the planet.”
Goli shares her personal journey, beginning with her healing experiences with Kundalini yoga following a thyroid cancer diagnosis. When discussing her work integrating Yoga Nidra into therapeutic settings, Goli opens up about how these practices, through repetition, can rewire neural pathways and foster sustained healing. As the conversation unfolds, Goli also explores her environmental work, discussing the deep connection between personal well-being and planetary health, a theme that echoes throughout this episode.
Rachel and Goli’s exchange finishes up with practical advice about how to live a sustainable and mindful life. Goli shares a few simple lifestyle changes that anyone can make to support environmental sustainability, emphasizing the collective power we have to influence change. Don’t miss this heartwarming and enlightening discussion that’s sure to inspire your own journey towards personal and planetary healing.
(00:00) Introducing Goli Gabbay
(05:29) Healing trauma through yoga therapy
(21:33) Yoga nidra benefits and relaxation
(28:20) Yoga’s connection with environmentalism
(37:37) Environmental action and awareness
(44:43) Benefits of a plant-based diet
(55:27) Tips for living a sustainable life
(01:08:48) Eco-friendly habits
(01:21:44) Connecting through yoga goals
Goli’s Website: http://goligabbay.com
Goli’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goligabbay
Goli's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/goligabbay/
Follow Goli’s music journey on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/goli-gabbay
The most delicious plant based recipes
Evidence-based plant-based MDs:
Dr. Neal Barnard: https://www.instagram.com/drnealbarnard/
Dr. Michael Gregor: https://www.instagram.com/michaelgregermd/
The most heartwarming farm animal sanctuary:
https://www.instagram.com/moustache\_farmer?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Goli’s favorite conservation journalist
COLD OPEN
[00:00:00 ] Goli Gabbay: There's a big disconnect, thinking that we are separate from nature, but we're very much part of nature and I'm really passionate about bringing forth this kind of consciousness or higher consciousness that we cultivate as yoga teachers off the mat. Yoga and environmentalism are very closely related because it's ultimately about how do we take this practice out into the world off the mat to make the world a better place by our mindfulness,
HOST INTRO
[00:00:32 ] Derik Mills: Hi, I'm Derik Mills. Welcome to the Glo podcast. Goli Gabbay connects mind, body, and earth in this conversation with our guest host, Rachel Autumn. Goli and Rachel speak about Goli's therapeutic experiences with Kundalini and yoga nidra. And as their conversation unfolds, they connect the dots to suggest how the yoga practice might help us live more sustainably on our planet.
I hope you enjoy this fascinating conversation about mental health, healing, and conscious environmentalism. Now over to Rachel to introduce Goli to start the episode.
[00:01:15 ] Rachel Autumn: Welcome Goli Gabbay, who is an innovative leader in the field of mind body wellness. With 24 years of teaching experience, Goli has created a groundbreaking system of yoga for mental health that integrates somatic therapy, mindfulness, yoga nidra, and meditation with neuroscience. Her unmatched superpower to transform stress and anxiety into tranquility makes her a sought after keynote speaker in the field.
Goli's expertise has touched the lives of countless individuals and organizations, including companies, over 40 universities, psychological recovery centers, celebrities, and even royalty. GOLI is also a visionary sustainability consultant with over 20 years of experience designing innovative environmental programs and public education campaigns for government agencies, colleges, and universities, companies and NGOs. Thank you so much, Goli, for being here. We are so excited to welcome you to the Globe podcast today.
[00:02:23 ] Goli Gabbay: I'm so excited to be with you, Rachel. Thank you for having me.
[00:02:26 ] Rachel Autumn: Absolutely. It's an honor. We recently built a connection. I guess this kind of gets to serve as your DJ debut as well, because we met in DJing school at the Scratch Academy where we have been diving into music theory and mixing.
And we, immediately found a connection on the healing power of music and got to chat and realize that we have so many overlapping interests in that goalie, you actually have a connection to the Glo community back in the day, the OG Glo community. Can you talk a little bit about your experience with Glo in the past?
[00:03:05 ] Goli Gabbay:
Of course I used to, I don't know, it was a decade ago or so practice in the Santa Monica Glo Studio and, has the best teachers, I think, in the whole world as part of the faculty there, and I love Derik and Lisa and Ryan — really special humans.
And they've really built this incredible, I think resource for wellbeing and fitness and yoga and meditation and mindfulness. And I've always been a fan and was actually, like I said in studio during many of the filming back in the OG days. So I'm really honored to be here.
[00:03:50 ] Rachel Autumn: Oh, man, we're so excited to have you. And I know Derik is, I got to chat with Derik and Derik is really excited to have you on the platform and just have this beautiful full circle moment with you. I really believe that attracts so it makes sense that you would have found Glo and all the work that you do.
I would love to get into your journey in mental health, music, wellness, sustainability. Can you elaborate about your journey and mental health?
[00:04:18 ] Goli Gabbay: Sure. It's actually a very personal story. So I had started with my yoga practice when I was in college. And I actually had a profound Kundalini awakening in one of my very first classes, which was really amazing.
But many years many years after that, I was actually diagnosed with thyroid cancer. By my mom saw like a lump in my throat when I was laughing one night at my parents home. And in the desperation for seeking a healing modality, she took me to a private Kundalini yoga session with a teacher all dressed in white with a beard.
And while I had done yoga before, like I said, Rachel, In the, in this state of acute, trauma that I was facing with this new diagnosis, I had such a profound experience following that session with him, with the private teacher. That I was blown away. I was like, I can feel like this. And I felt that in those 90 minutes, I transcended even for a short period of time, like my diagnosis at the time.
And I felt such a profound state of peace and wellbeing that I never attained from religion, or temple. And I knew that, and I became really a devout student and I practiced regularly and regularly until I was called to teach when I was on a mountaintop in New Mexico on a yoga retreat. And when I began teaching, this is back in 2000, if you can believe it.
So to this date, 25, 24 years ago I knew that I wanted to. I wanted to explore teaching and really give and contribute to people that really needed it most. And so very early on, I applied yoga and meditation. I called UCLA Medical Center and said, “I’m a new teacher and how can I help the patients there?”
