May 28, 2025 • 28 mins
In this episode I talk about the notions of prakriti (nature, all materials things) and perusa (the soul) - key ideas in yoga and spirituality.
Hey! I'm Rachel! I am a qualified Holistic Life Coach and Mind Body Practitioner, Embodiment Coach, Yoga 500hrs (plus lots more extra yoga quals). I'm also an award winning content creator and have 20 years' experience in digital. I'm a mum of 3 kids and I live in the Peak District - oh and I have ADHD and I am sober. My passion is helping midlife women turn meltdown into magic!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Rachel Brady's video (00:01):
Conscious but Grounded is a podcast about
spirituality, high vibe livingin the real world.
I ask questions like, how do weconnect to the magic?
The spirit, the source, theuniverse, but with our feet
firmly planted on the ground.
How do we show up in a consciousway and harness that to make
big, paradigm busting change inthe day to day of our lives?
(00:23):
I'm Rachel Brady, mum of three,yoga teacher and embodiment
coach.
This is the place where I'll bereflecting and exploring big,
deep questions, all with a pinchof self deprecation, a few
proper lols, and a lot of reallife.
Join me.
(00:43):
Hello and welcome back toConscious, but Grounded.
So, I'm in the car, I dunno.
Now it's become a Pavlovianresponse.
Get in the car for a half anhour drive, make a podcast.
Or when I walk the dogs,although less so walking the
dogs.
And for anyone, that's justfirst time you've listened.
Uh, is this episode, uh, whatI'm referring to is every time
(01:06):
there's a chatty episode of mejust on my own, I tend to do it
when I'm in the car.
Or when I'm walking the dogs,I'm tending actually to try and
walk the dogs more mindfully andbe in nature and not be on
social media and not recording.
So yeah, that says a lot aboutmy brain, I think.
Um, so today's episode, I wantedto talk about something that's
(01:30):
been a big theme in my yogicstudies recently.
So I study a, uh, yoga sutracourse, uh, advanced Yoga Sutra.
So the Yoga Sutra.
Is a text written by PenanPatanjali, sorry, uh, thousands
of years ago.
And it's the basis for most ofwhat we understand about the
(01:52):
most widely practiced version ofyoga, which is the eight limb
path.
Um, incorporating asana,practice, breath work,
meditation, so on.
Um, and in that text, uh, thesutures that we're on, so the
sutures is 190.
Six, I think sutures.
And they're all, they're oneliners and then they're written
(02:14):
in Sanskrit and then they, wedecipher them and then we
discuss what they mean.
The most famous one is probablythe first one, or is it the
second one actually, which isyoga is the cessation of the
fluctuations of the mind.
So chitty, written, theda, Ithink I've probably said that
completely wrong, but anyway,that's not what we're talking
about today.
What, what I wanna talk abouttoday is a big theme that comes
(02:36):
up in the Yoga Sutra, and itcame up in a book I'm reading
last night.
So the book I'm reading.
Doing in bed.
Um, I'm not very far into it.
It's a very renowned yoga text,modern age yoga text.
It's written by Iyengar, so heactually created his own type of
yoga.
I don't know much about Iyengaryoga.
(02:56):
I really must go practice it.
And um, yeah, I'd like to learnmore about it.
I know it's a very precise yoga.
Perhaps that's why I haven'tdone it yet, because I'm not a
very precise person.
Um, anyway, his, his book, Ithink it's called Light on Life
Again, I should check that.
(03:17):
I'm gonna check it and I'm gonnapost the Amazon link below
because I love it so far.
So I got interested in the cha,the person Iyengar, BK Sengar, I
think it is, uh, because one ofhis students did a podcast.
I'll also post that below andit'll make you interested in it
too.
It's from one of my favoriteyoga podcasts, which is, um, the
(03:39):
one with Bradshaw.
Geo Gambino, and I've completelyforgot what it's called, but I
post it below.
It's a really funny, oh, it'scalled The Funny Thing about
yoga.
That's why I like it.
'cause it's like the onlypodcast I know that's like
legit, actual funny, all way,like almost all the way through
about yoga.
So they've really carvedthemselves at a niche there.
(03:59):
So what they talk about on thispodcast, um, what he talked
about was Iyengar.
And so that led me to this bookby him.
Uh, and it's quite a renowned,I've heard people talking about.
His book.
I'm like, oh yeah, it's a goodtime to read this book for me.
Nice.
It is nice.
It's easy to digest.
He's talking about all the mainyoga stuff, um, and presenting
(04:21):
it in a really lovely way.
He's talking about the kosher.
I'll do an episode about those,I think.
And um, but what he's talkingabout now, and there's a whole
chapter that I've just begun, isI'll get there eventually, the.
It is Perusha and reti.
So basically what those twothings mean.
(04:42):
Um, and they talks about a lotin the yoga sutures.
And it's a key theme in yoga andit perfectly mirrors what this
podcast past is about.
So Rey, Rey, he says in thebook, it means nature.
Um, so what we've kind of what,what we look at it as in the
studies I've been doing, so it'sthe same thing, but it's
(05:04):
anything that's material.
So it's anything that'stangible.
So that includes nature, thatincludes this car, that includes
my teacup here, my portableteacup that.
Includes my bag with the stufffor where I'm going.
Um, that includes me.
It includes everything.
Everything, everything,everything that's of this Earth.
(05:25):
So that's reti.
And then in contrast to that,there is Perusha, Perusha, and
I'll put those two terms belowas well, because they're
sometimes spelled differentlydepending on which book you're
reading.
Um.
And so what he talks about, andI've not got too far into it
with him, but um, we've, we'veapproached it quite a bit in our
(05:49):
studies is life is about, andtherefore yoga is about like
walking on the earth whilstlooking up at the sky.
It's like, how do we inhabitboth of these realities?
Um, so it's like, how do we stayconscious but grounded?
It's like literally.
(06:09):
So the conscious part for me isthe perusha, the soul, and the
grounded part is the earth, thenature, the ti.
And so I thought, wow, this islike a great subject for the
podcast.
And obviously I haven't preparedanything.
That's not how I do thispodcast, because if I did that,
I'd never do it.
