Episode 11, Talking South Carolina Podcast Interview with Elizabeth Anderson of Platform in MT. Pleasant, SC

Episode transcript:

Angela Barrett “Hey guys, today I have with me Elizabeth Anderson. She is with Platform in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, right outside of Charleston. And for us, that big bridge that everybody likes to run across. So thanks, Elizabeth, for joining me today.”

Elizabeth Anderson Thank you so much for having me. I’m really happy to be here.

Angela Barrett “Yeah. So let’s talk about what first platform is, you explain there.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Sir. So the full name of the platform is platform a consciousness studio. Then opened for just about a year and its mission is, to bring people to the practice of meditation. I do one form, but they offer many other ways to go about it. They have, I do a tiger meditation, which is a yogic sleep, which, yes, it’s not a physical movement practice very literally in one position the whole time.”

Elizabeth Anderson “But they have, Hiroko all have, some mindful movement meditations by, tab. Basically you can come in and schedule or drop in and do some prerecorded, meditations where you find your space and this beautiful, quiet, serene area that the owner has set up. And then they both also have it. Yeah. Evening classes. They’re going to start doing some day classes where somebody is there to help you with the meditation or having someone with you.”

Elizabeth Anderson “They’re going to start doing some book clubs, The Artist’s Way, before agreeing, I’m gonna give some classes with some restorative yoga classes on journaling because the core, intent of platform is to have a lot of different avenues to get you to be in your presence, space to let go, tractions in operations in your life and just come to your breath and come to the present moment.”

Elizabeth Anderson “As you practice meditation, you can take it out into the fray of your daily life and come back to that present awesome factor of your breath, help you through all that moments that.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah. Right in, in in this stage of and where we are today in the world, we can all use a little of that, although it’s a lot harder than it sounds. Now, let me ask you a few questions. You guys do yoga as well as meditation or this is really a meditate place.”

Elizabeth Anderson “It really is a place for meditation. So even though, what I the file that I do at platform is a, mega style, it’s called yoga, but really it is a meditation if you’re in one position the whole time and it’s guided, they there’s, so we’re gonna start doing the, restorative yoga that really that is to get you into a meditative funk.”

Elizabeth Anderson “I would say there’s no asana. So classes that you’re really building through and making it a physical practice, most of everything that you will see there in there still. Yeah. Called movements, if there’s any of that at all, there might be just some, some mostly guided meditations there. The reason why but, we’re introducing some of the restorative, which you would really be, maybe six position for a few minutes.”

Elizabeth Anderson “So it’s very gentle and so very still before you go into a meditation at the end is to get people comfortable with the idea of meditation. I think people in general, I know I did in the beginning, that I can’t meditate, I can’t do that. I can’t yet in the same. Right. And yet, breathing cannot.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Then, I think people find it to be a little intimidating and and it’s not. And that’s why we’re trying to educate so accessible to everyone. And so to enter David, many avenues as possible to get people comfortable with the meditation practice so they can integrate it into their lives and have more peace and calm as they go throughout their day.”

Angela Barrett “Right, right, right. The, and we’re going to get into more of what your, your platform is, which is the Nadra. But yeah, but let’s talk about I saw on there where, the sound baths. Tell us more a little bit about that.”

Elizabeth Anderson “One the big but sound baths girl. Yeah, yeah. So that’s a wonderful experience. So they have, where you can go and there’s four styles of meditations in there that are prerecorded headsets. One of those voices, are sound B&B. There’s four sound baths. Currently they’re going to start introducing new ones. So there’s no voice and a sound bar.”

Elizabeth Anderson “You’re listening to pretzel bowls, rain sticks, some gentle music waves. It’s all integrated together to get you into a calm fight. So all of the headset meditations are half an hour, and then there is also, a lady named Arlen, and her business is awake and Fonda, and he does sound baths there, and they’re really incredible.”

Elizabeth Anderson So she comes in and gets them right in that space.

Angela Barrett “Oh that’s nice. Now, what about the, circle?”

Elizabeth Anderson “Okay, so they an old, lady named Arman. Not that those. And he’s amazing. That’s how I actually came. The platform. I was actually a couple doors down getting, some items for a, Harvest New Deal. The practice that I was going to do in my neighborhood. And I was like, what? The place? I just thought that more of a consciousness studio.”

Elizabeth Anderson “And they had a sandwich board outside thing. They did, they’re open, but sounded interesting to me. So I just happened to go in there. I talked to the lady, that was up front, and she said that, that Yanni could come in and just sign up and do it. And so I had, Carmen. And basically what happened in that scenario is, he does kind of a meditation in the beginning, and then you’re basically mapping, for several rounds, and you’re doing it collectively with everybody in the circle, and it creates this incredible, peaceful, energetic way.”

