The Imagine Podcast · Episode 10
The Trick of Optional
After five years of notes on what makes people say yes or no to the Teacher Training, Pedro noticed something remarkable: it was often the same reason. This episode is about that pattern — and what it reveals about how we treat our own wellbeing.
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We just closed registrations for the Teacher Trainings in Zürich, Geneva, and Lugano. And as always, Pedro spent hours listening to people's reasons. What he found was both fascinating and completely predictable: stress was the reason people joined — and the reason others didn't.
The difficult parts of life aren't optional. Deadlines at work, financial responsibilities, a health issue — we don't get to decide if they exist. But the nourishing things — meditating, taking a walk, cooking well, resting — those are entirely up to us. And because they're optional, we treat them as expendable.
Yet those optional things are exactly what make life sustainable — what make it worth living. The Dalai Lama once said: if you have a busy day, meditate 21 minutes. If you have a crazy, stressful day — meditate two and a half hours. It sounds counterintuitive. But if you've been through one of those days, you know it's true.
3 Key Takeaways From This Episode
- 01 The things that nourish us are optional by default — and that's the trap. No one forces you to meditate, rest, or spend time in nature. But those are precisely the things that make everything else sustainable. When we treat them as expendable, we run on empty and wonder why.
- 02 Stress is not a reason to skip practice — it's the reason to do it. We'd never drive a car 1,000 km without refueling. Yet we try to operate that way with ourselves. The busier we are, the more our wellbeing stops being a luxury and becomes a necessity.
- 03 Three things that actually work: block it, know what you'll do, stay consistent. Wellbeing time must be non-negotiable. Have a concrete plan across physical, mental, and spiritual areas. And remember: it accumulates. It's not one session that changes things — it's the practice over time.
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Hi there, I'm Pedro Misle.
I'm the co-founder of Imagine Yoga Academy and a Kundalini Yoga teacher trainer. For the past 14 years, I've helped people reconnect with themselves through practice, philosophy, and honest conversation.
Since 2012, Daniela Troconis and I have trained more than 900 teachers across Switzerland, Spain, India, and online.
The Imagine Podcast opens the kind of conversations we usually have inside our Kundalini Yoga Teacher Trainings — grounded, practical, and real. Just real practice for real life.
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Episode Transcript
Full transcript · Ep. 10 · The Trick of Optional
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Episode Transcript
Full transcript · Ep. 10 · The Trick of Optional
The Trick of Optional
We just closed registrations for our Kundalini Yoga Teacher Trainings in Zürich, Geneva, and Lugano. Every year around this time, I spend a lot of hours talking with people who are thinking about joining. And over five years, I've kept notes on what makes people say yes… and what makes them say no.
What's remarkable is this: no matter the differences in age, lifestyle, or background — there's one reason that keeps coming back. And even more interesting — it's the same reason people do the training, and the same reason people don't. "I'm really stressed out. I'm so busy. That's why I need this training… or that's why I can't do it." That, to me, is fascinating. It reveals something about how most of us relate to our own wellbeing.
What Optional Means
Most of the difficult parts of life are not optional. Deadlines at work, financial responsibilities, a health issue — we don't get to decide if they exist. They're simply there. We have to face them.
But the good things — the nourishing things — those are optional. No one forces us to meditate. No one reminds us to take a walk, or cook a healthy meal, or spend time in nature. No one insists we take a day off to rest. Those things only exist if we choose them. Because they're optional. And yet… those "optional" things are exactly what make life sustainable — what make it worth living.
The Car Analogy
If I told you I was going to drive my car for a thousand kilometers without putting in gasoline, oil, or water, you'd say: "Pedro, your car would break down." And you'd be right. So why do we try to do exactly that with ourselves? Running on fumes, pushing and pushing, hoping that somehow our best will come out of an exhausted body and an overwhelmed mind.
The Dalai Lama once said something I love to repeat: "If you have a busy day, meditate twenty-one minutes. But if you have a really crazy, stressful day — then meditate two and a half hours." It sounds counterintuitive. But if you've ever been through one of those days — you know it's true. The busier we are, the more our wellbeing stops being a luxury — and becomes a necessity.
What Works
Here's what has worked for me. Three simple things.
First: Block it. Just as you would block your time for a meeting with the CEO of your company, your wellbeing time must become non-negotiable. It doesn't depend on how busy you are. It is blocked.
Second: Have a clear idea of what you're going to do. I divide my routine into three areas: physical, mental/emotional, and spiritual. Physical and spiritual in the morning. Mental before I sleep. Have minimums — like 21 minutes of physical practice, 11 minutes of meditation — but keep it real.
Third: It's accumulative. Keep at it. It's not one meditation or three sessions that make the difference. It accumulates. Be patient — but rest assured, you will feel it.
Closing
It doesn't matter who you are or what you do — whether you're a CEO, a teacher, a stay-at-home parent, or a student. Taking care of yourself — your energy, your rest, your spirit — isn't self-indulgence. It's the foundation for everything else. And there's no way around it. It's as true as gravity.
The things that truly matter are only optional until you realize they are not.
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Nine months. Fifteen people. One way through. The Level I · 200h Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training in Zürich, Geneva, and Lugano begins October 2026.