Uh, and so what I do is justtend to speak from the heart as,
(06:29):
so I'm having a conversationwith someone, um, about this
subject.
And I love to introduce these,these concepts to people that
aren't necessarily.
Or don't want to necessarily doa Yoga Sutras course or even
study yoga teacher training, butlike just introducing these
concepts to people while you arelike washing the dishes or
(06:50):
walking the dog.
Like these are amazingly mindbendingly, mind altering.
Huge concept that will changeyour life if you can grasp and
grapple with them.
For me, the only way I can graspand grapple with them and the
only way that they've landed isthrough.
Through doing these studycourses where I meet other
(07:12):
people on Zoom and we discuss itand we literally bring in real
examples.
We ask questions, we laugh, weget it wrong.
We, we, we, you know, werecommend re other books to each
other.
And so I've done this sutrascourse twice.
I'm actually doing the advanceone now where we revisit them,
but we do chanting and stuff aswell.
(07:33):
But, um, I really, truly believethat I have landed this concept
now.
Um, it's, I guess, I guess italso pertains this subject to
something I spoke about earlieron in the podcast, which is,
what does it mean to bespiritual?
Like what does that even mean?
And because what I was saying onmy Instagram bio was helping
(07:57):
women explore spirituality, andthat's what I do.
But then when I said that tosomebody, like a lot of things I
say to people, she was like,well, what does that mean?
So I know what I mean, but otherpeople sometimes say what I
mean, dunno what I mean.
But she's very much a projector.
Problem.
I'm a projector in human design,and we have these big ideas and
big feelings and emotions andbig, big concepts and other
(08:17):
people struggle to understandwhat we're talking about.
And I hope so much that throughthis podcast people can start to
understand some of the thingsI'm talking about.
Um, and I guess it's alsohelping me land these concepts
by talking about them.
So perusha the soul.
For me, spirituality is reallysimple.
Do you believe in perusha?
(08:39):
Do you believe in the soul?
Yes or no?
So if you don't and you trulybelieve that, and this is fine
by the way, you do you, if youbelieve, I doubt you're
listening to the podcast ifthat's what you believe.
Unless you're like a friend or afamily member and you are like,
oh, curious.
Um, but this is fine.
Like people really close to mein my life, like really close to
(09:00):
me in my life, believe this,that you die and that's it.
And that we are literally meatand bones and.
The reason we have thoughts andconsciousness is because we have
this physical thing in our headcalled a brain and that's it,
right?
I don't believe that.
I believe so.
That's Rey.
(09:21):
So I guess the people who Iadore and love and they're
perfectly entitled to believethis, um, they're not spiritual.
I guess they would say they'renot spiritual, or they might say
something like, well, I amspiritual, but like my
spirituality is all about howwonderful.
That is, and how wonderfulscience is and how magical, you
(09:43):
know this earth is.
So I would say, well, whatcreated it?
And then they would say, I'mguessing the Big Bang.
And I would say, I thinkspirituality is the big bang.
You know?
So I believe in a consciousnessbeyond the physicality, which
(10:04):
you could say has a collectiveconsciousness, but also
individual consciousness.
I.
I mean, I'm so on board withthis.
Obviously I believe in angels.
I believe in spirit guides.
I believe in life after death.
I believe in reincarnation.
So I had a really goodconversation about reti and
perusia with my husband.
So I do, you know what?
(10:24):
I've just realized something.
I have a lot of breakthroughs onthis podcast and I'm talking to
myself.
Um, me and my husband are areally good example of perusia
and reti because, and conscious,but grounded because he is the
grounded to my conscious.
And as much as some.
Times I've said, and I've saidthis to so many other spiritual
women who are married to verydown to earth, non-spiritual
(10:45):
guys who have very grounded jobsand who are not into all the
things we are into.
'cause we're all witches andthey're like the best guys in
the world.
But they're just not like that.
And it's a challenge, right?
Being married to people, to aguy who's not into this, whose
truth isn't this.
But we had a moment of agreementthe other day and I was like,
(11:07):
yeah, that's exactly what I'msaying.
He was like, well, yeah, so weagree.
And so what we were saying was,I was like, we, we were walking
the dogs and we were by theriver, and I was like talking
about water consciousness.
Like, isn't it, isn't itamazing?
They're like, water is the, isis, this body of water has been
around since the bod beginningof time.
(11:28):
Like it's the same body of waterthat just gets recycled,
recycled, recycled, like, andthey're talking now about water
consciousness and how, you know,water has seen it all.
It's been here for everything.
It's got consciousness and Iwas, and then we got talking
about atoms and how, you know,when you die, you go back to the
earth.
(11:48):
And then that those atoms, thisis where I struggle because I'm
not very scientific.
Get, you know, they areliterally going to be created
into something else.
You know, the, the idea ofsomething being solid is a
fallacy.
We are literally vibrating cellsand atoms and things like that.
You know, we are amassedtogether.
(12:09):
There is no such thing as time.
It's literally elements of time,okay.
That are stitched together.
So we agreed, because I wassaying, well, if things go back
to the earth and then they turnin something else that's
reincarnation.
And he was just like, well,yeah, I guess you could say
that.
And I was like, okay.
So the life force that createsthose things for me is soul, and
(12:35):
that's perusha.
And that is probably the keydifference between me and my
husband.
Like he.
Doesn't believe, which is finethat a soul leaves one body and
then enters another.
Um, I mean, I don't know becauseI've, because I'm just a
earthling on this planet, likehow the process happens.
(12:56):
But I believe in the soul.
I believe as the yoga, you know,the, yo, the yoga teachings show
us that.
We are reincarnated time andtime again until we finish
learning the life lessons.
Now, I don't know what happensthen, and I'm not far along
(13:20):
enough in my studies, I guess,or in my thought or in my
embodiment of these practices.
Like I've said right at thestart of this podcast, I really
do consider myself very young onmy spiritual journey.
Um, you know, I haven't got allthe answers, but I know the
difference between.
Perrey and perusha.
(13:42):
So why does it matter?
Like what?
So what?
So what, so that's a goodquestion to ask for.
Everything is So what?
So what, so, so the reason for,so what is, well when you
realize that this is justmaterial shapes, these are
material shapes, these arematerial concerns.
