(#88) Yoga, Nutrition & Freediving with Tara Rawson

Welcome to another episode, featuring our second interview with an extraordinary woman who's diving deep—literally—into the realms of trust, surrender, and flow. She’s following her heart and, in doing so, building an incredible business fueled by her true passions. 

Meet Tara Rrawson.

You’ll hear me say multiple times that while we briefly crossed paths when she was living here in Broome, I have actually become one of her (many) insta followers who is just captivated by the grace, beauty and peacefulness that she shares in her adventures of freediving and living her life teaching yoga and coaching clients in nutrition.

Tara, an Accredited Practising Sports Dietitian, Freedive Athlete/Instructor, and Yoga Teacher, who is dedicated to helping you maximise your potential by optimising both mental and physical health.
Tara’s unique approach blends a deep understanding of the nervous system with personal values, empowering you to make informed, health-conscious choices that enhance your well-being and performance.
With her extensive experience as a Dietitian and Freediver, Tara brings structure and simplicity to your daily routine, guiding you to master your craft.

This episode is a personal story and journey of trusting and surrendering to the opportunities in life, letting go of control and following what makes your heart sing.

I guess this is also my opportunity to get insider knowledge about freediving and the experience that unfolds. I just find it so fascinating.

So enjoy this episode and have a look at Tara’s incredibly inspiring Instagram page with all her amazing freediving experiences. 

@tarakaterawson
www.tarakate.co

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Transcript

0:01

Hello, hello, and welcome to Alchemy Mindset. I'm your host, Anna Hasty, business mindset coach for women and a sound healer. If you are ready to become the most aligned, magnetic, and confident business woman you are worthy and deserving of being, Then this show is for you. This is where I share everything from mindset, energy, and spirituality, and how to embody your future self in business and life. Sprinkle that with deeply relaxing sound, healings and meditations, and you have the Alchemy Mindset Podcast. Hit subscribe so you always get the latest episode. Now let's begin. Welcome. Welcome to another episode of Alchemy Mindset. I can't believe this is episode 88. Wow. Welcome to this interview. This is another interview in a series of three where I'm interviewing an amazing woman who is going to exceptional depths. And I mean, literally to trust surrender and flow and follow her heart. And turn what she is ultimately super passionate about, truly passionate about, and building an incredible business and living her ultimate life. Meet Tara Rawson. You'll hear me say multiple times in this episode that while we briefly crossed paths when she was living here in Broome, I've actually become one of her. Many Instagram followers, slash stalkers, who is just captivated by the grace, beauty and peacefulness that she shares in her adventures of free diving and living her life teaching yoga and coaching clients in nutrition. Tara is an accredited practicing sports dietitian, free dive athlete and instructor, and a yoga teacher who is dedicated to helping her clients maximize their potential by optimizing both mental and physical health. Tara's unique approach blends a deep understanding of the nervous system with personal values, empowering her clients to make informed, health conscious choices that enhance their well being and performance. With her extensive experience as a dietitian and freediver, Tara brings structure and simplicity to a daily routine, guiding her clients to master their craft. This episode is a personal story and journey of trusting and surrendering to the opportunities in life, letting go of control and following what makes your heart sing. I guess this has also been my opportunity to get Tara on a call just so I can get that insider knowledge about free diving and the experiences that unfold when you're in that fascinating world of being underwater. And I honestly just find it so incredibly fascinating and intriguing. So enjoy this episode and please go have a look at Tara's incredible inspiring Instagram page with all her amazing free diving experiences. Settle in and enjoy this amazing episode with Tara Rawson And let's begin. Hello, hello, and welcome Tara. Welcome to The Alchemy Mindset Podcast. It's such a pleasure to have you on today's show. I cannot wait to get started to talk all. Things about you, yoga, nutrition, free diving, your story and everything else in between. So without further ado, I'm going to hand it straight over to you. Please introduce yourself. And perhaps like, let's get into like your backstory. Like how did you end up in Broome? Because that's where I initially bumped into you and I got to know who you are. And then since then I've been following your life on Instagram. So yeah. Take it away. Thank you for having me on your podcast. This is my first podcast. So hopefully it all sounds okay. It's going to sound brilliant. I can assure you. So I was born in Cairns and then I grew up in South Australia. I studied nutrition and dietetics at uni in Adelaide. And then after I graduated, I moved up to the Northern Territory and I worked in the remote areas of the Arnhem Land and Catherine for about two years as a dietician, as a new grad dietician in Aboriginal health and community. And then I moved from there down to Broome, Wales. I'm a little bit closer to the ocean where I could actually get into the water because that's definitely what was missing up in the Northern Territory. As much as I love the waterfalls, I was definitely craving the ocean and the beach. So I made my way to Broome and I started working at Boab Health Services, which is A NGO in Broome, where I worked as a dietician and diabetes educator there in remote communities over the peninsula, around the peninsula, and also Derby. And I worked there for almost seven years. And I had an amazing time. I loved working community. I loved the Boab crew. The group of people that I worked with there was really beautiful. And I loved spending time in Broome. Like it's the most incredible, beautiful location, I think almost in the entire world, maybe even the best. And it's a beautiful community, beautiful ocean. Even though the visibility and the depth isn't large and amazing. We do have things like crocodiles and stingers, arroganji and sharks and things like that in the water. But yeah, I think it's still one of the most amazing places to spend some time. So I'm really grateful that I got to spend so much time there. Yeah, amazing. And so you were working here for Boab Health as a dietitian and diabetes educator. When did yoga start featuring in your life? Because that's how I kind of bumped into you within the Broome community. When did that start featuring in your life? Because I know you were teaching classes here as well, is that right? Yeah, so I've been practicing yoga for, um, A very long time. I remember first practicing as a teenager on the lounge room floor through probably year 10 or 11, just every morning I'll do the same YouTube video. It was yoga with Adrian and it was definitely more of a workout yoga, but