Elevate Your Practice - Meet Brenda 👋🏾
You know what, we’ve probably met before. Or you’ve been reading my writing for some time. But I figured it doesn’t hurt to share a bit more about myself, especially through the lens of “practice.”
Practice for me started around 12 years ago. At that moment, unconsciously, something shifted in me.
Because none of this yoga, meditation, or spirituality stuff was part of my upbringing.
In fact, it often felt like the opposite.
Life was saying, how much disconnection can we put your way? While making you super sensitive to all of it.
How about we amp up feeling invisible and unloved? And how unaware can we make your parents of your emotional needs growing up?
And so I’ve had this unwavering quest to understand and transcend these internal struggles. That range from sadness, low self-esteem, confusion, pressure to please others, and so forth.
Over the years, I have a better understanding now that I am in fact, a highly-sensitive person.
In short, I feel things! I feel my feelings a lot. And I can often feel and perceive the feelings of others too and can take them on as my own. A gift in some way but I initially lacked the necessary tools to channel and harness all this effectively.
I would enter either co-dependent situations or not fully be able to hear what truly lived in my heart.
Practice for me, turned into inspiration.
Yoga allowed me to explore beyond societal norms, and start living life on my terms while using my “wounds” as my way to learn and teach.
Yoga was then a portal for me to discover other powerful practices too! It started with Vinyasa, then into Kundalini, into Therapy, Meditation, Writing, Energy healing, Sound healing, Chanting, Cacao, Shamanic Journey…… My curiosity about practice is what keeps fueling my love to teach.
But at the heart of all these different roles and identities I wear, I am a teacher. I have vivid memories of growing up playing teacher and doing role-call with my stuffed animals as students.
Teaching for me is a fundamental component of everything I do. There is always an opportunity to teach or to learn. I believe that the teacher-student relationship comes in many forms. Most often in an institutional or educational setting, but sometimes in non-traditional settings as well.
When I say “I love to teach” people often ask, “Oh, what grade do you teach?” 😆
When other yoga teachers ask me, “What’s the number 1 advice for new teachers?”, I say “You have to love teaching. Yoga just happens to be the subject we’re teaching.”
With over 10+ years of experience as a dedicated practitioner, and yoga/meditation educator, I am committed to teaching authentically and from my heart.
That often means I share personal aspects of myself and practice, like right now.
I am a yoga nerd, for sure, and I hope that I can continue to share them with you. As I gain more insight and tools, I continue to share them widely whenever I can.
If it’s been a while since we’ve practiced together, these are some of my favorites that I share online. All free to listen to.
And well if you catch me outside of teaching or studying yoga, you can find me at the library checking out books, at a local coffee shop writing, or running things for OM Marketing.
If you’d like to practice with me in person and on retreat next year, early bird for Costa Retreat ends Sept 1. Learn more or send me an email if you have more questions.
Did you miss the note on why join a retreat? Read it here!
Talk soon,
Brenda
If you’d rather not receive communication about Activating The Wise Heart Retreat, you can click here and I’ll honor your space.
Bee Umana
Explorer of the mind & the world 🌎 Yogi, poet, writer, entreprener🐚
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