First of all, it gives youperspective, um, it really gives
(14:04):
you perspective.
But we don't dismiss the proreti the.
The earth, you know, a lot of,um, this is where a lot of
spiritual discourse differsbecause like in the book I was
reading last night, he's verymuch like, no, the most
important thing is the earth.
It is this walk as a human.
Like that's the most importantthing.
(14:26):
For those who dismiss that andgo straight to the spiritual,
uh, they miss the journey.
Like they miss the whole pointof the exercise.
The whole point of the exerciseis to have human experience the
whole.
Whole point of the exercise.
It's such a cliche, but it's thejourney.
It's not the destination.
So let me give you an example.
(14:46):
As I'm thinking this andprocessing this out loud, like
in my yoga business, it's veryearly days.
This, this podcast is earlydays.
Um, it's like the physicality ofthe business is me showing up
and teaching yoga to extremelysmall classes.
Um, the physicality of thispodcast is the fact that it's
(15:07):
had not many listens yet.
They're the physical facts, andI'm very early on in that.
And so the physical facts of theare are the, the journey is
what's important here.
The destination is purelyethereal.
It's in my brain and it's, it'sthis goal that I'm working
towards, which is what I mean.
(15:28):
I try not to think about what Iwant the outcome to be because I
try and release the attachmentto the outcome.
But it's like the journey is theimportant thing.
The creation, the intention isthe important thing.
Because if I, if I lose sight ofwhat my intention is right now,
then the, the joy in the processis lost.
What's the point?
(15:48):
And the intention in the momentof now will create the outcome.
Um, and so it's really importantto actually to, because what I
feel when with a lot of thesestudies is, oh, okay, so what's
the fucking point then?
So what's the point?
Like what?
I'll let go of everything.
I'll just let go of everything.
And you could almost.
(16:09):
Become nihilistic and be like,I'm not getting outta bed, then
what's the point?
And it could actually become adepression.
But it's the opposite of that.
And actually, even though itgives me the chills sometimes
thinking about this, and I'lltell you a little bit about
something that happened lastnight that reminded me of this,
this process that I'm in and howsometimes it can spook you is,
(16:33):
you know, we've got to be herein the here and now we've got to
live our lives.
And sometimes I look at peoplewho have.
Spiritual ignorance.
Um, there is a word for that.
I can't remember what it is.
And I don't mean that rudely, itsounds really rude, but that in
yoga is considered one of themain pain points of life, is
like to be spiritually ignorant.
I, I also think though ignoranceis bliss because I think once
(16:55):
you start to get into thesethings, it can give you so much
joy and so much release.
And it is work, it is doing thatfor me.
You know, it's working for me,but I also look at other people
and kind of.
Envy them in a way because Ifeel like the work is difficult,
the spiritual work is difficultand, and, and it was kind of
(17:18):
easier to just drink and likehave fun and live for the, um,
see all of the reti as all thatthere is.
It was kind of easier.
Um, and all of this is so hardfor me to articulate, but now I
know that there is a biggertruth to.
(17:39):
Life, it's given me so much, butit's also work and it's also
hard sometimes.
Um, and knowing that, whatreally used to get me is
thinking, wait, okay, so I lookat my kid and I'm like, wait,
what?
He's not just entirely here forme, this isn't the main event.
Are you joking?
Like, I've had previous livesand previous families, and he'll
(18:01):
go on, his soul will go on tohave more families and he's had
previous, you know, what has hissoul come to incarnate Stand.
For example, let's use him.
My youngest, you know, the realchallenging one, who I
absolutely adore, by the way.
Like we are, I mean, we'rejoined at the hip.
He's my buddy, but he alsodrives me insane.
(18:22):
Um, and, and it's like thatchild, that soul came absolutely
came at a time in my life toteach me some shit And oh my
God, has that been achieved?
Well, I'm still in the processlike.
The challenges I've had with himhave taught me so much, the
(18:43):
challenges I've had throughliterally having him, um, gave
me, you know, and then I enteredperimenopause and whatever
happened happened, but I, I hadthis kind of breakdown in a way.
Uh, and, and I'm still on ajourney of healing.
Um, and, and those things are areally good example of reti and
(19:04):
perusia.
So the reti is, I had a baby, Iwas postpartum.
Um.
I was per menopausal, per reti,reti, reti, the earthly
considerations of my breakdown.
But my, but my soul, my perusha,it, it came here for that.
It came here for that because Ineeded to go through the sludge
of the reti and reti can besludge.
(19:26):
Um, I needed to go through thatto get to, you know, to come
here right now sharing mythoughts on spirituality,
because there's meaning to this,my.
Soul has come and incarnated inthis body, this lifetime to
learn some shit.
(19:46):
To learn.
And the, and what yoga teachesus is that's the whole point of
your life.
So don't avoid pain, don't avoidsuffering.
Like don't avoid life.
'cause that's how you learn thelessons And the perion needs
that.
The Perion needs to recruit.
It needs the lessons to comedown and do what it came to do.
(20:10):
And so the idea is that everysingle time we incarnate on this
earth, and that's why you can'trush anybody else's healing, you
can't drag anyone else into yourhealing and your journey because
their souls are here for theirsoul's purpose.
You can't influence that.
And so that's why it's all aboutlet go surrender.
Let go surrender.
Focus on yourself.
Focus on yourself.
(20:31):
Focus on your side of thestreet.
Heal.
Learn your lessons.
Learn your soul's lessonsthrough your ti, through your
earth.
Experiences, that's what you arehere to do and nothing else.
And that kind of speaks tocodependency and things like
that.
And so what was, what I wasgonna mention to you is, oh my
God, I've, I've started tryingto stay up a bit later with my
(20:53):
teenager, with my almost15-year-old, because he's a
teenager and he's like, I'm notgoing to bed like when you go to
bed.
That's weird.
So he stays up till like half10, 11.
And so we've start, instead ofjust leaving him downstairs,
which we did for a little while,we feel like it's really lonely.
And actually it's, it's really.
A key time to like bond withthem, isn't it?
Um, you know, shoulder toshoulder, which is like the best
(21:14):
way for teenagers.