I just really enjoyed. The movement and the Shavasana at the end. And even though at that stage I was definitely doing the physical effects of yoga, the physical benefits of yoga. I definitely felt more of the mental side of things, even though I didn't process that cognitively. And then I just kept practicing in and out in university. And then when I was in the Northern territory, I would practice and just feel really amazing afterwards. And then I guess as life goes up and down, as it does, when I would go through kind of challenging times in my life, I would rely on yoga or I would do more yoga to process those challenging things. And I found that it was really helpful. I, uh, I started reading more about yoga, learning more about the philosophy of yoga, and I just really resonated with it. I just felt this like, really nice body sensation of just feeling really safe with like, with the yoga sutras, with the way that it can be integrated into your life, which isn't just the physical practice, but the philosophies. I just really resonated with it, and it just made me feel safe and, Stable and a solid ground to stand on. So I just, I really, really enjoyed learning more about the philosophy of yoga. I did my first teacher training in just before COVID hit. So what was that? 2019, maybe somewhere around there. Oh my gosh. It's starting to become a bit of a blur, isn't it? But yeah, 2019, 2020. Yes. So I think it was 2019 when I did my first. It's 200 hour in Bali and it was quite a general teacher training and I loved that it helped me to, I guess, accept certain things about me to process things differently, to feel more confident in my body. I guess, understanding Where a lot of these things like lack thoughts come from or feelings of not being good enough or imposter syndrome or things that I didn't accept about myself. The philosophies of yoga started to teach me more about acceptance and self love and compassion. And yeah, I really loved learning about the philosophy. So that was the biggest start, I guess, for me in yoga. And then I came back to Broome, started teaching straight away and taught online in COVID. And my practice. I just kept teaching. I kept studying. I was just so obsessed with yoga, practice every day and study. And then I studied more in so trauma informed yoga and yoga for the nervous system down in Perth. And it was with Marta. I can't even remember her name, but I think that's called the yoga, the Perth yoga clinic. And it was that. Yoga training that I did with her was really amazing, and it really changed my approach to yoga, and it really helped me to see that it's not about the shapes. It's not about how the body looks. It's not about the physical part of yoga, but it's about sensation. It's about how we feel. It's about how we can perhaps navigate. Our nervous system within the shapes to help us navigate our nervous system in life and how we, how these tools are so transferable in life and how I can practice them on the mat. I can practice to soften and surrender and trust and come into a space where I create more space in my body and mind to make a choice about either staying in the shape or exiting the shape or breathing in a certain way to process something. Better. I just found that that just like came into my life, my practice and into my teaching of yoga for the next couple of years. And I guess that really helped me with learning to free dive as well. So then, where did freediving start? You said that you have a love for the ocean, that you grew up in Cairns, which, for anybody who does know the geography of Australia, which is in the far north of Queensland, it's very coastal, and then you grew up in, it was Adelaide, was it, down in South Australia? Yes, yeah. In country South Australia, we actually grew up, I grew up all over country South Australia and not close to the ocean actually. I was gonna say that's very far from the ocean. But yeah, but somehow you've got this natural infinity with the ocean. Where did free diving come in? Yeah, I've always loved the ocean. I love the sand. I love being in the water. I love nature. So I guess free diving for me, it didn't start until Broome. So I was Scuba diving for years, I don't even know when I started scuba diving, but I loved scuba. And then I was on a scuba trip to the Raleigh Shoals on Odyssey. And one of the girls on board, Jaden, who's a lovely broom girl, she is an amazing free diver. She's just a natural in the water. And I remember scuba diving, and I was down there, and she came down. And she was just swimming along the reef, just looking so beautiful. super calm and chill and like the shark was like coming up to her and it was like interested in her way more interested in her than me with my bubbles on the back and I was like wow she looks incredible like she's so majestic as she just like flowed over just so casually and beautifully and I was just like in love I was like wow I was completely in awe and that day straight away after the session I was like wow like Can you teach me this? And she's like, yeah, come out with me tomorrow. So the next day I went out with her and I just did what she was doing. I just tried to copy her. And I guess I could hold my breath from some of the training I've done in yoga and the pranayama practices that I was doing. And this practice of staying To explore a sensation even if it feels a little bit uncomfortable instead of just reacting helped me just to stay down a little bit longer to explore just to navigate and experience what it was like to be under the water without a tank and That was my big introduction. And then she introduced me to Graham. He is another incredible human in Broome. He's the chair of the Kimberley Freediving Club in Broome, which I highly recommend anyone to be a part of. If you're interested in freediving in Broome, it's a really great community. So he and I started it. He was the main, the main guy. He did all of the work to start the freedive community or the freedive club in Broome, but I was very keen and very big advocate for it. So we trained a lot for about, I guess, three years. The first year after that, when Jay didn't, Introduce me to him. We'd be in a pool a lot, a few nights a week, at least it'd be in the pool training, exploring. We wrote like a book on free diving together, like a booklet on how to put free diving and yoga together. And then we went spearfishing a lot. I also must be fishing with, with some other friends. So Chaz at Karma, he taught me a lot around spearfishing and other people in the room that I'd go spearfishing with. And then it just, I also loved spearfishing because it was just this, I think it was just this really beautiful thing where I felt. Super strong and able to catch my own dinner and share it with the people that I love as a woman. Cause I feel like sometimes women are like, Oh, I'd like they would do the cooking or something. And I just, I love to question societies. And expectations on us or gender roles. So yeah, I don't know. I just really felt quite empowered that I could go out and, you know, match the boys and catch dinner and hold my breath. And I just enjoyed, really enjoyed the process of free diving with. Like minded people and catching my own dinner and sharing that. And then from there we developed a free dive yoga retreat with Karma and another