And I did a doctor by the name of Dr. Emron Meyer was like the head of UCLA's Collaborative Centers for Integrative Medicine, and he brought me on, and I started working with patients and then I went into for therapy. Thirteen years I worked at psychological rehab facilities right here in the Pacific Palisades and Santa Monica and started working with people with acute trauma, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, post traumatic stress.
And in that place I started I developed a system, basically. That worked time and time again because everyone came into session bringing an array of different issues and it was a lot of different energy and different traumatic backgrounds. And I had to hone it all in and create a cohesiveness.
And so by trial and error working with such different, people and issues, I developed a system of healing that really it's pretty simple. It was bringing in yoga, meditation, mindfulness, somatic therapy but a particular sequence that always ended in yoga nidra. And I found that.
It was incredibly effective. And when I would ask the clients, who feels their depression, who feels anxiety, no one would raise their hand because they were in this such a state of relaxation and calm, even from one session. And that experience was so profound because I found that Even in this really delicate population of acute trauma for many of people that had like suicidal ideation prior to coming into treatment, that by teaching them the skills of being, calm, coherence, connection with their hearts, connection with their spirit.
Many have never had that kind of connection to themselves. Many had associated their entire identity, similar to what I had, with their diagnosis. Like you are the anxious one, you're depressed and they become that in their identity and through the beauty, as of the yoga practice, to have this experience of their true essence, that was beyond trauma, beyond depression, beyond anxiety, beyond their so called diagnosis and into who they are, They really were.
That was amazing to me. It was so beautiful in that, which is why I stayed for so long and what I found, and this is back again in the, I want to say mid 2000s in year, that the repetition of the practice of repeating, bringing people into this place of calm, and just like when we work out and we go to the gym and we The repetition of going to the gym over the course of, let's say, 40 days, by the end of the 40 days, you're like, man I'm ripped.
Look at my abs. Look at my biceps. Look at my shoulders. I'm ripped because the repetition brought forth this profound, Transformation. And similarly, in the realm of mental health and being, the repetition of teaching our nervous system to be calm and relaxed, of teaching the mind to become still and focused, and teaching the body to come into that place of calm again from fight or flight into the parasympathetic state, brought forth sustained healing and transformation because as I learned later in life, like now in recent years, neuroscience now Brought forth the science behind what is actually happening in our brain when we practice these practices repetitively, is that we're literally rewiring our neural pathways, changing that default network, the amygdala of the brain shrinks and becomes smaller, the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus becomes larger, and we're literally restructuring them.
Our brain and body and nervous system into this place of balance and calm, being, ease, peace, greater concentration, greater memory, and just connection with our true self. So that's how I got into it.
[00:11:30 ] Rachel Autumn: Oh, that's such a beautiful story and testimony. Thank you for sharing that part of your journey and how you transmuted something that was such a challenge in your life.
And you've not only supported and healed yourself, but you've helped to support and help people activate that gift within each of us that can heal ourselves. And I'm so grateful for the work that you do and contribute. Thank you. Of course. Can you share a little bit more about the specific sequence that you mentioned that you saw?
Like what that process is like that you've been using with clients or you were using at that time?
[00:12:08 ] Goli Gabbay: Sure. So I always, I admired like even in yoga Glo, the handstand yogis and the and I love a rigorous practice and I love a vinyasa practice. And I would say that, and while I can teach that for this specific population, I would say it's a more trauma informed yoga therapy and yoga therapy uses all the beautiful gifts of yoga, but for a specific ailment or imbalance, if you will.
It's more just therapeutically oriented. So even the words that I use when I teach was specific to anxiety and depression and trauma, the, and the particular sequence that I still teach today, even with, healthy people that aren't struggling with an issue is I would say it's like a four four step system.
And the first step is just coming and observing how we're walking in, into the, into our mats, observing the chatter in the mind that we all have just from this fast paced world and our, digital world, observing the tension in the body, observing the disconnect again, that I imagine we all have.
Particularly those of us that live in these fast paced cities like Los Angeles, we're all like on the go and on the go and so just noticing and observing and connecting with that in a, this is the mindfulness component. Getting in touch. And then through the breath and gentle stretches to begin, we start to, we start the process of creating shift.
And so I start with kind of gentle opening sequence, leading to a more vigorous like vinyasa practice, if that's appropriate for the clients. And for me, the flow. Yoga and the more rigorous practice is almost like kneading dough before you bake it. It's just working the kinks out of the body, the tension that we're storing, the, if we're sitting at a desk all day, if we're driving a car all days, getting the body warmed up and lubricated because the preparation for the body for me, then the cool down, then I'll bring them down into the cool down poses.
And in the cooling poses, for me, a lot of times hip opener, forward bend I'll teach a particular type of breath, usually like extra long exhale breath so that the cooling sequence becomes not only let's, really cool into, relax the hamstrings or open up the hips, but you start to really calm the mind.
So by the forward bends, by the cooling, but also by the extra long deep exhales, and I always bring a little bit of the Kundalini essence to focus on the third eye center, we start to calm the mind. My peak pose is the yoga nidra. So all of this has prepared the body for the progressive relaxation that then helps the client or participant really become so relaxed that you transcend.
The trauma, you transcend the anxiety, you transcend your diagnosis, your identity, and you go so beyond that into this incredible place of peace and calm. And for me, that's the gold of the practice. And then the fourth part is when they come out of that is just to observe how amazing they feel.
[00:16:00 ] Rachel Autumn: Wow.
[00:16:01 ] Goli Gabbay: They observe the shift in the mind, observe the connection to spirit, observe the coherence between mind, heart, body, and spirit and nervous system.
[00:16:14 ] Rachel Autumn: Thank you for sharing that process. I think so many of our yoga practices go on that arc, but we don't always realize like that's what's happening.
And so much of your work uses the body as a bridge to support the mental health. It's like the body is the gateway. Am I correct? Yeah, exactly. And with that, Would you say when you arrive in that yoga nidra space you and I had a conversation before this and you were talking about the concept of dissolving polarities, I believe you used dissolving polarities.