And so my husband and I taketurns staying up with them
because we're both so old andtired that we both would prefer
to go to bed at 9:00 PM Um, andso last night was my turn.
So he loves horror movies,right?
But he's a real film buff.
Like he doesn't wanna watch craplike he watches, like, um,
(21:34):
anything that's like weird orarty or anything like that.
So he, he chooses this film.
I'm like, this sounds creepy.
And so this film, and I almostdon't wanna tell you what it is
'cause it's so scary.
It's called Yellow Brick Road.
Right.
We only watched half of it.
We turned it off.
'cause I was like, I actuallyneed to turn this off.
But I might revisit it with himbecause the, the theme was a
(21:55):
deep resonant one and a reallyintellectual one.
However, it was effing scary.
I'm not joking.
It was a bit like ly witchproject, which for me is like
the scariest film ever.
So the, the premise of the filmwas that back in.
In the 1940s, the whole townjust suddenly got up, got on a
path, a trail in the mountains,and they all walked on this
(22:16):
trail, and then they were allfound dead.
I, I mean, that's not exactlywhat happened, but I'm just
gonna give you that version.
Okay.
So, so this group, this likeyoung, enthusiastic group of
psychologists and this, youknow, um, students or whatever,
go and walk this path with acamera, with psychological
testing, videoing everything,and dah, dah, dah, to, to, to
(22:36):
investigate what happened.
And so.
I mean, you don't even need toknow.
Obviously it goes completelytits up and the whole, and, and
they start dying.
And so I, while we were watchingit, because I'm a neurodiverse
and I, a neuro divergent and Ihave to do this type of annoying
thing, I sat there with mylaptop Googling about the story
also because I wanted to checkthat it wasn't gonna be too much
(22:59):
for Arthur and for me.
And so I, I was reading about itwhilst we were watching it, and
actually I got lost in.
Amazing essays about it.
I mean, it's a very low budgetart arty type of film.
Um, and so I was happy for himto watch it because of that, but
it was terrifying and itreminded me of my spiritual
journey because so, so theexample, a lot of people on the
(23:23):
Reddit forums and stuff weresaying it's so frustrating'cause
you never find out why, like,why this path, this.
This trail kills people.
And a lot of the themes in itwere about like, well, this is
almost like, um, a warning tolike, when you go into a deep
exploration of the world'sunanswerable questions, like
it's a warning that all you'llbe left with is your own madness
(23:45):
because something's can't beexplained.
So I have just completely not,that is not verbatim what these
essays about the film say, butthat's the general gist.
It was like, stop looking foranswers and live in the here and
now.
That's how I read it.
There's an excellent essay aboutit.
Um, um, if, if you just Googlethe film and like some essays
(24:08):
about it, you'll see.
But anyway, it reminded me like,God, this is actually really
similar to a spiritual journeyin a way.
Because if you keep trying to,especially scientifically
explain the inexplicable, youwill go mad.
Uh, and so there is also an actof surrender and faith in going
on a journey.
(24:29):
Not knowing the outcome andbeing okay with the
unanswerable, right?
Like that's what I took from it.
Anyway, I, I don't wanna talkabout the film anymore'cause it
was so scary.
Honestly.
It was awful.
Um, but just suffice to say, Imean, I didn't go into that with
my son because I just think he'djust eye roll me.
Uh, and, but it reminded me oflike, it gave me the chills in
(24:53):
the same way that I get thechills sometimes in a
spirituality class where.
I sometimes slip into it and itscares me.
And that is what I used to getgrowing up.
I used to sit and think, oh myGod, like I'm a human having a
human experience looking outthrough these eyeballs, and one
day I'm gonna die.
(25:13):
And I used to just feel thischill of panic run through me
like an existential crisis, Iguess you could say.
I couldn't articulate that toanyone.
And I know, you know, you, youdon't, you just kind of get on
with it, don't you?
And just go, I mean, the only.
Time I ever used to explore anyof those thoughts or feelings
was, I guess, as a teenagersmoking weed or something like
(25:34):
that.
You know, you would kind of tryand articulate these feelings
and thoughts that you werehaving about what it is to be
alive.
And I guess that's whatspirituality does for me now I'm
sober.
It really is a fascinatingjourney into what all of this
means, and I think it'simportant, although it will send
(25:54):
you crazy if you spend too muchtime there.
It's important to detach, re.
Perusha because it's like youcan kind of say, like we said in
the class the other day, it'sall perrey baby.
Like it is just like drama.
Life is just drama and you canlet it go and just like enjoy
life for what it is, but alsowith a pinch of soul and a pinch
(26:17):
of like in the scheme of things,it gives you great perspective.
But see the wider themes in lifeare, which are like to learn
these lessons to love oneanother and to.
Recognize the innatespirituality and to recognize
that we are just not just, weare humans.
Having a, sorry, we are souls.
(26:39):
Having a human experience andhaving that perspective can be
really helpful because then itcan be really healing and not in
a dissociative disassociative,uh, way, but rather in a
reflective, observer way.
What it's helped me do, and thisis the key thing, so I'm
teaching some classes at.
At Sheffield Yoga Studio soon.
(27:00):
I'm really excited'cause it'slike the really good yoga studio
where I go.
So I feel like, oh my God,that's scary, but like great.
And so I had to fill in a littlebio where they ask you some
questions and it was like, whatis yoga to you?
Or something like that.
And, and I basically said whatI've just said, which is like, I
think it's just recognizing thatyour thoughts are not your own,
(27:20):
your thoughts are just like,your thoughts are just thoughts.
They're not you.
And so it's really helped meland in that more modern
mindfulness sense.
The idea.
That we, you are not yourthoughts.
Like this is reti.
This is a physicality that youcan separate from and just enjoy
the bliss of being alive.
And so I'm gonna leave it there.
(27:41):
That was a huge theme to talkabout and I don't know if I did
a very good job, uh, as ever.
I'm trying to just honor mytruth and honor where I'm at in
my own journey and my ownlimitations in my own strengths
and weaknesses.
And I'm trying really hard tostop worrying if anyone is
listening to this.
Like I'm not marketing it verymuch.
I need to do that more.