friend of mine called Tau who was also a big influence on my spearfishing and freediving journey, another Broome local. So we developed a retreat called Saluna Retreat, which we started 2022 maybe. It's the Roly Shoals and Scott Reef. So we would go out there and. I would teach yoga and freediving and pranayama and breathwork. And it was, I guess, mainly to help people with these exact concepts of being like, okay, how can we connect more with ourselves and Say when we're feeling uncomfortable, how can we navigate our nervous systems more? How can we trust and surrender more? How can we see certain things in our life or stories or beliefs that we have that society has told us, and how can we untangle these? It's like, I guess to me, free diving is quite spiritual, and even like when I teach free diving, I don't necessarily. Talk about all of these nuances within free diving, but it's just the process that happens when you start to dive again and again and again. It's this. I love free diving because it's this somatic experience that teaches us. It's this experience where it's we're not cognitively processing some of these things, all these beliefs or these fears or these. It's the body that's doing the work, and it's just, I think it's so much more powerful because your body remembers that it went through something that perhaps was a challenge and it chose to stay. And I don't know, for me, that is just so powerful. It's really powerful and it really comes into our lives. I really love how you just said, and I don't know if you can, if you can correct me in this from what I was understanding, that you're saying that through the process of free diving, you find that it's helped yourself or it can help others move through processes that they may be experiencing out of the water, right? Like through day to day life, through work, through family, friends, relationships, or whatever, where they may, um, Be experiencing some sort of like discomfort or a challenge within their own mental headspace, like even physical, you know, challenges, things like that. And that through the process of learning to free dive and experiencing it, it can help translate into things that people are experiencing outside of the water. Is that right? Yeah. And I can, I can give an example if you like around simply even just like a simple example around travel. Like, cause I left Broome. Not last, last year, but the year before, when I started traveling, I started in India and I, this a segway, but I'll get, I'll circle back to the point. No, I love segways. Let's go for it. Go for it. It's totally fine. The floor is yours. Yeah. So I went to India and I studied another 300 hour training in India and I spent a lot of time, I spent three months there traveling around in a segway. I spent a fair bit of time in Rishikesh with this one teacher that was incredible at what he does and he, he made a big impact on me and one of the big thing that made his name for me try in Rishikesh if anyone gets to go up there, the concept that really landed with me that he taught was how can we make less money. effort. And by this, he means trust and surrender the divine plan, the universe, the, whatever you'd like to think of this higher being is his whole concept and class and everything was based on how can we make less effort and just trust. So I guess for me, this practice in free diving, it is, it's the same thing. Like how can I just trust that? My body knows and is capable of doing what it's doing. I trust the ocean, I trust the line, I trust my body, I trust everything around. Yet how can I surrender more into the happenings of each moment rather than think about what's happening next? How can I not think about the end of the line? How can I reduce my expectations? On how it should feel, or where I should touch down or what depth I should go to. And I guess an example in real life, relating back to the question, Was I changed a lot from this concept. I started practicing it straight away in my travel because I used to be very much like, okay, I'll Google everything from where I should go, where I should stay and look at all the reviews and spend time and all of these, and then I've created expectations on what I should feel and how I should enjoy the hotel or hostel that I was staying at. If I should enjoy a place that I was going to. Instead, I started to distrust and practice this idea of being like, how can I do this? Trust that everything will happen as it should, and the universe will bring me the people that I need to encounter to guide me in the direction that I actually should be going in. So, I started to practice this, and I had so many synchronicity moments where People would just come into my life at a time when I needed them and give me these little nuggets of wisdom to direct me in a certain way. And it came from a place of just taking off my backpack, like just like literally, and just having a bit more time and space to be as present as possible to these universe gifts, if you like, around me to gain wisdom on where I actually should be going and how much energy I need. I was wasting to try to plan everything when at the end of the day, actually have no control anyway. Like, even if I spent the entire week trying to plan everything and plan up, you know, the entire next week, it wouldn't be as good as if I just trusted. What is meant to happen will happen. So I just really dig into this reducing expectations. Sometimes, you know, I was initially like, sometimes my hostel wasn't fabulous, but I was like, whatever. I didn't have any expectations on this because I made no effort to be where I am. And then it wasn't bad then because I was just like, ah, it is what it is. I'm present and I can still be present to people that were there and practice learning from the people that were there or the place that I was at. So it just. Yeah, this idea, this concept really helped me. And yeah, that I guess is. an example, I think maybe answering your question of how it's kind of related to to free diving in terms of trusting and surrendering. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I think that's a really great example because for anybody who has watched anybody free dive, whether it's in person or, you know, through the internet on YouTube or Instagram stories, the trust and surrender that I've witnessed you moving through That whole entire experience is it's really fully embodied. Like I don't see a panicked freediver. I mean, I don't know if there are any, but I don't see a panicked one in those little, I don't see you looking panicked. You look quite chill down there. And some of the ones I have to say for all the listeners, you're going to have to stop Tara Wilson's Instagram account now, because there are some incredible videos where this beautiful girl is just literally walking on the bottom of the ocean. As if she lived there and this is her world and that's okay. And I just think that's such a beautiful thing to witness that you have this natural, like, infinity and this natural sort of love for where you are and there's this trust and surrender that's just encased and surrounding you as you're gracefully being guided down a rope into depths of I don't know what and also just like swimming around and just exploring. I think you've explained it beautifully because when you think about it