Can you get into that a little bit? Like the polarities between what we think our experience is and what it is, the differences that we see amongst ourselves and each other. What is that for you?
[00:17:02 ] Goli Gabbay: For me? I do. I think yoga nidra is like the gift of the gods for the human experience. And where even between our mind and body, sometimes there's polarity.
Again, when I mentioned, even for myself, like running around as a Single parent and doing all the things and running from this place to that place and getting the work done and the to do list. And oftentimes we feel like our head is completely disconnected from our body. So right there, even in mind body, even as a practitioner, I often feel disconnect.
We often feel as humans disconnected or a polarity between our brain and our heart. We're thinking our way out of things or we're thinking our way out of Past trauma. And that doesn't work. You can't even talk or think your way out of these things. We often feel polarity, I think as humanity and we'll get, I know we'll dive into this shortly.
I think for a lot of humans. There's a polarity, I would say unconscious, people that are not on the conscious path. There's a polarity between man and nature, like we are separate from and so therefore will destroy nature. So there's, I think that's a huge. Paradigm that's out there and there's even polarity between like us and them, you know I don't want to get into it, but the conflict in the world the Israeli Palestine It's polarity like we us against them all the world wars in the world there's a false veil of polarity between us and the outside world or us and other religions, etc and all of this In my experience with Yoga Nidra, with all walks of life, with all religions that I've worked with young and old and all races, is when we relax our body and we relax our mind So deeply that we actually dissolve even the edges of our body.
We come into this place where you become no mind, no body. And in that place of beautiful stillness, my experience has been that you literally yet transcend yourself, you transcend your body, you transcend all the noise in the mind, and you come into a place of oneness. With all of life with nature with all that ever was, with all that is, and with the universe itself.
And it's almost the fee and the feeling is tangible and the feeling can be repeated every time we practice the Yoga Nidra. And to then come back in our body and take that experience and memory with us. That awareness with us, I think is the start of really helping to shift the consciousness of humanity.
[00:20:30 ] Rachel Autumn: Goodness.
[00:20:31 ] Goli Gabbay: From this polarity into unity into this oneness, which is really something that I'm passionate about.
[00:20:39 ] Rachel Autumn: When you talk about oneness and unity and how there's such a deep wisdom and transformative power with yoga nidra practices, can you just dive a little bit deeper into what some of those benefits are and how people you've seen experience this in real time?
Sure,
[00:21:00 ] Goli Gabbay: Rachel. So we live, as we talked about earlier, in such a fast paced world now, and. The inundation of just like digital content that you and I get, just every human and young people, the, there's one in four people struggling with like mental health issues right now. And I would argue that.
Stress is just what's really chronic stress and daily stress. And this high level of cortisol is wreaking havoc on not only our physical bodies, but our mind and stress is known to shrink perfectly healthy brain cells. And it, it affects our digestion, our sleep. It's disrupting our sleep.
It's disrupting our immune system our blood pressure, so many things, but it's also affecting our brain health. And so if stress is really consuming our society, then again, yoga nidra is incredible healing modality that doesn't require any heavy, any expensive material. It doesn't require anything at all.
You lie down and you listen to the sound of your beautiful teacher's voice. And by entering this deep state of relaxation, I have actually experienced time and time again with my, the groups that I've led or the sessions that I've led, that if you become very not only does it build like a heightened sensitivity to your own self awareness of your body, But the key to healing in whatever it is, whatever ailment, when I worked at UCLA Medical Center, when I speak to doctors, all the doctors said that most of the health issues that people seek medical advice, the root is anxiety or stress.
And that's what's the cortisol starts to, do crazy things in our body. And so deep relaxation is incredibly healing, bringing our nervous system from the sympathetic state into parasympathetic. And what I was saying earlier is that I can actually feel this reconfiguration, this healing taking place when I facilitate.
Like in the bodies of the people that I work with. And when I ask them who can feel. In that state that there's like this energetic reconfiguration. Most people say I can feel it. And, again, the repetition is that, we'll shrink the amygdala in the brain, which is that worried, that primitive brain that is always like worried and in fight or flight, we shrink that.
That portion of the brain, we grow the regions of the brain that enhance our concentration, our memory, our focus, emotional regulation, less reactivity in our emotions. Because when we're stressed out and anxious, if someone just walks into the room and says the sky is blue, we might be reactive with them because that's what happens to our brain.
But the relaxation responds. creates an emotional stability, emotional regulation, more impulse control, heightened self awareness. And now with the science backing all of this up, it's said that deep relaxation doesn't just relax us, but we're actually affecting our body down to a cellular level, down to our DNA.
And we can actually un Tangle. If you even have a genetic disposition toward, I don't know, anxiety or depression or whatever, that we can undo our genetic dispositions by the relaxation response. Like we, we can affect the epigenetics basically through these practices, through mindfulness, through meditation, through yoga nidra, through yoga.
[00:25:28 ] Goli Gabbay: And that's incredibly exciting is it is. And it's true. I've spoken with and have encountered countless people who all have the same reflections, myself included. And there's this quote that I'm going to butcher, but it's about if you say that you're too busy to meditate, then. You're, you need to meditate.
Rachel Autumn: Exactly. Like we all have the obligation to ourselves and to the planet and how we show up to the world and in the world to take deep care of ourselves. And I believe that's the connection to your work in sustainability as well. And taking, in taking deep care of ourselves, we take deep care of one another, of the planet.
Can we start to segue into your work in sustainability and how it connects. to personal well being.
[00:26:15 ] Goli Gabbay: Sure, absolutely, Rachel. I often, at the end of my yoga sessions, when we're coming into that place of it, just everything feels soft, our heart feels softer, our mind is soft, and that relaxation is a very soft feeling.
And, When I bring people out, from meditation and we just look around the physical environment, even the world feels softer. And I often say, imagine if the 9 billion people on the planet practiced with us, we would have a much more cooperative, loving, kinder, more compassionate, world and one that that we are better caretakers of not, of our own body, of our, of each other and of the planet as well.