Elizabeth Anderson And you feel very cleansed in rejuvenated. And at the end.

Angela Barrett “Nice, nice.”

Elizabeth Anderson Yeah.

Angela Barrett “So let’s talk about, Nadra and really the point of nidra and sort of what its, purpose is because each one has a different purpose. So let’s talk about your your baby.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Not sure. Yeah. I’d love to. So, I got into it when I was getting my t 100 hour certification. The Niagara with a small piece of it that one of the instructors introduced and actually went through with us on a meditation, like me, experience. And I thought, well, I, you know, I didn’t know that would even be a piece of what I would be learning.”

Elizabeth Anderson “And I really enjoyed it. Once I got my 200 hour sort of haven, you could, get some other certification as well. So I went, I had and that by my best certification. So it just specifically focused on that type of meditation or yoga. What’s so amazing about it is it does several things. And if you go to, a negative meditation, it kind of has a specific formula because it’s walking you through all the layers.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Your body’s like, we have so much more than a physical body, and that’s part of it. But you go through a physical journey, an energetic breath journey, a mental journey, a wisdom journey with journey. And, it’s really the practice of bringing body and mind into the same faith. It’s working with your breath and dropping into the present moment and helping you rework, belief patterns that are limiting, each time you go through, mantra meditation, you’ll be asked to focus on an intention, something that will come naturally back.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Whatever you’re feeling about how, you know, just a thought about you might want to. You’re like, I’m be confident or whatever, whatever you are trying to, bring to the surface because. So then, you know, you just have to bring forth into your present faith. So it helps you. It helps you to do all of those things.”

Elizabeth Anderson “And the more that you practice it, the more you can bring up life. And that’s the other thing that it does, is, you know, we all have attraction and aversion. So aversions might be like if you have a fear of a certain animal or whatever it is, that if you happen to be walking across the street in one of those animals, is there, that could disturb you, disturb your flow.”

Elizabeth Anderson “So if you could work on and not be elevated by that. And then there’s also attraction. I, I personally love my coffee.”

Angela Barrett In the.

Elizabeth Anderson “Morning. Right. So if I were to then to go to the doctor next week and he said, hey, all of that caffeine really isn’t working for you. No more coffee. That’s an attraction for me. I have to be okay with that. I have to say, okay, I can put that down. It’s about neutralizing everything. So that you can just be, this present flow state.”

Elizabeth Anderson No one is going to do that all the time. But I need to get better with the process of flowing through what is happening and what’s coming your way.

Angela Barrett “Now, correct me if I’m wrong about this, but in my reading, in prepping for our, talk today, what I read about the Nitro was it really dealt with going into the the Delta brainwaves? No, no no no. And, in response for, for healing, which is responsible, the delta waves are responsible for your healing and restoration. Now, that is a lot of scientific stuff, but explore more into that.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Sure, sure. So, traditional meditation kind of keeps you in the waking state, those, beta and alpha waves. So the reason, one of the reasons why the night is called the, the yoga sleep is because it does get you into the Delta as well, and it gets you into that kind of. I don’t know if you’ve ever been, waking up in the morning or you wake up, you’re not quite ready to get up, and you’re kind of in that in down, and you’re kind of asleep.”

Elizabeth Anderson “You’re kind of awake, very dreamy. It’s very peaceful, you know, and you don’t really feel like you’re you’re fully in your physical body. You’re kind of like floating in and out of that state. So that is where, the nitro meditation takes you into that delta wave state. So where you are, relax, but you’re still aware, and that is where you get into that state and dropping in to calm and relaxed and getting out of what?”

Elizabeth Anderson “Flight or fright mode. Where you’re just, like, freaked out about everything?”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, I got to get up and do this.”

Elizabeth Anderson Yeah. Yeah.

Angela Barrett “Yeah. And so again, in my, in my reading research, It talks about it can be good for certain things. Again, one of them I thought was kind of odd and you can maybe help me with this is type two diabetes.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Yeah. You know what? I honestly, not familiar with that being helpful in that regard.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, well, it was just one of the things that it listed that it was helpful with. So I thought, well, I that’s,”

Elizabeth Anderson So I’ll read through that too.

Angela Barrett “Yeah. Well, I didn’t I didn’t take it any further than that. But so let’s back up just a second and talk about the importance of meditation for everyday people. Well, so tell me about that.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Yeah, yeah. I mean, I, we kind of touched on it a little bit before, you know, life is so hyper connected now. We know everything all the time. There’s so much information coming at us. And even if you’re a person that maybe doesn’t use social media, or watching that TV a lot, you know, it’s still coming out even as you try to, like, mitigate it.”