the ocean is a vast unknown space. And you are literally out of what would be for a human being its natural element, which is to breathe air, right? So there has to be some element of trust and surrender in that whole entire experience, right? That's right. Wow. So when you left Broome and you went, because you spent a bit of time sort of doing some traveling and then exploring, What was your intention within that time away from work and brewing? And how did that start linking you to where you are now or what you've been doing over the last couple of years? Like, what was your intention behind it? Because sometimes, you know, some people are like, Oh, I just need to have a, you know, a gap year. I need to just take some time off work. But was there something in there brewing at that moment in time where you're like, I actually need to go out into the world and explore some more about free diving, about yoga or whatever it is. What was happening there? Yeah, really, it's a really good question because I am definitely someone that likes to know or have an intention. I don't like going around aimlessly. I like to have an intention. And I try not to make this a rigid goal, but rather just an intention to help guide me through the world, literally, because I was traveling around. So my intentions were to both practice yoga, both like semantically, like experience yoga, learn more about the philosophy of yoga in great, the philosophy of yoga, integrate the philosophy of yoga. And those, these were the two main intentions, like how can I. Practice more free diving, go to locations where I get to be in nature and free dive and practice yoga and learn about philosophy and yoga. And I guess the third one is connecting with people with like minded people. And I guess like all the things that yoga brings with it. So like it's philosophy is of like being present and how can I trust and surrender and same with free diving? Like how can I integrate that into my day, into my travel? How can I be more present? How can I be less? It's reactive. How can I not react, but rather just be as present as I possibly can and just be with whatever is in front of me, wherever that is. And I learned a lot from my time in India. Like I loved, loved, loved, loved India so much more than what I, ever thought I would have. It's a very special place where everything is just so real, so rich in color and flavor and people are the most incredible, kind souls. The noises are crazy and there's horns and there's smells and there's And it was just incredible, like, I just like, have you been there? No, I haven't actually. I've traveled Sri Lanka back in 2004, so I can sort of kind of somewhat relate to what it would be like, but no, I have never been to India before. Yeah. It's a very special place. So from India, I actually got really sick in India. I had a parasite and I ended up losing a lot of weight. And I was already like in a small, I'm already a small person. So losing a lot of weight really impacted me. I also, another segue, if you like, love a side story. Yeah. So I had an impalement, which is a contraception in my arm for eight years, two cycles. Of this increment. So I had no period for such a long time, and this is huge for me. Like this was one of the biggest impacting things that I think happened in my life because I disconnected to my body hugely. Mm-Hmm. I was not paying attention to a lot of cues. My hormones were not, I was under eating, I was under fueling through the exercise and movement that I was doing. I was working a lot.'cause I'm just. I get very driven about learning and studying and doing, and it came from a place of lack at that time where I just felt like I needed to always study. I needed to always do something. So I just kept doing, I kept running, I kept under fueling and I felt like I need to look a certain way. I was dealing with body dysmorphia. It was like partly a disordered way of eating and it stemmed from all these social beliefs and a big, big, big part of. Supporting me through this is the practice of yoga and freediving. And a big part of that was in Broome. When I started practicing yoga more, particularly when I found that yoga for the nervous system and trauma informed yoga, the yoga practice was more restorative. It was a lot more about love and self care and understanding and connecting with our bodies, pushing rather than resisting. So this was a huge part of reconnecting to my body with love and compassion, which really helped me to understand that I wasn't feeling that. I didn't know when I had the implement in my arm because it was. I know that I wasn't meant to have a period, but when I got it removed, it took three years for it to come back. Yeah. Yeah. So when I was in India, I had my period on and off beforehand. It wasn't a regular cycle, but I've had it on and off and then traveling in India made cycle even worse because of the traveling factors because. I was eating random times, random food, flying, etc. And then when I lost this weight in India, I saw an Ayurvedic doctor and I had a parasite and I ended up getting antibiotics. I got really sick. I was shat in bed. I was like vomiting everything. And then I landed in this beautiful ashram. I forgot the name. Oh my gosh, on the spot, I forgot the name, but I landed in this beautiful ashram and there was a restorative yoga training on there and a pranayama called Brahmari, which is a humming bee, um, sound and you breath out, I go, Mmm. And the, I can't remember how long I spent there, maybe a few weeks of not doing anything, but refueling and eating and eating good food, really good food. And Practicing Brahmari, meditating a lot and not cognitively processing the learnings from this training that was happening when I was there. So I was doing, and I was practicing and learning about restorative yoga and Brahmari to heal. And instead of what I normally do, which is like cognitively learning. So like when I do, I would like type it out or like process it cognitively. I had to just let go of everything and just literally practice. Through my body and practice meditation, practice Brahmari, practice restorative yoga every day, all day, not moving much at all and restoring. And it was a huge, huge, huge game changer for everything. It just made me connect and respect and love my body a lot more. It helped me to refuel, help me to recover from the parasite. And it also gave me more direction of where I was going next. Which was a med and it was there where I was like, okay, a lot of things need to change now that I need to like really start to pay attention more because even though I mean in room I wasn't like there was a time when I was disordered eating in room, but I also studied to be an eating disorder dietitian and intuitive eating. So through these trainings, I saw this disordered eating pattern. It wasn't an eating disorder, but I had patterns that were disordered eating. And I would stop them. I would cognitively like be like, no, that's not the direction I want to go. You know, I had recovered, like, you know, I was fueling appropriately towards the end of my time in Broome, but then my travel to India made my cycle up and down again. But then I recommitted to this practice of Really nourishing my body, listening to my heart, my soul, my needs, my intuition to support whatever that was that