Practice You: A Personal Message from Elena Brower

    —
September 26, 2017

Dear friends,

 

You’ve been practicing you, your entire life. You have always been the author of your own experience. My new book, Practice You, is a journal, filled with over 150 pages to draw, write, and dream. It’s an invitation to become the author of a sacred text of your own design, an opportunity to write a personal field guide to your highest self.

Practice You contains a series of Explorations, one for each of the nine aspects of your being. Each Exploration begins with a meditation, a chance to contemplate from a new vantage point. Today I’ll share the Embody meditation with you, from the “I Am” Exploration that opens the book.

Begin by taking a moment to sit and get grounded. Place your hands on your thighs, palms down, and begin breathing, deeply and slowly. Sense the weight of your seat, and let your spine rise tall. Feel yourself embodied, present, and steady.

  • How do you define yourself?
  • What are the words you’d use to describe your current attitude about your life right now?
  • What’s the most visceral, urgent need you have right now in order to feel alive, happy, and at home in yourself?

With gratitude,

Elena Brower

P.S. Look for me on Sounds True Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter on Tuesday, September 26—we’ll be giving away copies of Practice You & much more!

Elena Brower

Elena Brower is a mama, author, teacher, and artist. Devoted to the healing practices of meditation, yoga, and contemplative writing, her journal Practice You is beloved worldwide. Her first book, Art of Attention, has now been translated into six languages, and her online coursework is highly regarded for bringing analog creativity to virtual spaces. She’s developed two audio programs with Sounds True, The Return Home and Grounded and Free. Listen to her renowned Practice You podcast at practiceyou.com, and experience yoga and meditation with Elena at glo.com.

Listen to Tami Simon's in-depth audio podcast interviews with Elena Brower:
I Lean on the Universe with My Honesty »
Following Your Homing Intuition »

Also By Author

3 Ways to Practice You This Holiday Season

Practicing being true to ourselves is a delicate dance of knowing ourselves, then respecting and serving that truth. This requires cultivation of both internal stability and external ease. How can we do this when we are surrounded by cultural chaos as well as our own family dramas? Here are three ways to Practice You this holiday season.

Write It Down

Set a timer for five to ten minutes; write who you are and where you’re going. Note every label and defining element of who you perceive yourself to be, and then note your vision for yourself next year, in five years and in ten years. Coming to know yourself will help you be steady when confronted, soft when you’d normally get agitated, and more kind at just the right times.

Sit With It

Nothing changes in an instant, and we can continuously and simply ask to be shown what the next step might be. If prayer is when we speak to our idea of a higher power, meditation is a moment to listen for healing, becomes a respite, a break in the day, a time to heal ourselves. Sit with it. Sit with what you learn when you listen a few minutes more.

Move More Slowly

One of the simplest ways I practice being myself is to simply slow down. I’ve learned this from every moment of deep loss, grief, or heartache–if i move more slowly, I won’t break. I can see what’s useful, what’s nourishing, what’s holy about this moment. Slowing down for myself helps me refine what I’m practicing and choosing in my life.

 

Elena Brower is a Mama, author of Practice You, yoga instructor, designer, and artist based in New York City. Devoted to cultivating meditation as our most healing habit, she’s created potent online coursework and produced On Meditation, a film featuring personal portraits of renowned meditators. For more, visit elenabrower.com.

Draw, Write, and Dream Your Way Home to Your Self

   “Home is not a place. Home is a state of consciousness..”    

 

“This is how worry becomes wisdom…”

 

“Consider your 33 year old self …”

Looking for more great reads?

 


Excerpted from Practice You by Elena Brower.

Elena Brower has been teaching yoga since 1998. After graduating from Cornell University with a design degree, she was a textile and apparel designer for six years. Having studied with several master yoga teachers for over a decade, Elena offers the practice of yoga globally as a way to approach our world with realistic reverence and gratitude. Her classes are a masterful, candid blend of artful alignment and attention cues for body, mind, and heart.

Practice You: A Personal Message from Elena Brower

Dear friends,

 

You’ve been practicing you, your entire life. You have always been the author of your own experience. My new book, Practice You, is a journal, filled with over 150 pages to draw, write, and dream. It’s an invitation to become the author of a sacred text of your own design, an opportunity to write a personal field guide to your highest self.