Elizabeth Anderson “It’s constantly pouring at you. And, you know, our brains really, really aren’t made to take in all this information so quickly. So it the we are in a constant state of overstimulation. So meditation I think now in in credible you need that time. And I think people have a hard time carving out time for themselves in general.”

Elizabeth Anderson “And it doesn’t have to be, ideal hour and a half an hour meditation, guided, headphone ones and the sound bars or 30 minutes. And you don’t have to start at that point or ever get to where you. I think if you feel it more, you’ll want to do it longer. But you can sit down and do it for five minutes.”

Elizabeth Anderson “It does not have to be, oh, a long commitment during the day. If you feel like you don’t have that time, you could start at five minutes. You start with, whatever is going to do work for you to start to get on that road because it will be the quiet we need plan. Oh, the meditation is a way to get there.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Become there. Yeah. No love out there. It’s just like a firehose coming at you all the time. And so you need to get your mind and body attached to the fact, right? That’s right.”

Angela Barrett “And so let’s talk about for somebody who’s never done meditation and quite frankly probably has and you’ve met them some hesitation about well, you know, that’s not for me or. Oh I don’t know if I want to be a part of that group of people, however they might think of it. How do you get started?”

Angela Barrett “I mean, other than walking into a classroom, I get it right. Put in a headset. But, I mean, physically, we lay down. Let’s go from there. I mean, how do we separate what my grocery list needs to me? Because I’m terrible about that. In yoga, my Yogi friend’s an angel. That is not the purpose of my walk, I know, but,”

Angela Barrett “How how do you get to that point? I mean, how do you get to what you’re saying? Separation.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Sure, sure. I think, yeah. To your point, I think that it can be, daunting, like, wow, how can I do that? How can I how can I carve out that space? I think, physically, first of all, finding that faith is good. If you could, if you are the first person to get up in the morning.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Again, it does not have to be a long period of time. You could do it, for three minutes, 3 to 5 minutes after you get up. And I think it’s finding that it’s about faith, you know? So if you are that first one up, if you’ve got a face on a porch or, an office, like, carving out a little bit of life, that this is your place where you want and can be, not distracted for a few moments.”

Elizabeth Anderson “You know, and again, start at that 3 to 5 minutes and then, yeah. And again, also when you sit down and do it for the first time that you could find, there’s so many great, yoga music channels, like to look for instrumental, quiet, calming meditation music. Put that on. You can light a candle and just gaze into that candle and find an intention for yourself.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Or it could even be, you know, like, things that you feel grateful for or whatever speaks to you or something kind that you want to say to yourself that you love yourself something too. That doesn’t have to be thinking about nothing. It can be an intention you want to give yourself, three things of gratitude.”

Elizabeth Anderson “You might want to try taking a journal. And before you meditate, just write three things that you’re grateful for for that morning or for that evening. Light the candle and focus on those three things. Focus in on your breath. Listen to the sound of your breath. It can be, sitting in that space and coming into the present.”

Elizabeth Anderson “And what are five things I see here? What are five things that I hear and hear you get back here? Breath. Set a timer for yourself, and I can guarantee if you try one or a combination of those methods, that five minutes is going to go by so quickly. You can just keep going back to those practices.”

Elizabeth Anderson “And, you know, if that’s the gratitude journaling, I think that’s the lighting the candle and then focusing in on your five senses and what you feel in that space, whatever speaking to you and it could be different things on different days or maybe one thing, but just stay in those lanes and then every few days maybe set your timer for a few more minutes.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Start to see how that helps you. You get you into the space for you to be, see how that affects how you go about your day and how you were to respond when you’re, as we all get into in cars and say, like traffic or.”

Angela Barrett “Conflict time, right?”

Elizabeth Anderson “You know, how you can just bring it back to that present faith and not let one get under your skin.”

Angela Barrett “Right, right, right. And let’s talk about intentions for those who don’t know anything about, meditating. So explain again. But an intention is.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Yeah, so an intention and, you know, I mean, I don’t want to necessarily say something you want to work on. I don’t want it to be a pressure or another goal or that, you know, somebody began putting on their, their endless to do list and that would be productive life that they have that an intention can go back in, you know, self-love letting go of be here, wanting to have more clarity.”

Elizabeth Anderson “And, you know, it’s just an intention can be an endless thing for that individual is going to decide what their intention is. So not.”

Angela Barrett Another word could be a goal.