my body needed. And for me, freediving and yoga were these tools that I used to really support me on my journey inward to this place inside that I feel at home in, like where it's my intuition, it's my heart, it's a place where I can connect now. And from India, I was meant to be hiking in a pool, but I just, body wasn't up for that. I knew that I needed to rest and recover and feel. So I went to Bali instead, to a place called Ahmed, which is one of the most I actually know that. I actually know where that is. Yeah. Yeah. On my recent trip to Bali, I got chatting to my driver and he's originally from Ahmed. So I was like, I It's a very beautiful place. If you get to go back to Bali again, I recommend going up there, particularly for freediving. It's like an Indonesia freediving hub, and there's a beautiful community there. And when I got there, my intention was simple to tune into my body, to practice the practices that I learned from India around trusting or, Surrendering of making less effort and to listen to what my body needs are and not overexpending and nourishing as much as I could and repealing and gaining weight from the parasite. And I did that and it was amazing. Like I softened so much. I connected with beautiful people in a med. I did multiple instructor training with to become a free dive instructor there in a med and. I really enjoyed my time there. It was just, it was a beautiful time of reconnecting. I also worked for a company called Deep Week, which is a really great organization. They travel all around the world and they teach free diving and it's kind of like a big free dive party. So I worked with them there in Bali or instructed with them. And then I joined a lot of other deep weeks from there around the world. Where I would teach the yoga and freediving at the deep, where you've got to connect with lots of different people in different locations. So, and then I went to Europe for my brother's wedding in Spain, which is beautiful. And then we traveled around Europe for a while and then I went to do some hiking in the Dolomites. And then I did a deep week in Croatia, where I taught yoga and freediving, part of the team there, the deep week team. And then I went over to Mexico and did another deep week and dove in these beautiful Cenotes, which is these freshwater pools inland. And it's just absolutely incredible, incredible, incredible place to dive. And I guess my love of freediving, my practice of freediving just grew throughout the year because I was doing it so much. I just kept practicing and teaching freediving and being in the water and training, talking about freediving every day. So it just grew and grew and grew over this period. And then I decided to go to another incredible place, which I have called home. So this year is the hub in Egypt. So last year I spent three months there where I, yeah, freedived. A lot, and just, it's just practice these ideas that I mentioned before about trusting and loving and surrendering and exploring the ocean and how that, I guess, translates into my life. So I was teaching in a med and then it was there. In a med, just after a med, when I was in Mexico, I decided that I wasn't coming back to Broome yet. Not in the way that you probably would have thought you were coming back, right? Yes, I was planning to come back just after a year, like, to go back to Boab or go back to Broome, but I decided not to. I decided to instead work out a way, which was unknown for me at that time, to share these tools that I love and use. Thank you. to help me in my life with other people. So sharing freediving yoga philosophy, freediving philosophy and nutrition nourishment to support, I guess, maximizing all of our potential to do the things that we really love and we're passionate about, whatever that may be for the person. So, yeah, so that's what made me start working online as a dietitian, where I integrate these other tools that I learned from free diving and yoga. So I started the business called Tarracate. Simple yet encompasses like exactly what you said, everything that you are passionate about, everything that you've learned and experienced yourself and you're here and ready to teach it. Before we talk a little bit more about free diving, because I do want you to share with the listeners, like, The actual ins and outs of freediving. So if people wanted to work with you, would they have to be interested in yoga or freediving? Or is it, as you said, you're working with them on like the nutritional kind of side of life? Is that why people come to you but they don't necessarily have to be, you know, interested in freediving? It's just that you're incorporating, like you said, philosophy? From the two elements. Is that right? That's right. Yep, yep, yep. You don't have to be a free diver or a yogi to work with me. I guess in terms of nutrition, I mainly work with or specialize in, I also studied to be an accredited sports dietician as well. So now, another quick segue, cause I'm, I'm training to compete next week, actually. And I competed a few months ago in Durham, so I'm, I guess, an athlete. So I started to study nutrition for free diving, nutrition for sports to be an accredited one. I work with athletes and I also work with women with eating disorders or men with eating disorders or disordered eating or intuitive eating and then all things around that. So whether it's like IBS hormones, whether there's under fueling for sports. And then I use the tools, like you mentioned, that I learned from yoga and free diving to help us kind of navigate nourishing appropriately for the intention or the goals for the client. And it's, I use a quite a holistic approach to help my clients understand more about themselves, more about their goals and intentions and more about where they're actually putting their energy in terms of like these life domains that we have. So whether that's. Mental health, physical health, financial areas, if they're having an impact on the world, the connections they have, relationships. So just help them understand, okay, where are we currently putting all of our energy and where do you want to put your energy? You know, if you're putting All of your energy into, say, physical health, like you're, you know, you're planning your diet, you're like, perhaps overthinking about food or, you know, putting any energy in there. How can we make it more simple? How can I support you to make these areas of mental health and physical health, which are the foundations to these other areas more simple and more effective. So then you have the energy to put into impact, connection, relationships. It's adventure fun. Yeah. Absolutely. You're able to spread your energy into those other kind of like, sometimes they call them those wheel of life categories. Is that, is that kind of right? Yeah. I used to call them domains, but yeah, other ways to sort them out. Yeah. That's amazing. I love it. So let's talk about free diving. As I said to Tara, before we hit record, I said, you know, this is just an opportunity for me to ask a lot of questions about free diving, cause I find it so. Fascinating. I just love watching your stories and your posts on Instagram. And, you know, I follow a few people on YouTube who do free diving, and I just think it's such a graceful sport within all in itself, what I want to know. And the