Practice You contains a series of Explorations, one for each of the nine aspects of your being. Each Exploration begins with a meditation, a chance to contemplate from a new vantage point. Today I’ll share the Embody meditation with you, from the “I Am” Exploration that opens the book.

Begin by taking a moment to sit and get grounded. Place your hands on your thighs, palms down, and begin breathing, deeply and slowly. Sense the weight of your seat, and let your spine rise tall. Feel yourself embodied, present, and steady.

  • How do you define yourself?
  • What are the words you’d use to describe your current attitude about your life right now?
  • What’s the most visceral, urgent need you have right now in order to feel alive, happy, and at home in yourself?

With gratitude,

Elena Brower

P.S. Look for me on Sounds True Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter on Tuesday, September 26—we’ll be giving away copies of Practice You & much more!

You Might Also Enjoy

Jim B. Tucker: Children’s Memories of Previous Lives

Explore the scientific evidence for reincarnation with renowned University of Virginia researcher Dr. Jim B. Tucker and host Tami Simon, as they reflect on the thousands of cases of children’s past-life memories.

Is the survival of a self beyond physical death just a wishful notion? For decades, psychiatrist and researcher Jim B. Tucker has continued the legendary work of Dr. Ian Stevenson to build a compelling case for the past-life experiences of more than 2,500 children—many of them supported by astonishing and verified evidence.

In this new Insights At The Edge episode, Dr. Tucker shares how this research raises profound implications about why we are here, and the very nature of consciousness and this reality.

Highlights:

  • The abundance of evidence for past lives and reincarnation
  • How these findings challenge the materialist worldview
  • “Consciousness is fundamental, and physical matter is derived from it.”
  • What these findings suggest about our purpose, here and now

Note: This interview originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.

Seane Corn and Lama Rod Owens: Steady Breath, Steady H...

How are you doing these days? Exhausted? Heartbroken? Outraged? All of the above? In this era of uncertainty and instability, you may feel like your only choice is to forge ahead and just get through the week. If so, this podcast with two beloved Sounds True authors was created just for YOU. Here, Tami Simon speaks with Seane Corn and Lama Rod Owens to hear their personal insights for navigating our rapidly-changing world from a place of deep connection to our most important values, to the people who give us strength, and to those with whom we may feel hopelessly divided.

Take a deep listen as they share about: Grounding yourself and returning to inner stability; the ongoing integration that’s needed in the post-Pandemic world; trauma, control, surrender, and liberation; honoring the natural cycles of life; dismantling systems of oppression and ushering in the selves we want to become; the power of raw truth; the skillful navigation of our grief, heartbreak, and outrage; becoming a New Saint; holding oneself accountable and continuing to do both your inner and outer work; reclaiming hope; reconnecting to your community of beloveds; the bodhisattva tradition; activism today; showing up instead of giving up; self-elevation and self-validation; and more.

Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.

Yuria Celidwen, PhD: “Flourishing Is a Gradual U...

Dr. Yuria Celidwen is at the forefront of a historic expansion in the field of contemplative science—or the study of inner practices like meditation, prayer, and mindfulness. Until recently, researchers have primarily focused on major religious traditions such as Buddhism or Christianity. Today, Dr. Celidwen is bringing the long-overdue perspective of Indigenous cultures into the discussion. In this podcast, Sounds True founder Tami Simon speaks with Dr. Celidwen about her new book, Flourishing Kin: Indigenous Wisdom for Collective Well-Being

Tune in for this invigorating conversation exploring: Yuria’s definition of flourishing as a gradual unfolding of aesthetic arrest; cultivating an embodied sense of your interconnection with all of creation; why Indigenous perspectives are vital for solving the climate crisis; honoring spirit, the animating principle of life; a deeper understanding of health; the direct experience of “moments of truth”; sunshine as a seed of awareness; the core right of self-determination; relating to Indigeneity respectfully; the possibility of collective flourishing; and more.

Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.

  • Joyce Hoff says:

    How do I purchase this book? It sounds like an amazing self expression manual for living your true life.

  • >
    Share via
    Copy link
    Powered by Social Snap