If you enjoy this, please,please, it would help me so much
(28:02):
if you leave a review.
I literally never do it.
I need to stop doing it forother peoples because it really
does make a difference for theperson who's made the podcast.
Um, so I've enjoyed talkingabout this so much, and I will
see you next time.
Okay, bye.
Conscious but Grounded is a podcast about
spirituality, high vibe livingin the real world.
I ask questions like, how do weconnect to the magic?
The spirit, the source, theuniverse, but with our feet
firmly planted on the ground.
How do we show up in a consciousway and harness that to make
big, paradigm busting change inthe day to day of our lives?
(00:23):
I'm Rachel Brady, mum of three,yoga teacher and embodiment
coach.
This is the place where I'll bereflecting and exploring big,
deep questions, all with a pinchof self deprecation, a few
proper lols, and a lot of reallife.
Join me.
(00:43):
Hello and welcome back toConscious, but Grounded.
So, I'm in the car, I dunno.
Now it's become a Pavlovianresponse.
Get in the car for a half anhour drive, make a podcast.
Or when I walk the dogs,although less so walking the
dogs.
And for anyone, that's justfirst time you've listened.
Uh, is this episode, uh, whatI'm referring to is every time
(01:06):
there's a chatty episode of mejust on my own, I tend to do it
when I'm in the car.
Or when I'm walking the dogs,I'm tending actually to try and
walk the dogs more mindfully andbe in nature and not be on
social media and not recording.
So yeah, that says a lot aboutmy brain, I think.
Um, so today's episode, I wantedto talk about something that's
(01:30):
been a big theme in my yogicstudies recently.
So I study a, uh, yoga sutracourse, uh, advanced Yoga Sutra.
So the Yoga Sutra.
Is a text written by PenanPatanjali, sorry, uh, thousands
of years ago.
And it's the basis for most ofwhat we understand about the
(01:52):
most widely practiced version ofyoga, which is the eight limb
path.
Um, incorporating asana,practice, breath work,
meditation, so on.
Um, and in that text, uh, thesutures that we're on, so the
sutures is 190.
Six, I think sutures.
And they're all, they're oneliners and then they're written
(02:14):
in Sanskrit and then they, wedecipher them and then we
discuss what they mean.
The most famous one is probablythe first one, or is it the
second one actually, which isyoga is the cessation of the
fluctuations of the mind.
So chitty, written, theda, Ithink I've probably said that
completely wrong, but anyway,that's not what we're talking
about today.
What, what I wanna talk abouttoday is a big theme that comes
(02:36):
up in the Yoga Sutra, and itcame up in a book I'm reading
last night.
So the book I'm reading.
Doing in bed.
Um, I'm not very far into it.
It's a very renowned yoga text,modern age yoga text.
It's written by Iyengar, so heactually created his own type of
yoga.
I don't know much about Iyengaryoga.
(02:56):
I really must go practice it.
And um, yeah, I'd like to learnmore about it.
I know it's a very precise yoga.
Perhaps that's why I haven'tdone it yet, because I'm not a
very precise person.
Um, anyway, his, his book, Ithink it's called Light on Life
Again, I should check that.
(03:17):
I'm gonna check it and I'm gonnapost the Amazon link below
because I love it so far.
So I got interested in the cha,the person Iyengar, BK Sengar, I
think it is, uh, because one ofhis students did a podcast.
I'll also post that below andit'll make you interested in it
too.
It's from one of my favoriteyoga podcasts, which is, um, the
(03:39):
one with Bradshaw.
Geo Gambino, and I've completelyforgot what it's called, but I
post it below.
It's a really funny, oh, it'scalled The Funny Thing about
yoga.
That's why I like it.
'cause it's like the onlypodcast I know that's like
legit, actual funny, all way,like almost all the way through
about yoga.
So they've really carvedthemselves at a niche there.
(03:59):
So what they talk about on thispodcast, um, what he talked
about was Iyengar.
And so that led me to this bookby him.
Uh, and it's quite a renowned,I've heard people talking about.
His book.
I'm like, oh yeah, it's a goodtime to read this book for me.
Nice.
It is nice.
It's easy to digest.
He's talking about all the mainyoga stuff, um, and presenting
(04:21):
it in a really lovely way.
He's talking about the kosher.
I'll do an episode about those,I think.
And um, but what he's talkingabout now, and there's a whole
chapter that I've just begun, isI'll get there eventually, the.
It is Perusha and reti.
So basically what those twothings mean.
(04:42):
Um, and they talks about a lotin the yoga sutures.
And it's a key theme in yoga andit perfectly mirrors what this
podcast past is about.
So Rey, Rey, he says in thebook, it means nature.
Um, so what we've kind of what,what we look at it as in the
studies I've been doing, so it'sthe same thing, but it's
(05:04):
anything that's material.
So it's anything that'stangible.
So that includes nature, thatincludes this car, that includes
my teacup here, my portableteacup that.
Includes my bag with the stufffor where I'm going.
Um, that includes me.
It includes everything.
Everything, everything,everything that's of this Earth.
(05:25):
So that's reti.
And then in contrast to that,there is Perusha, Perusha, and
I'll put those two terms belowas well, because they're
sometimes spelled differentlydepending on which book you're
reading.
Um.
And so what he talks about, andI've not got too far into it
with him, but um, we've, we'veapproached it quite a bit in our
(05:49):
studies is life is about, andtherefore yoga is about like
walking on the earth whilstlooking up at the sky.
It's like, how do we inhabitboth of these realities?
Um, so it's like, how do we stayconscious but grounded?
It's like literally.
(06:09):
So the conscious part for me isthe perusha, the soul, and the
grounded part is the earth, thenature, the ti.
And so I thought, wow, this islike a great subject for the
podcast.
And obviously I haven't preparedanything.
That's not how I do thispodcast, because if I did that,
I'd never do it.
Uh, and so what I do is justtend to speak from the heart as,
(06:29):
so I'm having a conversationwith someone, um, about this
subject.
And I love to introduce these,these concepts to people that
aren't necessarily.
Or don't want to necessarily doa Yoga Sutras course or even
study yoga teacher training, butlike just introducing these
concepts to people while you arelike washing the dishes or
(06:50):
walking the dog.