reason why I sort of really want to pick your brain over free diving, I guess, or for you to like talk about it is because I'm sure most of the listeners are familiar with yoga. They're familiar with. The concept of yoga, what yoga is about, like maybe they've experienced or done classes themselves, but I feel like free diving is something that is not something that everybody goes out and seeks or experiences. So let's start from the start. What do you need to be able to be a free diver? Like what kind of equipment do you need? How do you prepare your mind and your body? And then I'll ask a few more questions. So we'll start with a couple at a time. Otherwise it's going to get too much like rapid fire. It's pretty funny. Cause I think people assume free diving are like sweet, free diving's free. It's so pure. You don't need any equipment. And like, it's so funny when I go out now for training, I've got like, for me, cause I'm, I guess I'm more serious as an athlete training at the moment. I've got like. My fins, I've got a weight belt, I've got weights, I've got goggles, I've got a snorkel and another mask, and then I've got my lanyard, and then I've got my neck weight, and then I've got my nose clip, and what else? My wetsuits, lots of wetsuits. Wetsuit, yeah, like a wetsuit, yeah. There's a lot of things, a lot of equipment, but when you're learning the freedive, if you go to Or if you're gonna go with me, we hire a guest. You don't need to have anything. The basics is mask, and a snorkel, and some fins. And if it's cold, I'll wear a suit and I'll wake up with some weights. So, yeah, just the basics. But even just like a mask and a snorkel, ideally with some fins, then you can get you started. And then I guess when you're learning, you, you get to train with an instructor. So if you were to train with me, we would go out on a buoy, which is a round buoy with a rope inside. And we thread the rope through. Through the buoy underneath and then hook it on to the carabiner and then it goes all the way down and on the bottom of the line There's a ball and a bottom weight and then essentially we literally just Practice going up. Oh, it's right down and up Um, and the line, and there's four main disciplines or four disciplines. So we have constant weight by fins, which is what we keep with the fins. We have free immersion, which is where we use the line to pull up and down. We have CF, which is no fins where you have no fins and you don't use a line, but you use your arms and your legs to go up and down. And then we also have, which is like this mermaid, um, It's a technique where you use one fin, one large fin, it looks like a mermaid tail. And you use your body in kind of like a dolphin method, dolphin way to go up and down, up and down the line. So there's four main disciplines. And what do you specialize in? Like, do you do them all or is there one that you prefer over the other? Yeah. Great question. I love free immersion, which is the pulling one. Great. Thank you. And I also love CNF, which is the no fins one. Free Emotion I love is also with no fins. It's because, for me, it's so meditative. Because it's just, I don't know, I find it very calming, very internal, very easy in terms of effort compared to something like CNF, no fins. But I also love, love, love no fins and would love to train more in no fins, but I'm primarily training at the moment in free immersion. I think that's the one that I've been watching you the most on your like Instagram, and I think this is my next question is how do you get into that mindset of that I'm going underwater and I'm going to be going down to X amount of meters below sea level? And like you said, you trust and surrender in the whole process. Cause for me, for someone who's not a free diver, like immediately in my thought is I've got to go all the way down and then all the way back up again and hold my breath, like I can't breathe. And I'm just wondering, like, what is the mental or mindset or even spiritual process within that, even physical, like I'm sure there's all those elements involved, like. How does that all come together to make it certain? I know you make it, but it's like, when I watch you, you are in that, what I would say a deep meditation. And I actually find it quite beautiful. It's almost like dancing along the rope because of the way the hand moves up the rope to grab the next point. And then you bring the other hand up and it just looks so angelic. It just looks so beautiful. Thank you. That's from the outside observer. So I don't know whether that feels the same on your side of the rope, but for me, I'm just like, God, she looks like she's just somewhere else, you know, just doing a thing. Yeah, it's, it is a very beautiful practice and not every dive feels amazing. So again, it comes back to how can I reduce my expectations on sensation within each dive to just allow the moment to be there as it is, because sometimes There are sensations that are uncomfortable. So the sensation of building up of CO2, which is a molecule in the body that comes when we hold our breath and it creates this urge to breathe. It's not a bad thing though, because it turns on this thing called the dive reflex, which conserves oxygen for us. So it's a very important thing for our body to have, particularly when we're diving at depth. So it makes us. Can make us feel uncomfortable and this is where this navigation of the nervous system really helps me because when I feel Uncomfortable from this build up of co2 instead of reacting and turning around and coming back up I get this opportunity to practice pausing and creating a little bit of space Between the trigger or the cue which is the co2 and my choice And then I get to activate in deciding what I want to do, and I get to trust that, Oh, actually I know that CO2 isn't a bad thing. It may feel a little bit uncomfortable, but it doesn't mean that I'm in danger. It doesn't mean that I am risking anything. It doesn't mean that I'm low in oxygen. It just means that I have some CO2, which is actually really helpful for my diet. So how can I soften and practice CO2? It's surrendering into that feeling, which is what I practice. So I just, it's just this repetition at a depth that I feel comfortable at of this exact thing. And then I just keep adding on to the depth and allow my nervous system to be okay with each depth, each time, because it's just a couple of meters more, a couple of meters more. Like it's, it's just repetition, repetition, or it's just the same depth and it's repetition, repetition, repetition. And this allows. Our bodies to soften because it's done it before the nervous system doesn't need to go into a fight or flight of sympathetic nervous state of the nervous system because it's done it before it's been here. It's experienced this dive before. So it knows it actually is okay. And these little pockets of space that I've created just keep building up and building more trust and more resilience and more ability to surrender into the experience. And it just takes me to a deeper place, I guess, physically in the ocean, but also inside of me that builds a greater trust inside. Wow, I can actually sense how that would translate when you're down there. And I think like for me and maybe some of the listeners who haven't experienced free diving before, there's obviously a lot of