Yoga is the path to the heart.

Valentines love letter to you:

Hello sweet friends,

Seems fitting to send you a little love note today!

Thanks for being on this journey with me! I’m wrapping love around you and your families in my morning meditations. May this year be abundant, healthy, and joyful for you all! LUV YA!

Loving vrttis…
-Invitation to begin anew again at any time. You are worth it.
-Invitation to be hopeful and excited for this next phase of life.
-Invitation to unbind from the screens and connect to the outside world.
(for the health of it!)

Yogic philosophy teaches us that boundless wisdom is available in the cave of our heart. We simply have to learn how to turn down the volume of our mind and listen to the subtle vibrations of the heart. Yoga is a path through the body and mind to the heart. It is an epic journey through the Koshas, or layers of existence (body, energy, ego, intellect) until we are able to connect with the stillness and wisdom in our hearts.

As we advance in the journey we realize that we already have what we’ve been so busy looking for- Love, Acceptance, Joy, and Abundance!

The 8 limbs of Yoga are practices that refine and clarify the patterns of our mind towards a more accepting, calm, and loving perspective. Take a bath and enjoy some deep breaths and chocolates, but also commit to learning about how the mind works so you can move away from its negative patterning and learn to reprogram to mental patterns that exude love and compassion to yourself and others.

Here are my flow class times, some upcoming workshops, and Rooted Heart’s 200 hour fall teacher training dates.

Thanks for being in my life!

xoxo Brittany

Progress on Your Spiritual Path- Kriya Yoga

I love new beginnings. Who doesn’t?!

A new season or moon, fresh school year, a clean notebook, or re-organizing a room’s purpose. I love an awakened fresh step back into an old practice.

Happy Autumn Equinox! Fall is a gorgeous time to ground back into rituals that were lost during a summer of play. Fall is a powerful time where the sun and the moon balance their time in the sky and we begin to come into more balance too. It is a time to prepare us for the inward journey of winter. :)

Yoga is both a state and a practice. In the first chapter of The Yoga Sutra, Samadhi Pada, Patanjali describes yoga as a state mind state. 1:2: Yogas Citta Vrtti Nirodah

Yoga is a meditative state of mind where the thoughts and emotions of the heart- mind quiet and the veil of inner conversation thins away. It is where we can peacefully observe all that enters and leaves an experience with our reacting from the first thought that enters our mind. This is the mind state called Nirodha, a sublime state of mental purity and stillness. It is a mindful application of an inherent wisdom, but it takes lots of practice and hard work to get to this state of ease.

Why seek this state of yoga? There are so many benefits to doing yoga. We know the lists of health benefits we gain through the practices of yoga, but the main purpose of practicing yoga is to radically transform your sense of who and what you are and how you see the world! The true purpose of yoga is to have fundamental insights into the nature of your mind. Insights that change your entire approach to life. This sutra teaches us about the state of stillness. This chapter and this sutra is for an advanced yoga students. To advance, we must practice.

So, invitation to begin again. :)

In the second chapter of the Yoga Sutra, Sadhana Pada, the chapter on Practice. Patanjali describes the action of yoga in 2.1 Tapah Svadhyaya Ishwara Pranidhanani Kriya Yogah.”

Kriya comes from the Sanskrit root word “kri”. Karma also comes from this root word. Kri means action. Karma is an action that has already occurred. Our past karmas are actions or activities from our past that have prodeuced impressions in our mind field. Kriya is the potential energy that moves an action forward. This sutra teaches us about practice in action.

Kriya Yoga is a set of tools that bring advancement on the spiritual path. It consistes of the last 3 niyamas - tapas, svadhyaya, and ishwara pranidhana.

Tapas comes from the root word tap and it means to heat or burn. It is most often translated as “discipline”. Tapas is the burning of old unserving habits and beliefs. Tapas is about making conscious and deliberate actions to transform by setting healthier patterns in the body and brain. It is the effort to do something hard that will bring more ease into your future. It can be anything- waking up early, going for a morning walk, or engaging in mindful movement. It is a spiritual discipline or austerity.

To release impurities in gold one would place it in the fire.
To soften ice, one would heat up the water.
To release your toxins and soften your edges, turn up the heat in your dedication.

Svadhyaya is the practice of studying one self. Sva is "self” and dhyaya actually means “to meditate” or “to be absorbed within”. In yoga we learn that there are five layers of the self called the Pancha Kosha, or 5 sheaths. The 5 layers, from most dense to most subtle, the body layer, the energy layer, the mind layer, the intellect layer, and the spirit or bliss layer. Through yoga we work inward to clear up the layers of self as they damping our ability to experience the brilliance of our inner most light. Svadhyaya also implies studying the self through the wisdom of ancient text and application of mantra repetition.

Ishwara Pranidhanani is the concept of giving up control. It is an advanced practice! Ishwara pranidhanani is our capability to realize that we can only control our own reaction so let’s accept life as it rolls out and trust that everything that we want, we will receive. I love Rama Jyoti Vernon’s description of this concept. Ish is to wish and wara is to fill. Prani means to bring forth and dhan can mean wealth. To feel this practice we must imagine the feeling of all our wishes coming true and wealth pouring abundantly. :)

We practice Kriya Yoga to weaken the kleshas. Klesha are the thoughts that bring us unnecessary suffering. Klesha are negative, harmful, critical, judgmental thoughts that we spin in. Kriya yoga brings us peace as we learn that our mind is simply one distraction in the action of connecting to peace!

Spiritual progress begins with a little conscious effort. It might be a simple act of lighting a candle in the morning and saying thank you for your life or practicing 5 sun salutes while you wait for the coffee to brew. It doesn’t matter what you do but your intention behind it!