And that is the, I think that, I often was hard on myself in the last 25 years saying, I wish I was just yoga and meditation, or I wish I was just sustainability. Why do I have these two passions? And now. For me, it's mind, body, and earth. This, we have this human home that we need to take care of, and then we have our bigger earthly home.
And the two are very much interconnected because what now we're to segue into that, what we're doing to the planet. We do to ourselves, even as simple as we drink we drink water from a plastic bottle and we know that plastic, there's so many images I think everyone has seen in Bali and elsewhere of and Asia of plastic millions of plastic bottles, like in riverways and in waterways and in the ocean, and we know that's bad for the planet.
And also recently, how does it tie back to human wellbeing? BBC news just two months ago, put out a study that for every liter of water, there's like a quarter million. microscopic microplastics that we're ingesting. So again, what we are doing to the planet harms us. Our well being is intrinsically tied to the well being of the planet.
If we're, cutting down trees and creating more climate emergencies, the world is becoming hotter. In 20 years that, that is affecting us. That's affecting The disappearance of species, it's going to, it's going to affect us. Every, everything that we do, the toxins in the food is coming back to us.
The toxins in the fish, cause we're putting toxins into the ocean. Then we ingest the marine life, that's going to harm us. So I think there's a big disconnect thinking that, We are, again, separate from nature, but we're very much part of nature and I'm really passionate about bringing forth this kind of consciousness or higher consciousness that we cultivate as yoga teachers, off the mat.
Yoga and environmentalism are very closely related because it's ultimately about how do we take this practice out into the world off the mat to make the world a better place by our, by our mindfulness. So It's not just about, Ooh, I meditated and now I'm going to go, do this in the world, but it's like, how do we take that mindfulness and become these lights, these beacons of light in the world to, to affect a more harmonious, unified, healthy planet for all beings, for all living beings, not just humans.
[00:30:11 ] Rachel Autumn: I'm so grateful that you've connected the yoga to environmentalism in our role and taking our practice on the mat and letting that translate to our lives because that's really what it's all about and what you're speaking to. And sometimes in essence, we lose a lot of that when we're in this like fast paced go social media frenzy of this is this cool posture that I can do now.
And we lose like the true heart of yoga and meaning of yoga. Yeah. When we speak about present day modern age, everything being fast paced, and with the damage that's done to our planet, not necessarily moving at a slow pace, we're seeing it actually expand at a more rapid pace now. But I think that the block for a lot of folks is that they don't see right away.
the damage that they're doing in their day to day action because the damage comes to the next generation or it comes however many years later and we don't necessarily pay attention to things that don't affect us in the moment that not everyone but speaking pretty generally here what are some ways you think we could start to shift perspective around our daily action and our daily practices without necessarily seeing the outcome yet?
What are some ways that we can reframe our relationship to what we do daily without receiving yet? the benefit of the good that we're doing, just trusting that when we do good, goodness will prevail.
[00:31:48 ] Goli Gabbay: I have a lot. I have a lot, Rachel. But one of the things I happen to bring a prop with me is we can do oftentimes I think these environmental issues become so daunting for us as humans oh, what can my little action do for the earth?
But if we think of, one hundred One action times eight billion people on the planet. If eight billion of the planet did this one little action, it's in tremendous the impact. And so I have one really simple examples people can can adopt right now. You know how classically we were, we have toothbrushes.
So these are obviously, these often end up either in landfills or in oceans. So really simple swap that we can do is to cease buying plastic toothbrushes. And instead buy these wonderful bamboo ones. This one has charcoal bristles, but this bamboo is not only a re renewable resource, but at the end of its life it's compostable.
You can throw this in the fireplace and it's It's much better than these that will stay on the earth forever, literally, and never biodegrade. So that's one swap. Reducing seafood intake is another one. I know, sushi and seafood is delicious for many people. I think it's delicious as well.
But reducing seafood 46 percent of the plastic found in the ocean is from what's called ghost nets, is all the fishing gear that fishing, fishing ships just toss behind when they're done. So all of that wreaks havoc on marine life and a lot of whales and dolphins and turtles and birds get stuck in the fishing gear that's left there, for years.
So 46 percent of all plastic pollution. Found in the ocean is from fishing and not only just fishing, boats, but now we live in an industrial age. There are fishing boats called ocean trolleys, it's called, and they basically go into the ocean and they are bulldozing the entire bottom of the sea.
So whether there is coral, kelp in there. Hundreds of species, bottom feeders. And they'll just take everything and it's huge. If I wish I had a visual for it, but it is. Massive. And they're going in Antarctica, they're going all over the world. And for one fish species, maybe they're wanting, I don't know, cod.
There's 40 percent of what they catch in these ginormous nets is thrown away. It's called bycatch. They don't even want it. So they're literally like raping the ocean from all of its life and throwing 40 percent of It's dead now back into the sea. It's horrifying what's happening. And reducing our fish intake is really huge because if you look at industrial fishing fleets, it's, mankind as intelligent as we are, we have been, we're intelligent and we either have the choice to use our intelligence for the good.
But we're also using it for greed and for short term gain. And unfortunately, especially when it comes to the environment, there's a lot of greed. There's a lot of short term profit. And it is said that the oceans are scientists are predicting that we'll become fishless by 2050, unless something is done.
That is insane. That is insane. That's, It's insane. So reducing fish looking at labels and looking at palm oil is really prevalent in everything from crackers to chips not that those are healthy anyway, to soaps, to beauty products and palm oil plantations are really devastating to the environment because.
Most of the Asian countries were clear cutting and slashing and burning beautiful rainforests and forests. Particularly where the Sumatran tigers and elephants and orangutans and countless other species live. And so we're wiping that out to plant these monocrops for these really cheap Oil, basically, that is just destroying for us.
Being aware of reading labels, avoiding palm oil shopping in our closets, I call it. Of course, we all get a nice dopamine from wearing something new, and I'm not saying never do that, but we also, in the Western world, we all have dopamine. So much, right? We all have more than enough and, mixing and matching and playing.