Like these are amazingly mindbendingly, mind altering.
Huge concept that will changeyour life if you can grasp and
grapple with them.
For me, the only way I can graspand grapple with them and the
only way that they've landed isthrough.
Through doing these studycourses where I meet other
(07:12):
people on Zoom and we discuss itand we literally bring in real
examples.
We ask questions, we laugh, weget it wrong.
We, we, we, you know, werecommend re other books to each
other.
And so I've done this sutrascourse twice.
I'm actually doing the advanceone now where we revisit them,
but we do chanting and stuff aswell.
(07:33):
But, um, I really, truly believethat I have landed this concept
now.
Um, it's, I guess, I guess italso pertains this subject to
something I spoke about earlieron in the podcast, which is,
what does it mean to bespiritual?
Like what does that even mean?
And because what I was saying onmy Instagram bio was helping
(07:57):
women explore spirituality, andthat's what I do.
But then when I said that tosomebody, like a lot of things I
say to people, she was like,well, what does that mean?
So I know what I mean, but otherpeople sometimes say what I
mean, dunno what I mean.
But she's very much a projector.
Problem.
I'm a projector in human design,and we have these big ideas and
big feelings and emotions andbig, big concepts and other
(08:17):
people struggle to understandwhat we're talking about.
And I hope so much that throughthis podcast people can start to
understand some of the thingsI'm talking about.
Um, and I guess it's alsohelping me land these concepts
by talking about them.
So perusha the soul.
For me, spirituality is reallysimple.
Do you believe in perusha?
(08:39):
Do you believe in the soul?
Yes or no?
So if you don't and you trulybelieve that, and this is fine
by the way, you do you, if youbelieve, I doubt you're
listening to the podcast ifthat's what you believe.
Unless you're like a friend or afamily member and you are like,
oh, curious.
Um, but this is fine.
Like people really close to mein my life, like really close to
(09:00):
me in my life, believe this,that you die and that's it.
And that we are literally meatand bones and.
The reason we have thoughts andconsciousness is because we have
this physical thing in our headcalled a brain and that's it,
right?
I don't believe that.
I believe so.
That's Rey.
(09:21):
So I guess the people who Iadore and love and they're
perfectly entitled to believethis, um, they're not spiritual.
I guess they would say they'renot spiritual, or they might say
something like, well, I amspiritual, but like my
spirituality is all about howwonderful.
That is, and how wonderfulscience is and how magical, you
(09:43):
know this earth is.
So I would say, well, whatcreated it?
And then they would say, I'mguessing the Big Bang.
And I would say, I thinkspirituality is the big bang.
You know?
So I believe in a consciousnessbeyond the physicality, which
(10:04):
you could say has a collectiveconsciousness, but also
individual consciousness.
I.
I mean, I'm so on board withthis.
Obviously I believe in angels.
I believe in spirit guides.
I believe in life after death.
I believe in reincarnation.
So I had a really goodconversation about reti and
perusia with my husband.
So I do, you know what?
(10:24):
I've just realized something.
I have a lot of breakthroughs onthis podcast and I'm talking to
myself.
Um, me and my husband are areally good example of perusia
and reti because, and conscious,but grounded because he is the
grounded to my conscious.
And as much as some.
Times I've said, and I've saidthis to so many other spiritual
women who are married to verydown to earth, non-spiritual
(10:45):
guys who have very grounded jobsand who are not into all the
things we are into.
'cause we're all witches andthey're like the best guys in
the world.
But they're just not like that.
And it's a challenge, right?
Being married to people, to aguy who's not into this, whose
truth isn't this.
But we had a moment of agreementthe other day and I was like,
(11:07):
yeah, that's exactly what I'msaying.
He was like, well, yeah, so weagree.
And so what we were saying was,I was like, we, we were walking
the dogs and we were by theriver, and I was like talking
about water consciousness.
Like, isn't it, isn't itamazing?
They're like, water is the, isis, this body of water has been
around since the bod beginningof time.
(11:28):
Like it's the same body of waterthat just gets recycled,
recycled, recycled, like, andthey're talking now about water
consciousness and how, you know,water has seen it all.
It's been here for everything.
It's got consciousness and Iwas, and then we got talking
about atoms and how, you know,when you die, you go back to the
earth.
(11:48):
And then that those atoms, thisis where I struggle because I'm
not very scientific.
Get, you know, they areliterally going to be created
into something else.
You know, the, the idea ofsomething being solid is a
fallacy.
We are literally vibrating cellsand atoms and things like that.
You know, we are amassedtogether.
(12:09):
There is no such thing as time.
It's literally elements of time,okay.
That are stitched together.
So we agreed, because I wassaying, well, if things go back
to the earth and then they turnin something else that's
reincarnation.
And he was just like, well,yeah, I guess you could say
that.
And I was like, okay.
So the life force that createsthose things for me is soul, and
(12:35):
that's perusha.
And that is probably the keydifference between me and my
husband.
Like he.
Doesn't believe, which is finethat a soul leaves one body and
then enters another.
Um, I mean, I don't know becauseI've, because I'm just a
earthling on this planet, likehow the process happens.
(12:56):
But I believe in the soul.
I believe as the yoga, you know,the, yo, the yoga teachings show
us that.
We are reincarnated time andtime again until we finish
learning the life lessons.
Now, I don't know what happensthen, and I'm not far along
(13:20):
enough in my studies, I guess,or in my thought or in my
embodiment of these practices.
Like I've said right at thestart of this podcast, I really
do consider myself very young onmy spiritual journey.
Um, you know, I haven't got allthe answers, but I know the
difference between.
Perrey and perusha.
(13:42):
So why does it matter?
Like what?
So what?
So what, so that's a goodquestion to ask for.
Everything is So what?
So what, so, so the reason for,so what is, well when you
realize that this is justmaterial shapes, these are
material shapes, these arematerial concerns.
First of all, it gives youperspective, um, it really gives
(14:04):
you perspective.
But we don't dismiss the proreti the.
The earth, you know, a lot of,um, this is where a lot of
spiritual discourse differsbecause like in the book I was
reading last night, he's verymuch like, no, the most
important thing is the earth.