Elizabeth Anderson “It could be a goal. And I need a lot of things in it. And when I say it, when we talk about goal again, it’s not like, yeah, 10 pounds and a half marathon or whatever you want to do. It’s really more about taking it into the eternal, like maybe and percolating up one and then a half marathon, but I’m not me as an example.”

Elizabeth Anderson “So I think that I know people have done it and I’m very I have a lot of admiration for them. But, yeah, that would be something that I wanted to do, just hypothetically, but I can’t I can’t make myself get on the road to that journey. It’s really taking that internally. It’s like, well, what am I? Am I afraid I won’t be able to actually achieve that goal?”

Elizabeth Anderson “Or do I feel like I’m not strong enough? And then it’s it’s really looking at it’s like and that will maybe I don’t feel like I’m here, for example. Then I make my intention that I am strong. Oh, I’m capable, I am strong, I am worthy. You’re going you’re you’re putting it internal to yourself and filling your cup with what you think you’re lacking.”

Elizabeth Anderson The not lacking. You just happy. Get it to the person yourself.

Angela Barrett “Right. And again, that goes back to what the the knowledge is about. You’re not completely in your subconscious, but kind of mean you’re kind of halfway there and kind of halfway in the car to some. You never asleep? Not really.”

Elizabeth Anderson “But yeah. Good. Your subconscious is always working, right. We wake, it’s always going. And so when you’re getting enthused by drifts, you’re kind of slowly together with it, with your conscious and subconscious together. You can, you can clear out some stuff that’s happening in there. You can come to some revelation you formed, really make it, so one of the many, tools and practices to have for yourself, you come in for your light and your best self and really recognize it.”

Elizabeth Anderson “You know you are enough. You are worthy. You are capable of doing the things that you want to do, and you can put aside your fear. Then you can step forward in the process. You can let, things go because, I mean, we all hold. We hold everything, you know, we hold everything within ourselves. You know, that’s why you well, you know, you might go I mean, I do, I mean, I have dreams about myself still being in school and I can’t find my class or whatever it is, like all that stuff, you know, it’s still in you somewhere.”

Elizabeth Anderson “And so part of it, another example I like to do with it is, you know, stay lifted. Have me in second grade. I tripped over a curb, and I fell, and I, busted my eyebrow a little bit. So for me, maybe, like, still. So that still held an E somewhere. So if I’m walking really fast and I go to, like, trip on the sidewalk, my brain’s got the trigger.”

Elizabeth Anderson “I say, oh, no, you’re going to really hurt yourself. Now that’s something that happening in the path. I’m just going to catch myself. That’s true. And so the Niagara meditation helps me to not go back in time to that, that thing that happened to me. It’s going to help me just carry forward and just keep on walking.”

Angela Barrett “And it really is sort of something you have to practice that. I mean, you’re not going to do it the first few times and you’re just not, you know, at least I know I wouldn’t. I’m still making a grocery back.”

Elizabeth Anderson “My right. Yeah. And like anything else. Right. You’re not going to go to like a Pilates class and be one time and be awesome at lot right down. And so like anything else, it’s, it’s the practice for your, for your, for all of your bodies really. But yes, it’s definitely helpful for that mental and, you know, I feel that way about really, any, any sort of exercise.”

Elizabeth Anderson “You’re going to do that up on mental spiritual. It’s it’s all a practice. The more you do it, the more you’re gonna, you’re going to hone and define and get there where you want to be.”

Angela Barrett “Sure, sure. So, I know we’ve got to go. We both have busy days, but, Platform. How long have they been? Opened?”

Elizabeth Anderson “They up really close to a year. They’re just getting to their one year anniversary, and I think they’re planning, celebration tickets might be the 12th or September. Okay. But anyway, they’re just gonna kind of, you know, do you like a celebrate for being open a year? Talk about how they’re expanding and the other opportunities that they have, for people to find their lane of what’s gonna work for them.”

Elizabeth Anderson “To get into their present state with meditation, breathwork, you know, taking it beyond when you, when you leave your meditation space. And then again, I, I know I keep saying that, but if you go out into the world, you can, carry that peace and present with you.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah. Neat, neat. Well, I’m going to have to give it a try. I’ll, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll top with you on the side and find out where I need starts. It’s I’m not there with you and, Mount Pleasant, but, that’s it sounds like it. It sounds like we all care. Needs a little bit of that.”

Angela Barrett But thank you so much for being here.

Elizabeth Anderson “Yeah, absolutely. Thank you.”

Angela Barrett “Thank you for being here. And, I look forward to that down there. I will certainly come back now.”

Elizabeth Anderson “That’d be wonderful. Yeah, yeah.”

Angela Barrett Thank you so much.

Elizabeth Anderson Thank you.