I think a lot of fashion, there's so much fast fashion. I think we're throwing away, we're landfilling like one A garbage truck of textile waste a minute in New York City alone, so there's so much waste that comes with fast fashion, with just the fashion industry and. Shopping in our closet, using what we can, using what we already have.
Cause again, we all have more than enough in our homes, in our closets and asking ourselves, do I really need that? And can I be creative and come up with the cutest outfit? That I just mix and match something that was amazing from a couple years ago with something maybe newer and not buying excessively because, and not white wasting excessively.
Waste is a huge issue that I'm very passionate about. Putting animals off our plates and out of our closets is a huge one. Billions of animals are not only farmed for food and that we can talk about an hour in and of itself, the ramifications of animal agriculture on the environment is huge and also in fashion. Animals used for leather and fur and feathers and their skins is incredibly devastating.
Many of these animals. Never see the light of day until they are on the trucks about to be slaughtered. They are, chickens are living in crowded cages. There's antibiotic issues with factory farms making us poor. resistant to antibiotics because they're in such crammed places that the farmers have to feed them with antibiotics so that they don't spread disease.
But then that again, the connection that impacts us and it's, yeah, animal agriculture is probably the most devastating thing on the planet for forests because we have to clear cut and burn forests to make space for pasture land and for the food to grow animals. So again, like football fields of forests are burned down every minute just to transition that land into pasture land.
The impact on our waterways and oceans because This is gross, but it's real. The manure from factory farms goes somewhere, and oftentimes all the time, it ends up in our waterways. So in the Gulf of Mexico, for example, all the farming that we do in middle America is going down the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico.
And the Gulf of Mexico is now the largest, what's called ocean dead zone in the world, where all the fish float to the top and they die. There was another BBC thing documenting this a couple of months ago. And it's because they, there's so much nutrient from the factory farms in the oceans that there's no life there.
And again, that impacts us. We're not this isolated thing on the climate. So every time we're clearing Land for, we're deforesting it to make pasture land for cows. We're diminishing not only the trees, which is the cooling cover of the earth. That's why we have all the climate emergencies in Australia.
In Asia, in Europe, Europe was the hottest year that we had ever in 2024. Why? Because we're continuing to clear the forest for animal agriculture, for logging, but primarily for animal agriculture climate by and as when we clear the forest, so every time we. Wipe out this beautiful, lush old growth forest filled with, monkeys and parrots and mammals and insects and flora and fauna, that's all wiped out.
It does two things. We also lose this incredible biodiversity. of the earth that makes earth magical. It's because we have this incredible beauty of the planet that makes earth so magical. We're making it barren, so we're losing This precious biodiversity that we can never mimic and bring forth, and when we lose biodiversity and we're wiping out the homes of these animals and birds, it's leading into species extinction.
So right now on our clock in our lifetime, it is said that we're entering the next mass, it's 1 million species are on the verge of extinction due to human activity. right now. So adopting a plant based diet, again, I'm not, we don't have to be perfect at it, but doing our best to reduce our meat and dairy intake and adopting more plants, more vegetables, more tofu, more legumes.
And do you know what that does? It's actually scientifically proven to make us healthier.
[00:42:47 ] Rachel Autumn: Yes, man. Wow, I'm gonna take a breath with that information. No, because it's so important to share this. I think that a lot of us exist in our bubbles or exist in the bubble of the community that we're in. And we are not always exposed to or aware of everything that's going on in the world.
And it's so important to highlight this and sometimes it can be icky and scary. And like you said, a little gross, but it's the truth of the matter. And at the end of the day, we're all contributors of this and to know better is to then be charged with the act of doing better. And so much of what we were talking about earlier, so essential in, in giving yourself that experience of rising to the occasion of your life and rising to the responsibility of shining your light and being your best self.
and how that connects to our collective responsibility and healing ourselves, our planet. And so I'm so grateful that you have, you've allowed yourself to be multi hyphenate multifaceted, because so many of us that have different interests, we do feel like we're supposed to do it like this or be one thing.
And by you connecting the dots, it actually creates something It creates the opportunity for people to, to deepen their practice, to deepen their self awareness. How do they then move into the world and impact the world in a better way? So thank you so much for sharing all of this. It's essential.
[00:44:23 ] Goli: Gabbay: It's essential. I, something is brewing in me that I wanted to tie it back. So the way, what I just shared, and I know that it was a lot and it's heavy, it's not light, it's intense and it's real and it's, what's happening is that, how it relates to yoga is that one of the principles of yoga is ahimsa, is non harming.
Non harming to ourself and non harming to others. And for this reason, I, for me many years ago, I think when I started going plant based 20 years ago, thanks to one of my early yoga teachers it is, I think, Anyway, it's such a beautiful parallel to yoga because how we lead as yoga teachers and practitioners in the world is how am I leading by example.
And I personally don't want to contribute to the Violence and suffering of another living being to the best of my ability. You know am I perfect? No. Are we perfect? No. There's no judgment but can we lead by example to cultivate a more kind, compassionate, Considerate, respectful world for all living beings.
And for me, like as a yogi and as an environmentalist, it just really made sense, like for my heart to, to lead my life and my plate from my heart. Rather again, thinking Oh, this for this five minute meal what did it take for this animal to be on our plate? A lot. And there's so many more ramifications that I won't get into, the impact on wildlife like wolves, horses, they're being wiped out again because of farming interests.
So the impacts are so huge. For, I'm sorry, there are so far why the impacts are so widespread and but leading it back to the yoga practice, it really aligns with ahimsa and non harming, which is one of the principles in yoga philosophy.
[00:46:54 ] Rachel Autumn: Thank you for sharing these pillars of mindful living. And I know that you are actually in process. You are in an incubator season of creating a book, a guide for us to tap into daily practices that we can do to support and be stewards of the earth. Can you share a little bit about this project that's coming up and any insights, any teasers that you would offer at this time about what we can expect from your offering to the world?
[00:47:28 ] Goli Gabbay : Sure, Rachel. Initially I was going to make a really simple guide like a real simple, like you can flip through it, guide to sustainable living, to make it really easy for everyone. Because as we spoke about, it is daunting for most people to be like, Oh, what can I do? So forget it. I'm just not going to do anything.