It is this walk as a human.
Like that's the most importantthing.
(14:26):
For those who dismiss that andgo straight to the spiritual,
uh, they miss the journey.
Like they miss the whole pointof the exercise.
The whole point of the exerciseis to have human experience the
whole.
Whole point of the exercise.
It's such a cliche, but it's thejourney.
It's not the destination.
So let me give you an example.
(14:46):
As I'm thinking this andprocessing this out loud, like
in my yoga business, it's veryearly days.
This, this podcast is earlydays.
Um, it's like the physicality ofthe business is me showing up
and teaching yoga to extremelysmall classes.
Um, the physicality of thispodcast is the fact that it's
(15:07):
had not many listens yet.
They're the physical facts, andI'm very early on in that.
And so the physical facts of theare are the, the journey is
what's important here.
The destination is purelyethereal.
It's in my brain and it's, it'sthis goal that I'm working
towards, which is what I mean.
(15:28):
I try not to think about what Iwant the outcome to be because I
try and release the attachmentto the outcome.
But it's like the journey is theimportant thing.
The creation, the intention isthe important thing.
Because if I, if I lose sight ofwhat my intention is right now,
then the, the joy in the processis lost.
What's the point?
(15:48):
And the intention in the momentof now will create the outcome.
Um, and so it's really importantto actually to, because what I
feel when with a lot of thesestudies is, oh, okay, so what's
the fucking point then?
So what's the point?
Like what?
I'll let go of everything.
I'll just let go of everything.
And you could almost.
(16:09):
Become nihilistic and be like,I'm not getting outta bed, then
what's the point?
And it could actually become adepression.
But it's the opposite of that.
And actually, even though itgives me the chills sometimes
thinking about this, and I'lltell you a little bit about
something that happened lastnight that reminded me of this,
this process that I'm in and howsometimes it can spook you is,
(16:33):
you know, we've got to be herein the here and now we've got to
live our lives.
And sometimes I look at peoplewho have.
Spiritual ignorance.
Um, there is a word for that.
I can't remember what it is.
And I don't mean that rudely, itsounds really rude, but that in
yoga is considered one of themain pain points of life, is
like to be spiritually ignorant.
I, I also think though ignoranceis bliss because I think once
(16:55):
you start to get into thesethings, it can give you so much
joy and so much release.
And it is work, it is doing thatfor me.
You know, it's working for me,but I also look at other people
and kind of.
Envy them in a way because Ifeel like the work is difficult,
the spiritual work is difficultand, and, and it was kind of
(17:18):
easier to just drink and likehave fun and live for the, um,
see all of the reti as all thatthere is.
It was kind of easier.
Um, and all of this is so hardfor me to articulate, but now I
know that there is a biggertruth to.
(17:39):
Life, it's given me so much, butit's also work and it's also
hard sometimes.
Um, and knowing that, whatreally used to get me is
thinking, wait, okay, so I lookat my kid and I'm like, wait,
what?
He's not just entirely here forme, this isn't the main event.
Are you joking?
Like, I've had previous livesand previous families, and he'll
(18:01):
go on, his soul will go on tohave more families and he's had
previous, you know, what has hissoul come to incarnate Stand.
For example, let's use him.
My youngest, you know, the realchallenging one, who I
absolutely adore, by the way.
Like we are, I mean, we'rejoined at the hip.
He's my buddy, but he alsodrives me insane.
(18:22):
Um, and, and it's like thatchild, that soul came absolutely
came at a time in my life toteach me some shit And oh my
God, has that been achieved?
Well, I'm still in the processlike.
The challenges I've had with himhave taught me so much, the
(18:43):
challenges I've had throughliterally having him, um, gave
me, you know, and then I enteredperimenopause and whatever
happened happened, but I, I hadthis kind of breakdown in a way.
Uh, and, and I'm still on ajourney of healing.
Um, and, and those things are areally good example of reti and
(19:04):
perusia.
So the reti is, I had a baby, Iwas postpartum.
Um.
I was per menopausal, per reti,reti, reti, the earthly
considerations of my breakdown.
But my, but my soul, my perusha,it, it came here for that.
It came here for that because Ineeded to go through the sludge
of the reti and reti can besludge.
(19:26):
Um, I needed to go through thatto get to, you know, to come
here right now sharing mythoughts on spirituality,
because there's meaning to this,my.
Soul has come and incarnated inthis body, this lifetime to
learn some shit.
(19:46):
To learn.
And the, and what yoga teachesus is that's the whole point of
your life.
So don't avoid pain, don't avoidsuffering.
Like don't avoid life.
'cause that's how you learn thelessons And the perion needs
that.
The Perion needs to recruit.
It needs the lessons to comedown and do what it came to do.
(20:10):
And so the idea is that everysingle time we incarnate on this
earth, and that's why you can'trush anybody else's healing, you
can't drag anyone else into yourhealing and your journey because
their souls are here for theirsoul's purpose.
You can't influence that.
And so that's why it's all aboutlet go surrender.
Let go surrender.
Focus on yourself.
Focus on yourself.
(20:31):
Focus on your side of thestreet.
Heal.
Learn your lessons.
Learn your soul's lessonsthrough your ti, through your
earth.
Experiences, that's what you arehere to do and nothing else.
And that kind of speaks tocodependency and things like
that.
And so what was, what I wasgonna mention to you is, oh my
God, I've, I've started tryingto stay up a bit later with my
(20:53):
teenager, with my almost15-year-old, because he's a
teenager and he's like, I'm notgoing to bed like when you go to
bed.
That's weird.
So he stays up till like half10, 11.
And so we've start, instead ofjust leaving him downstairs,
which we did for a little while,we feel like it's really lonely.
And actually it's, it's really.
A key time to like bond withthem, isn't it?
Um, you know, shoulder toshoulder, which is like the best
(21:14):
way for teenagers.
And so my husband and I taketurns staying up with them
because we're both so old andtired that we both would prefer
to go to bed at 9:00 PM Um, andso last night was my turn.
So he loves horror movies,right?
But he's a real film buff.
Like he doesn't wanna watch craplike he watches, like, um,
(21:34):
anything that's like weird orarty or anything like that.
