S3:E15 Rahshaana Green

Rahshaana Green is a multidisciplinary wellness consultant who combines her knowledge and experience in science, yoga and building human connection to help people heal. She’s a Forrest Yoga Guardian and the Director of Equity and Contemplative Psychotherapy at the Nalanda Institute, where she directs and teaches within the Contemplative Psychotherapy Programs.

In their conversation, Rahshaana tells Anne about being a curious kid, a high performer and voracious reader who used books as windows into other worlds. She talks about how she learned the power of agency from her mother, who taught her and her siblings, with a ‘scared-straight’ approach, how to make choices to take life into the direction they intended. The oldest of four, Rahshaana admits that her choices were also a potential blueprint for her siblings, and how a desire to influence them positively led her to pursue an early career in science.

After receiving her BA in Biophysical Chemistry from Dartmouth College and an MBA from The University of Texas at Austin, Rahshaana talks about how she combined her passion for science and business skills which led her to pursue a fifteen-year career in Marketing and Business Development for medical device and life science companies.

Rahshaana then explains how an accident directed her towards yoga — Forrest Yoga specifically. Able to heal herself through this practice, she tells Anne how she made the choice to certify as a teacher and with the support of an amazing manager was able to do so in parallel to her career. She continued to pursue a personal study in meditation, mindfulness and compassion practices to deepen her own growth and to empower others to cultivate well-being and resilience.

Reaching the present, Anne asks Rahshaana to talk through her journey that led her to the Nalanda Institute in Contemplative Science (which is, incidentally, how the two became acquainted). Rahshaana talks in depth about the programs she teaches in Compassion-Based Resilience Training (CBRT). And who needs to explore CBRT? Probably everyone, according to her, because, as we can probably all attest, ‘human-ing’ is hard.

To conclude, the pair discusses how the power of compassion and mindfulness combined can help people access emotions, including difficult emotions, and become resilient to feelings like discomfort. And they talk about the importance of intimacy — a word that can describe the connection we can hope to have with the body — as a form of ultimate intelligence.

A profound and inspiring conversation. Happy listening!