And I wanted to make something really practical and easy and accessible. And I may still do the guide, like little snippets of here's a hundred things that you could do that really make a big impact. Like as simple as the Toothbrush. Like imagine times 9 billion people. That's 9 billion plastic particles that don't enter our waterways or landfills.
So every little thing really counts. Oh, I have another one. So here's plastic shampoo and conditioner bottles. So another like really simple thing that we can do is to Stop buying this and instead use a shampoo bar. It smells amazing, this one. And at the end of the life, hold on, I got to put this down.
At the end of the life of a shampoo bar, this can be compostable and the bar itself will disappear. So it's literally like zero waste. Which is amazing. Again, imagine if even 100, 000 people adopted this, it would be, 100, 000 shampoo bottles that don't end up in the landfill. And speaking of plastic, of all the plastic ever produced, I'm an avid recycler, but the truth of the matter is that only less than 9 percent of plastic is actually ever recycled.
It's a sham that the industry made to make us feel better, but it's not really, it's just not really done, sadly.
[00:49:22 ] Rachel Autumn: Goodness. So what's happening, what is actually happening with recyclables then?
[00:49:27 ] Goli Gabbay: We don't really know. Again I still do it, I still do it with the, in the hope that it is, but I think a lot of it is shipped to third world countries.
[00:49:36 ] Rachel Autumn: Jeez.
[00:49:37 ] Goli Gabbay: Right now. Yeah. So the, and I only bring that again. It's heavy. It's not fun to think about that. It's a lot of plastic. I have a lot, every time we have a yogurt tub or whatever, plant based yogurt again, it's a plastic drug. So I'm trying to come up with just ways to reduce and this is one way.
So in the book, just back to the book, all the things that I try to do, or I even think about that I don't even want to post about because some of the stuff is daunting or not pretty to look at. I was like, you know what? I'm just going to write it all out and make it really accessible and simple. And everything that we do from the clothes that we wear to even our yoga clothes has microplastic in it, all the nylon it's all made from petrochemicals.
So I laid it all out and from everything of like how to reuse stuff. Like you want to get rid of you, your old couch and you just don't want it anymore instead of dumping it on the street, which I see on my street, like every day, people dumping bulky items, you put an ad in Craigslist.
And you're like free item and like 20 people want the item that you don't want and it gives it a new life. So I just give like really clear, easy to follow solutions to like everyday things that we do. Everyday things from buying recycled content, toilet paper, And, like how that affects our forests.
And I just make, I laid it all out in in an easy to follow format that gives you the education of the why, what the issue is. And the solution, what you can do to make it better. And so that's coming up, hopefully in a couple of months, I might make it a digital book because I want it to be zero waste.
[00:51:31 ] Rachel Autumn: Of course. I'm so excited for this. This is, it's because it's what you just spoke to just now about the solution oriented approach because it can get real heavy, real fast. And so presenting opportunities for us to contribute to a better world, a better way of living, a more mindful way of living, feels so empowering and feels like something that you can sustain and keep up with and grow.
And I'm imagining too, that this is all like the concept of stacking your habits, habit stacking. So switching one thing practice. And then after you, that's second nature, the bamboo toothbrush is your new thing, then maybe now we can start to move on to a new sector of our life. It's not a total change and disruption of your life.
It's an invitation to deepen. your awareness and as you become more aware and in yourself and in your contributions to the world for the good, hopefully you're able to then rise and make some subtle shifts.
[00:52:38 ] Goli Gabbay: Exactly, Rachel. Yeah making it easy, just like even adopting a Meditation practice, you could start with one minute a day,
And that one minute you're like, Oh, I could do this.
And then maybe, lead, build it up to 15 minutes eventually. And then maybe 20 minutes and maybe half an hour. And it's the same with the sustainability sustainable living tips. It's maybe you just start with one or two things, but the book is going to offer you a lot. And I think by gaining the awareness.
Like even, I even have chapters in the book on adopting pets instead of buying. from breeders, and what that entails. And I think a lot of people just don't have the awareness of their actions. And in the hopes of bringing the awareness forward on the table, we can, as a society, make more informed and conscious choices that are also, again, more heart centered, more kind and compassionate.
[00:53:40 ] Rachel Autumn: Yeah, it makes me excited. I'm seeing the world of nine billion people adopting this one thing. Like you sharing that it really, the scale of the difference that we can make feels so much more attainable. And then, again, it's that concept of dissolving polarities, like we're all connected. We're all connected.
[00:54:00 ] Goli Gabbay: We're all connected. Exactly. Exactly. It's a science. Like we, we all, we all, I have a little snippet in the book actually that talks about our genetic commonality with all the other species of life. Like it's pretty, we're really, Deeply connect, interconnected with all organisms on this earth.
And we I really want us as humans to rise into that and begin to shift, cause it's not the planet doesn't need to be saved. The planet is incredibly wise and has had its natural checks and balances for billions of years before we even came on it. It's human consciousness that needs to be saved and needs to be shifted.
Into a different mindset from domination and greed and like short term gain to this like heart centered, which is very yoga, yoga esque, more heart centered. How can I contribute? How can I make a difference? How can I leave the earth better than I found it? And honoring like that interconnection, having reverence and love for this incredibly beautiful gem of a planet that, like just the magic that it is just the perfect distance from the sun compared to all the other planets to hold this gorgeous life that we see when we travel.
You're like, Oh my God, it's not it's not that Brazil is beautiful, or the Maldives is beautiful, or Tahiti is beautiful. It's the earth is beautiful. The earth is magnificent. And one of the things in the book that I hope is to leave readers with this reverence to start leading every day, to have like awe and respect and love and reverence for the world, for the world, for each other, for the earth, for all living beings.
[00:56:16 ] Rachel Autumn: Blessings to you for that. It's, we're all mirrors of each other. And again, how we're treating the earth. Like you said, we started this discussion about sustainability with how we're treating ourselves is reflected in how we're treating the earth and so many of the things that you spoke to and the harm that has been done to the earth by humankind has been things that aren't healthy for us.