So he, he chooses this film.
I'm like, this sounds creepy.
And so this film, and I almostdon't wanna tell you what it is
'cause it's so scary.
It's called Yellow Brick Road.
Right.
We only watched half of it.
We turned it off.
'cause I was like, I actuallyneed to turn this off.
But I might revisit it with himbecause the, the theme was a
(21:55):
deep resonant one and a reallyintellectual one.
However, it was effing scary.
I'm not joking.
It was a bit like ly witchproject, which for me is like
the scariest film ever.
So the, the premise of the filmwas that back in.
In the 1940s, the whole townjust suddenly got up, got on a
path, a trail in the mountains,and they all walked on this
(22:16):
trail, and then they were allfound dead.
I, I mean, that's not exactlywhat happened, but I'm just
gonna give you that version.
Okay.
So, so this group, this likeyoung, enthusiastic group of
psychologists and this, youknow, um, students or whatever,
go and walk this path with acamera, with psychological
testing, videoing everything,and dah, dah, dah, to, to, to
(22:36):
investigate what happened.
And so.
I mean, you don't even need toknow.
Obviously it goes completelytits up and the whole, and, and
they start dying.
And so I, while we were watchingit, because I'm a neurodiverse
and I, a neuro divergent and Ihave to do this type of annoying
thing, I sat there with mylaptop Googling about the story
also because I wanted to checkthat it wasn't gonna be too much
(22:59):
for Arthur and for me.
And so I, I was reading about itwhilst we were watching it, and
actually I got lost in.
Amazing essays about it.
I mean, it's a very low budgetart arty type of film.
Um, and so I was happy for himto watch it because of that, but
it was terrifying and itreminded me of my spiritual
journey because so, so theexample, a lot of people on the
(23:23):
Reddit forums and stuff weresaying it's so frustrating'cause
you never find out why, like,why this path, this.
This trail kills people.
And a lot of the themes in itwere about like, well, this is
almost like, um, a warning tolike, when you go into a deep
exploration of the world'sunanswerable questions, like
it's a warning that all you'llbe left with is your own madness
(23:45):
because something's can't beexplained.
So I have just completely not,that is not verbatim what these
essays about the film say, butthat's the general gist.
It was like, stop looking foranswers and live in the here and
now.
That's how I read it.
There's an excellent essay aboutit.
Um, um, if, if you just Googlethe film and like some essays
(24:08):
about it, you'll see.
But anyway, it reminded me like,God, this is actually really
similar to a spiritual journeyin a way.
Because if you keep trying to,especially scientifically
explain the inexplicable, youwill go mad.
Uh, and so there is also an actof surrender and faith in going
on a journey.
(24:29):
Not knowing the outcome andbeing okay with the
unanswerable, right?
Like that's what I took from it.
Anyway, I, I don't wanna talkabout the film anymore'cause it
was so scary.
Honestly.
It was awful.
Um, but just suffice to say, Imean, I didn't go into that with
my son because I just think he'djust eye roll me.
Uh, and, but it reminded me oflike, it gave me the chills in
(24:53):
the same way that I get thechills sometimes in a
spirituality class where.
I sometimes slip into it and itscares me.
And that is what I used to getgrowing up.
I used to sit and think, oh myGod, like I'm a human having a
human experience looking outthrough these eyeballs, and one
day I'm gonna die.
(25:13):
And I used to just feel thischill of panic run through me
like an existential crisis, Iguess you could say.
I couldn't articulate that toanyone.
And I know, you know, you, youdon't, you just kind of get on
with it, don't you?
And just go, I mean, the only.
Time I ever used to explore anyof those thoughts or feelings
was, I guess, as a teenagersmoking weed or something like
(25:34):
that.
You know, you would kind of tryand articulate these feelings
and thoughts that you werehaving about what it is to be
alive.
And I guess that's whatspirituality does for me now I'm
sober.
It really is a fascinatingjourney into what all of this
means, and I think it'simportant, although it will send
(25:54):
you crazy if you spend too muchtime there.
It's important to detach, re.
Perusha because it's like youcan kind of say, like we said in
the class the other day, it'sall perrey baby.
Like it is just like drama.
Life is just drama and you canlet it go and just like enjoy
life for what it is, but alsowith a pinch of soul and a pinch
(26:17):
of like in the scheme of things,it gives you great perspective.
But see the wider themes in lifeare, which are like to learn
these lessons to love oneanother and to.
Recognize the innatespirituality and to recognize
that we are just not just, weare humans.
Having a, sorry, we are souls.
(26:39):
Having a human experience andhaving that perspective can be
really helpful because then itcan be really healing and not in
a dissociative disassociative,uh, way, but rather in a
reflective, observer way.
What it's helped me do, and thisis the key thing, so I'm
teaching some classes at.
At Sheffield Yoga Studio soon.
(27:00):
I'm really excited'cause it'slike the really good yoga studio
where I go.
So I feel like, oh my God,that's scary, but like great.
And so I had to fill in a littlebio where they ask you some
questions and it was like, whatis yoga to you?
Or something like that.
And, and I basically said whatI've just said, which is like, I
think it's just recognizing thatyour thoughts are not your own,
(27:20):
your thoughts are just like,your thoughts are just thoughts.
They're not you.
And so it's really helped meland in that more modern
mindfulness sense.
The idea.
That we, you are not yourthoughts.
Like this is reti.
This is a physicality that youcan separate from and just enjoy
the bliss of being alive.
And so I'm gonna leave it there.
(27:41):
That was a huge theme to talkabout and I don't know if I did
a very good job, uh, as ever.
I'm trying to just honor mytruth and honor where I'm at in
my own journey and my ownlimitations in my own strengths
and weaknesses.
And I'm trying really hard tostop worrying if anyone is
listening to this.
Like I'm not marketing it verymuch.
I need to do that more.
If you enjoy this, please,please, it would help me so much
(28:02):
if you leave a review.
I literally never do it.
I need to stop doing it forother peoples because it really
does make a difference for theperson who's made the podcast.
Um, so I've enjoyed talkingabout this so much, and I will
see you next time.
Okay, bye.
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