Thanks for being on this journey with me, I hope we can keep walking forward on the path of awakening.

xo Brit

Tapas

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras are divided into 4 books. The first book is labeled Samadhi Pada - This is the book for the advanced student, one with strong concentration and clear seeing. The Samadhi Pada begins with the definition of yoga: “yogas chitta vrtti nirodaha”. Yoga is a state where the mind is completely still.

The second book is labeled Sadhana Pada- This book is designed for the student who has a more active mind. It lays out the practices and philosophies necessary to rewire our perspective and quiet the mind. This is a great place to enter your study of the yoga sutra!

Chapter 2: Sadhana Pada (On practice)

Sadhan means “to go directly to the goal” and na references “the eternal cosmic vibration within”. This is the chapter to study when you are ready to go directly to your spiritual goal and delight in your spirit within!

Sutra 2.1: tapah svadhyayesvara pranidhanani kriya yogah

Kirya yogah is the yoga of action. It comes from the root word kri which means “to do”. A kriya also references a purification practice.

Tapas comes from the root word ‘tap’ which means to heat or to burn and is inferring the fires of purification. Tapas is disciplined energy, consciously choosing to change your habits, your conditioned patterns. Tapas is the action of developing positive habits from a commitment to be your best self! Tapas is pushing off the covers, rolling out the mat, and embracing a pose for an extra breath than the mind desires.

Tapas is the action of doing something hard for the long term health benefits.

Physical tapas, is when we heat the tissues of our bodies through asana, kriyas, and pranayama practices and this heat purifies our body and brings clarity to the body and mind. Mental and verbal tapas is an elevated practice. With the light of awareness provided by the flames of tapas, we begin to see thoughts as they arise in our minds and we can scorch old, un-serving conditioned thoughts in it flames!

Tapas is REQUIRED for spiritual development! Patanjali teaches us that every moment is an opportunity for tapas- atha yoga anusasanum!

Fire it up, you got this year! xo

Stithya Prajna

This month I have focused all my practices in - s t e a d i n e s s.-

This is a highly evolved state where we can remain balanced and hold equanimity while the pendulum of duality sways from side to side. Every person, every experience, every season, every bite of food affects our experience and pushes it with its some form of vibrating energy.

How can we remain steady? Live as if life is happening through you, not unto you. We must show up with profound awareness in each moment. The ego mind will oscillate, turning into a swirling storm of moving thoughts, images, and time frames. Discernment offers the lens of truth and presence. From the seat of the witness we rest in our expansive brilliance, connected to everything. Steady mind, steady life.

xo

Understand Your Mind

The mind has a natural downward and outward pull.

The untrained mind will pull you DOWN into spinning thoughts saturated in emotion an our personal narrative. The untrained mind constantly pulls itself OUT of present moment, to an imagined state somewhere in the mixture of the future or the past. Our minds will often completely fabricates stories in front of our own face while we do something that has no relationship to what we are thinking!

You know what I am talking about. You are driving to work, thinking about something you dread about the upcoming day/week or thinking about something you regret about your weekend. We often “space out” into an experience that is not present reality. To transcend the mind one must learn about its conditioned tendencies and capabilities.

There are two “states” of minds or more like two lenses available to see each experience through.

The majority of humanity is always in their “ego” state of mind. This is the reactionary mind that is that “voice in your head”. This is you as a personality, as a surface level experience. This is the mind that judges and compartmentalizes. The mind that sits in emotions and old stories. Obviously, this lens bring disconnect, unnecessary suffering, and loneliness or a longing for something more/ else.

This is the mind that sits in feelings of not-enoughness, shame, or anger. This is the mind heard through your inner voice that is righteous and loves to ague. (It even argues itself sometimes just to get attention!)

The ego mind is about survival and creates separateness from other individuals and the need to dominate or retreat in all experiences for SURVIVAL. This is the mind that would think one human is better or worse than another human.

The ego mind is loud and mean, lonely and bullied. We tend to let it rule our understanding of ourselves and existence but it does not have the truest answers. This ego mind confuses you as the conditioned belief that you are what you look like and what you do, instead of the spirit having a human experience.

Alternatively, you also have a “pure consciousness” lens, known in yoga as buddhi mind. This takes a bit of remembering and definitely some practice …

Your higher mind has an elevated perspective, I think of it like an aerial view. With this lens you are able to see the reactions of the ego mind show up in the field of consciousness but you do not take them personal or need to react!

Buddhi mind is often called intelligence as it stems from the root word- bodhe which translates as “to know”. It is a lens that sees everyone as a spirit in a body working through their own individual karmas. It is loving and accepting and understands that an experience we have in life cannot change out brilliant shining light of a soul!

To have the wits to choose your pure conscious mind over your ego mind will bring you loads of long term peace. To start seeing the distinction between the observer and the small self practice guided meditation.

Eventually you can bring mindful awareness into every experience that comes your way.

I started bringing mindfulness off my mat and cushion and into my car. The car was where I noticed I was always rushing ahead to an imagined future experience or stuck in a past conversation. The car is where I saw myself get upset and frustrated by other drivers. I was always leaning forward (out of alignment!) and my energy was sharp and tight. Slowly, I have made it a habit to be checked in while driving instead of checked out!

I make it a practice to have the music off and bring intentionality and presence into my drives. It is my practice to notice the ego pattern of spacing out and talking in circles in my own head. I drive watching the thoughts that show up about my experience and re-pattern my mind, through mantra, when I encounter untruthful or un-serving thought patterns.

I also intentionally do this while standing in the bank (pre- COVID) and post office lines.

xo