Like things that, science has already proven palm oil consumption. We've already seen all of the studies on plant based nutrition. And these things are equally as beneficial to us as it is to implementing for the planet. So the interconnectedness of it all is so transformative and encouraging. And I hope those listening feel encouraged to play their part in their self healing and in.
the recalibration of our connection to the planet so that the planet can be its resilient self and self heal as well.
[00:57:18 ] Goli Gabbay: And I think rather than again, having like dominion on all these other species that were caging and mutilating and harming, like true, the true meaning is stewardship, is being caretakers.
Guardians of the planet. And for me, that's the, that's always been a North star since I was, it's in my DNA, like it's something like intrinsic in my, a knowing in my soul that's what, at least that's what I'd like to inspire on this lifetime is a stewardship, is a guardianship.
of the earth because I truly have like awe and reverence and I don't expect everyone to be like me, but I just hope to inspire just their respect for life, respect for other life forms, be it tree, animal, other human And, all of the ocean all of it. And I think it's possible.
And I think I don't know, if we take it back to music, Rachel, The joy that people have like dancing together in community is that I think ultimately, when we transcend that disconnect, we all like that is like, why is it that people love dancing and people love music? It's because we're gathering in collective in harmony with the earth in that moment with each other, with music, with vibration.
So I think deep down, like it's there for everybody, but we've just forgotten. Yes.
[00:58:58 ] Rachel Autumn: Yes. And that's why we both are DJs now. Yes, girl. I love it. Cause DJ is, it's a little deviation, but it's so connected to this conversation. Because it's a vibe curator. A DJ is a vibe. Vibe Curator is a moment maker.
It's a heartbeat of a party. And as someone who gets to be that emcee, that master of ceremony, you get to establish The vibe. So having DJs even who are high vibrational beings, who are tapped into self care and deep care and wisdom for another, that sets the tone and the vibration of how we're all gonna connect, and it's why.
Having music in a positive light, positive messaging, positive community. My dad grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, where I'm from. And he used to, he raves about this club called Odell's. It's like studio 54 of Baltimore, Maryland. And it was an alcohol free establishment so they could stay open till the wee hours of the morning because they didn't have to have a liquor license and there weren't any limitations.
And it was just, everyone was high on life and on the vibration, on the dance. And I want to see more of that. today, and I know you're tapped into that same frequency too. With everything that you do. This is a great opportunity to hold space with you and amplify your work and your vision for the planet and for what it is that you want to contribute that you already have contributed.
So I am honored that you shared space with me here today at the Glo Podcast. This work will touch the hearts of many. I want to end today with a really fun rapid fire round. Sure. A handful of questions that you'll respond to from the heart. Speaking of music, I want to start with this. I'm curious what your favorite song or genre of music is to practice yoga to, if any, if you practice with music.
[01:01:18 ] Goli Gabbay: Yeah, definitely have one. So I love, whether I teach or practice, I love melodic ambient music, I would say is my favorite. Yeah, electronic ambient music, but really melodic, beautiful kind of takes you on a journey. It's my favorite. Yes.
[01:01:34 ] Rachel Autumn: Same.
[01:01:35 ] Goli Gabbay: And yeah. Oh, good. And music, just back to the music piece Rachel, music has always, I always selected the music for my, when I teach first and the music informed, The vibration and the frequency and the vision of what I wanted to teach.
It was always music first for me before, like I designed my sequence or what I was going to speak about or share. So music is yeah, the holding space for me, the container of like where I wanted to take a client, like on their journey. I'm right there. I'm right there with you, sister.
[01:02:16 ] Rachel Autumn: Okay what's your favorite genre of music to dance to?
I think I have a suspicion based on your DJ preferences. I think you're a house music, like, all day. That might be wrong.
[01:02:29 ] Goli Gabbay: Yes, you're right. Again, like I love ambient, but of course for dance I love deep house, Afro house. It's been maybe a couple of years, Latin house is really big, some of my favorite DJs kind of music out of Berlin.
Like they're really pushing the Latin house lately and there's some like amazing tracks coming out that are so exciting, but I love, yeah, just the high vibration music, but I also, I love the deep house also some of the the music that kind of takes us like on this melodic journey. as well. I like the deep stuff as well.
[01:03:10 ] Rachel Autumn: And you're so great. I was going to say you're a great DJ in this category as well. I've gotten a little taste, a little preview. More on that soon.
[01:03:18 ] Goli Gabbay: My first ever our little academy graduation. Yeah. That, that
[01:03:23 ] Rachel Autumn: we did. Fun times. You had to be there. Okay. What is the best eco friendly habit that you've adopted recently?
[01:03:31 ] Goli Gabbay: Recently, it's not recent the best one that I've adopted, I've been mostly plant based for 20 years. And I, as I mentioned earlier, I truly believe that it's the most powerful, I have a whole keynote talk on it, actually. I have a whole workshop on it. From the research that I've done in this field, it's the most powerful action that we can take as individuals to better protect the planet, the forest, the climate, the waterways, the air. So that's, I wouldn't, I, it's not recent but it's a long time. And then more recent, I would say, yeah, the shampoo bar is a very recent thing. I wish I did it earlier. And I'm eliminating like all the bulky plastic and the bamboo toothbrush is like a couple years that I've done it.
I'm like, why didn't I think of this earlier?
[01:04:22 ] Rachel Autumn: I know. I'm constantly thinking like shark tank ideas. When I see people coming up with really clever ways of doing things better and protecting the earth, I'm like, ah, I should have come up with that myself. Okay, final question. I have two more for you. Is there a book or a resource that you would recommend folks who are at the beginning of their awareness on sustainability?
[01:04:45 ] Goli Gabbay: I would say keep on the lookout for my upcoming guide, whatever it's going to be, my e guide, my e book, because as I mentioned, I think it'll really just make it tangible, like really easy to follow, really easy to understand as far as what the issues are with all our everyday day to day. Habits and practices and then what the simple solutions are.
And I talk about really everyday things from what to do with your old computers and phones that you don't want to pets, lifestyle, food, fish just an understanding of our, like everyday to fashion, to clothing, to waste, it covers everything. Otherwise, I would say and I can provide this later, maybe on a link to follow maybe particular accounts on Instagram that I find to be really informative.