training that goes in to get you into that space. It's not like you just jumped into the water yesterday, held your breath and you went down, you know, a bunch of meters and you were fine with that. So yeah, I can see how over time with development and learning. And as you said, like it's just a few more meters, it's a few more meters that you would be able to create that space within you. Like you said, there comes that trigger moment and then there's the pause and the choice and then. Moving through that as well. Yeah. Wow. So what kind of training do you have to do to become a freediver? Like of any depth? Like what is some of the fundamental type training that would have to happen? Fundamental training? I guess, I guess it's this, like, if you can, if it depends what you have access to, right? Like, you know, in Broome, we have access to the ocean, every, Blow my own almost. Whenever the water was safe to get into, right? Maybe every couple of weeks, like when we have not huge tides. So when the tides are appropriate and we don't have huge movement of the water, you can get in the ocean. We have access to the pool and you have access to dry land where you can practice things like dry statics or CO2, building up exercises or tables. When you're learning to start with, from yoga, CO2 tables and things like this are really great and I've recorded a bunch of them so I can share them if you like, it's just a simple CO2, let's share this with the world, which I do dry a lot. And then pool training, which you can do when you join, if you're in Broome or any community now has a free dive club, Kimberley Free Dive Club is in Broome. And that's where you can join the community and be in the pool and practice things in the pool, like technique. And like seeing how you build up on practicing being underwater and being comfortable and staying a little bit longer and exploring and not pushing, but just exploring. And then, of course, when you're in the water, in the ocean, the practice is much the same. It's this practice of, like, you have a buddy, after you've done your course with an instructor, you're able to go out there with a buddy without an instructor, so you know how to save them, just in case, like, you can't go out and go on a buoy if you haven't done any courses, because you need to know how to save someone, just in case something does happen, and save someone. Um, like a blackout or a shallow water blackout, if it does happen. So in the water, if you have done a training or you've done your wave one and two cores, then you can go out with a buddy and safety them. And you just take turns in going up and down the line to a place you feel comfortable at and just tuning in the sensation, becoming more aware of what the body feels like on the water, becoming more aware of the mind stuff that happens and how can you focus on Or become more aware when their reaction to comes up for you and, and make an active choice because it's totally okay to come up. You can absolutely come up and know that it's more powerful when it comes from a place of choice rather than reaction. Absolutely. So what is your current PB? What is your personal best in freediving at the moment? Variable weight, which is where I get help on the way down with a, with a weight 80. Yeah. Absolutely. Whoa, 80 meters below sea level. Very well, yeah. Whoa, that's almost like, what is that? Oh my goodness, so what would that be above sea level? Like, when I read that on one of your stories, I was like, what is that equivalent of above sea level? Like, how many stories does that have? What kind of skyscraper are you, like, descending? I don't know. That's a really good question. Yeah, I don't know. Let's Google it. What's the equivalent of 80 meters above sea level? What's the equivalent of that? I can't find it. No, I can't either. It doesn't, Google has not given me the answers. Uh, I just get like pressure or how many, what it is the equivalent of, um, maybe this is what I'll do. Like, well, it could look like a 80 meter high stock photos. Here we go. So the equivalent of 80 meter, something that's 80 meter high. You've got a, the height of the Statue of Liberty. There you go. From hill to the top of the torch. Holy moly. Or a 26 story building, assuming each story is about Oh, 26 stories! Holy moly. I hope that doesn't change your mindset when you're done living these days, going, this is just me, just, you know, sailing down the Statue of Liberty. No, I just, I just don't think No, no, you don't need to have that in your mind. I just wanted to give it a bit of a relative perspective because 80 meters sounds a lot, but you know, for us land based people, you just kind of want to know what the height that would be. Wow. 80 meters, that's incredible. And then you said you've got your training to do a competition next week. You're currently in the Philippines. So what are you hoping to achieve in that competition? Yeah, interesting. It's a funny thing to balance between not having expectations on the dive or the numbers or what I want to achieve or will achieve in the competition, but also being an athlete and having a goal. But what I found from the last competition that if I do focus on a number, or a goal in the comp, it only hinders my experience and it takes me out of my body and I'm the present moment and takes me to the bottom plate or the bottom number that I aim to reach. So I've really, really, really been working this training cycle to remove expectations, to remove the number, to, Remove any goal that is a number in the comp rather focus on sensation. And how can I make every dive enjoyable? How can I ensure, or I aim to just get white cards, which means at the bottom. So what we do in a free dive comp is you announce the depth the day before the dive. And then if you make the depth, when you dive down to the bottom, you touch down and you grab a tag on the bottom. And then you come back. The white tag. So if you get a white card, which is what the judge will give you, if it's an okay dive and you're safe and you've done an appropriate, successful, correct dive, then you get awarded a white card, which means that you've successfully done the dive. So that is, I guess, my intention. How can I. Get white cards and make the dive experience a more pleasurable one. And not have expectations on how it should look, feel, or what numbers I should reach. Yeah, going back to like what you said earlier, that trust and surrender is what you embodied and you took on board after you did your yoga training in India where it was like, you know what? I'm just gonna let go of the expectations of What my travels are to look like and where I'm meant to be going and what's meant to be happening and just have that trust and faith that I'm going to be guided and taken care of in this whole experience. Exactly. At the end of the day, you know, there's so many things out of my control. Like right now, as I look out the window, there's a typhoon coming. It's hitting and I've got two actually training days left before the comp and there is lots of bad weather coming. We have wind, we have rain, which means the diving is. It's maybe canceled. These things are out of my control. Like maybe I won't be able to do any day before the comp, which is next week. So, you know, like, I'm just like, this is just like, this is what's happening. It's just, I have to accept it. Like I can't get too caught up on these uncontrollable things, but rather just accept, accept that. Yeah. The weather is not the best at the moment. And I could be okay with that, accept it and not put expectations on how anything should be. Which is going to be really helpful. I think, I hope to my experience being enjoyable, which is really at the end of the day. What we really need in a, in a competition, and that's, I think, how we can achieve more things in the competition. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I guess there's also that mindset of like, if it's not this time, there'll always be a next time, won't there? Like, isn't the only competition happening in the season or for the year? There's always the next time, isn't there? Exactly. Amazing. Well, Tara, I have really enjoyed our conversation. I think we have, like, really uncovered so much about how you've just literally, I feel like, followed your heart, followed what you've been passionate about, and trusted, as you said, surrendered, taken everything on. To create and build what's now a really successful business where you're supporting clients, you're supporting athletes, you're supporting people who want to improve their health and wellbeing and nutrition. Before we wrap up, I just wanted to quickly touch on when you were sort of making that decision of like, okay, I'm going to leave. My job at Broome and I'm going to now invest all my time and my energy and my love and my passion for what I love doing and bring it together into a business. Were there any moments within that that you suddenly doubted yourself or were you sort of a bit more because of the work you've been doing through yoga and your free diving, you're a little bit more in that place of accepting and feeling like, you know, I've got this like I can do this. This is how it's meant to be, like, this feels right for me. What sort of happened in that moment? Yeah, really good question. And I would say both of those things. I was lucky to have some beautiful friends and family that supported me through this journey because there was definitely times where I felt in poster syndrome more like, Oh, it's not going to work. It's going to fail. It's not going to be successful. But I guess I just practiced this, this practice that I have. And it, It freediving and teaching yoga definitely helps me gain more confidence in trusting and backing myself more. And I guess people reaching out and sharing that experience with me, whether it be in yoga or freediving or nutrition, really helped me to feel confident enough to give it a go anyway. And, um, Yeah, I guess I'm so grateful for the people in my life that a my family and friends that supported me to be like, just give it a go. Like, you know, like people want to work with you. Like, you might as well give it a go. Um, if it doesn't work, you can always go back and get another job in dietetics or in brewing or anywhere. It's not like it's, yeah, you might as well give it a crack. And the other thing is I'm really grateful for the initial clients that really like supported me to just do it because I guess that was the time where I was unsure, but people were reaching out to me and being like, Oh, can I work with you in this space? And at that stage it wasn't quite developed in the way that it is now. And it was. You know, I didn't really know what I was offering, but I had all these tools and knowledge in the areas that helped me. I knew I wanted to share that in some way, but there wasn't a framework as such at that stage, but people were reaching out to me wanting to work with me. So I, I just really am so grateful for those people because that was the main reason as to why I was like, Oh, people might as well give it a crack. People are wanting to reach out and, and work with me. So that really helped. supported me on the, on the big, I guess, jump to yeah, create my own business and share these things that I am super passionate about that have helped helped me. Yeah. Amazing. Thank you for sharing that because I think when we look at someone from an outsider perspective, no matter what kind of business they do, we're always seeing like, you know, some of the wins, you know, sometimes people share the challenges, but ultimately we believe that they're running a successful business that they just happened to like. What's the fingers and just get straight into it. It was fine. But I really appreciate you sharing that you did have some of those mindset wobbles, as I like to say, or challenges that were making you really reflect and go, right, well, is this what I really want to do? Like, is this. Going to work out. Am I going to be okay? Is this going to support me? Can I make some money from this? Can I live from this? And to know that you had people to lean on and encourage you. And I love the fact that there was that backup message of like, well, if it all fails, you can always come back and get another job. Like you're not going to be completely without a job because you've got all these amazing skills that it just might not look like what you're thinking right now, who knows, maybe it will in the future, but to have that trust into, as you said, do the jump, do the leap. And just go, all right, well, people are reaching out to me. So this must mean something. I'm going to take this as a sign and look where it is now. How amazing. Leaving retreats, teaching, free diving and helping people with their nutrition and wellbeing. What a divine job. Great, great, great. Um, yes, it means if anyone I see does want to work with me, they're welcome. We can put the link for my website, Tarkaite, on the podcast. Yep, absolutely. Like by all means, and you do have as, I'm not sure when your retreat to the Rollie Shoals is coming up, whether it will coincide with the release of this episode, but I know you'll be running no doubt more retreats in the future. So again, if everybody just stays tuned to your websites and socials, I'm sure. I'm Tara Kate Rawlston on Instagram and tarakate. co is my website. Yeah. And all the information will be on there. The retreat at the Rolling Shoals in October is on the 13th and we still have two spots left if it is released before then. Yeah. Okay. Amazing. How much fun. I love this conversation. I've loved this episode. And again, another inspiring woman who has really like stepped into her own and followed that passion, followed the beliefs, followed the journey. And has tied it all together to bring an amazing business, but still at the same time, like just experiencing this love and joy for something that you deeply enjoy doing and love sharing. And I just love seeing it. I love seeing it through the social. So thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much for being on the show and thank you for sharing your gifts with the world. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. It was such a lovely chat. Amazing. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Thank you so much for tuning in and listening to today's episode. Please rate and review this podcast so that it can continue to thrive and reach more listeners. I love to know who my listeners are, so please screenshot this episode and tag me on Instagram at Anna F. Hastie, and I look forward to connecting with you in the next episode.