[01:05:37 ] Rachel Autumn: Thank you. We appreciate that. And we'll definitely share those in our show notes. You might have spoken to this already, but repetition is power here. So if it's the same answer, all good. Final question for you is what is one small change you wish everyone would make for a greener planet?
[01:05:55 ] Goli Gabbay: I did touch upon it already.
I would definitely say, like I said, it's not small, but I would say adopting a plant based diet is the, maybe even reducing. Reducing meat and dairy consumption to, if you're having it like seven days a week, maybe reducing it to four days a week. Meatless Mondays is a thing. And I, there's so many I can also put in the link.
So if people are used to eating meat, like seven days a week, or some kind of animal product, reducing that to, Maybe four days a week and having plant based options on those other days. And I follow an account on Instagram. Again, I'm happy to share that. It's so mind blowingly delicious and they have recipes like every day.
Like I, I drew, I saved all of them. I'm like, Oh my God, it's so tasty what you're showing me. And from friends of mine that I've inspired through the years to adopt, everyone feels better. They're like, Oh my God, like my mind is more clear. My, my body feels better. And Dr. Neil Barnard and Dr.
Michael Greger, who are incredible scientists, who are plant based MDs, there's countless others. They actually did a study I think it was like 1500 individuals at a company that it was a mental health study and they, after two weeks of going plant based, there was a reduced irritability anger depression, anxiety they felt, people felt better.
After two weeks in their mental health and wellness. And when I used to eat meat, when I was just starting my yoga practice, I had a personal experience of feeling emotionally better. My yoga teacher said to me something, cause I asked him, I said, Guru Singh, Why is it that I wake up angry in the morning?
This was like, it was in my twenties. There's like nothing in my life that I shouldn't feel angry about. He said, Goli, it's the meat that you're eating. And I said why? And he said to me, something that I'll never forget. The last thing that an animal feels before being slaughtered is fear and adrenaline in their body and in their, in their nervous system.
And then we ingest that three times a day. And I literally felt that, that morph in my body in a strange way. And as soon as I listened to my yoga teacher, I stopped eating. It was chicken at the time. I felt better. I didn't feel, I feel peaceful. in my being. And if not, if that just feels daunting, just go for the bamboo toothbrush.
It's really simple.
[01:08:53 ] Rachel Autumn: I appreciate your shares so much. And it's, there's so many things that you can start anywhere, friends, like start anywhere, start today. I think that this is some powerful work that you're doing. And it's exciting. And you're talking about the joy and the peace that comes from, yeah, from this awareness and these applications to life as well. So it can be fun too. It can be really fun —
[01:09:21 ] Goli Gabbay: — and really delicious. And I think most people, if you put a chicken or an apple in front of a child and say, which one do you want to eat? The child is going to go for the apple. And I think intrinsically in our heart, we are good humans and we are loving people.
And this is an expression for me to just lead with love, with my heart, with what I put on my plate as well.
[01:09:50 ] Rachel Autumn: Absolutely. So much love and reverence for you and your work and everything that you reflect out into the world. It's such an honor to know you and grow with you, DJ Goli Gabay.
[01:10:09 ] Goli Gabbay: I have so much more to say about the
[01:10:10 ] Rachel Autumn: DJ round, but I know we're at time. I know. Oh man it's a powerful thing. You're just going to have to Stay in touch with us on the socials and see where DJ takes us. But my DJ name is DJ Autumn Rose. It's my middle name and my grandmother's name. And it's DJ Goli Gabay.
Cause why would you have to change that fierce name? So thank you again, Goli. Such a pleasure, a treat. I'm excited to integrate some of your wisdom into my life. today. And I hope folks will want to stay in touch with you, your work, looking out for your upcoming book or ebook. Your website is goligabbay.com. You're on social at goligabbay. Can you share if there are any other places we can find you and stay in touch with you?
[01:10:59 ] Goli Gabbay: My SoundCloud is also Goli Gabay, if they want some music, I'll be sharing some mixes soon on SoundCloud that I'm really excited about. Some high vibes, or I'm going, I'm actually going to do an ambient mix as well for some really deep relaxation, beautiful, softening to the nervous system, frequencies there as well, but those are the best ways to get a hold of me. And I really I really thank you, Rachel. I know when I saw you, you were doing a back to back with one of our classmates and I'm like, she's amazing. Who is this beautiful? Who is this beautiful, bright person? And then we talked and we're like, Oh, yoga Glo.
[01:11:41 ] Rachel Autumn: Yeah. We have that in common. Yup, instant connection, instant love. It was all meant to be just one more deviation. We actually weren't in the same class. You just happened to be practicing during my class
[01:12:01 ] Rachel Autumn: You were the missing link in our group.
[01:12:03 ] Goli Gabbay: I was in my little cave in that room with the controller.Yeah, the pioneer in my little room over there next to you guys. So much fun, so much joy.
[01:12:11 ] Rachel Autumn: . Please check out Goli's SoundCloud because this can be a great soundtrack to your practice on the mat, off the mat. As you are doing a cleanse, a purge in your home and starting to implement some new sustainable tools in your daily life.
So thank you, Goli, again.
Goli Gabbay: Thank you so much, Rachel. And sending you so much love and gratitude. [01:12:41 ] Derik Mills: Thank you to our entire team behind the scenes at Glo. I'm so grateful for your care and commitment to serving our members around the world. Thank you to our teachers for so beautifully sharing your gifts and talents. I'm also grateful to our lovely community of Glo members. You've supported us since 2008, and because of you, we get to continue to do the work we love.
It's the combined support of our team, our teachers, and our community that grants me the privilege to continue to bring you the Glo podcast. Thank you to Lee Schneider at Red Cup Agency for production support, and the beautiful music you're hearing now is by Carrie Rodriguez and her husband Luke Jacobs.
And remember, take care of yourself, because our world needs you. Thank you for coming on this journey with me. You can find The Glo Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or glo. com slash podcast, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. I'm Derik Mills.