Shownotes
Welcome to Day 1 of International Week of Yoga: Movement, Meditation, Spirit & the Divine Feminine.
In this opening episode, we begin with one of the most important questions: What is yoga?
Yoga is often seen in modern culture as stretching, fitness, flexibility, or physical exercise. But the deeper meaning of yoga is much more sacred and expansive. The word yoga is often translated as union, connection, or yoking together. It is the practice of bringing together the body, breath, mind, spirit, and the Divine.
In this episode, Bertena introduces yoga as a spiritual, philosophical, and embodied practice. You will be invited to explore yoga beyond the poses and begin seeing it as a path of self-awareness, healing, devotion, liberation, and sacred connection.
This episode is especially supportive for beginners, spiritual seekers, women on the Divine Feminine path, and anyone who has ever felt that yoga was not accessible to them.
You do not have to be flexible, young, thin, athletic, experienced, or perfect to practice yoga. Yoga can meet you exactly where you are.
Yoga can be practiced through movement, breathwork, meditation, mantra, prayer, Yoga Nidra, somatic movement, chair yoga, bed yoga, and sacred rest.
At its heart, yoga is the practice of returning home to yourself.
In This Episode, You’ll Explore
- The deeper meaning of the word yoga
- Yoga as union, connection, and coming home to yourself
- How yoga connects body, breath, mind, spirit, and the Divine
- Why yoga is more than stretching or exercise
- Yoga as a complete spiritual system
- Yoga as a path of self-awareness, healing, discipline, and liberation
- Why yoga does not require flexibility, youth, thinness, or perfection
- How accessible yoga can include chair yoga, bed yoga, somatic yoga, breathwork, meditation, mantra, and Yoga Nidra
- How yoga can support the Divine Feminine and priestess path
- A simple closing breath practice and affirmation
Spiritual Reflection
Yoga is the practice of returning home to yourself.
Yoga does not ask you to become someone else. It invites you to return to your breath, your body, your spirit, your intuition, and your inner truth.
Journal Prompt
Where in my life do I feel disconnected from my body, breath, spirit, or inner truth?
Take time after the episode to write, meditate, pull a card, or simply sit with this question.
Closing Practice
Take three slow breaths and repeat:
I return to myself.
I honor my body.
I welcome peace.
Links
Listen to the podcast:
https://www.bertena.org/en/podcast
View the full International Week of Yoga schedule:
https://bertena.ezycourse.com/en/international-week-of-yoga
Keywords
What is yoga, meaning of yoga, yoga beyond the poses, International Day of Yoga, International Week of Yoga, yoga as spiritual practice, yoga for beginners, accessible yoga, somatic yoga, chair yoga, bed yoga, Yoga Nidra, breathwork, meditation, mantra, Divine Feminine yoga, priestess path, sacred embodiment, yoga for mind body soul, spiritual yoga podcast, Bertena, The Spiritual Sanctuary Podcast
🎧 Listen & Subscribe
Find Spiritual Sanctuary: Wisdom for the Divine Feminine on Spotify and all major podcast platforms.
👉 https://open.spotify.com/show/1pNkD0FKF4TpgzcRFQQrhA
Subscribe to my newsletter here
Help Support the Sanctuary here
🤍 Podcast Sponsor: Cosmic Connections Nashville
This episode is proudly sponsored by Cosmic Connections, a beloved metaphysical shop and spiritual community in Nashville.
🎁 Listener perks:
- Discounts on online purchases use bertenapodcast10 for 10% off
- Entry into a gift card drawing when you comment on the episode or share it on social media and tag @bertena11
Supporting Cosmic Connections helps sustain a heart-centered spiritual space for seekers, healers, and practitioners.
👉 Visit Cosmic Connections:
Transcripts
International Week of Yoga: Movement, Meditation, Spirit & the Divine Feminine
Day 1: What Is Yoga? The Deeper Meaning Beyond the Poses
Hello and welcome to The Spiritual Sanctuary: Wisdom for the Divine Feminine.
I’m Bertena, Priestess and Spiritual Coach, and I am so excited to welcome you to Day 1 of our special series, International Week of Yoga: Movement, Meditation, Spirit & the Divine Feminine.
This 8-day podcast series is being created in honor of International Day of Yoga, which is celebrated on June 21. But this year, I wanted to go deeper than just one day. I wanted to take an entire week to explore yoga as a sacred practice, a healing practice, a spiritual path, and a way of coming home to ourselves.
So for the next 8 days, we are going to explore yoga from many different angles. We will talk about the history of yoga, the limbs of yoga, the paths of yoga, different styles of yoga, yoga for healing the mind, body, and soul, and how yoga connects with the Divine Feminine and the priestess path.
But today, on Day 1, we are beginning with a simple but very powerful question:
What is yoga?
And more specifically:
What is yoga beyond the poses?
Because for many people, especially in modern Western culture, yoga is often seen as stretching. Or exercise. Or something you do to become more flexible. Or something that requires you to be thin, young, fit, bendy, graceful, peaceful, and already good at it before you even begin.
But that is not the heart of yoga.
Yoga is not just about touching your toes.
Yoga is not just about doing a perfect pose.
Yoga is not just about wearing the right clothes, having the right mat, or knowing all the Sanskrit words.
Yoga is not about performing spirituality.
At its heart, yoga is about union.
The word yoga is often translated as union, connection, or to yoke together. It points to the idea of bringing together what has felt separated. It is the union of body and breath. Mind and spirit. Movement and stillness. Self and Divine. Inner world and outer life.
Yoga asks us to come back into relationship with ourselves.
It invites us to notice where we are disconnected.
Disconnected from the body.
Disconnected from the breath.
Disconnected from intuition.
Disconnected from peace.
Disconnected from the Divine.
Disconnected from our own inner truth.
And then, gently, breath by breath, practice by practice, yoga helps us return.
That is why I love the phrase:
Yoga is the practice of returning home to yourself.
Not becoming someone else.
Not forcing yourself into a pose.
Not judging your body.
Not competing with the person next to you.
Not trying to prove that you are spiritual enough.
Returning.
Returning to the breath.
Returning to the body.
Returning to the present moment.
Returning to your inner wisdom.
Returning to the sacred within you.
This is why yoga is so much deeper than physical movement.
Yes, yoga can include movement. It can include stretching, strengthening, balancing, and opening the body. But movement is only one doorway.
Yoga can also be breathwork.
Yoga can be meditation.
Yoga can be chanting.
Yoga can be mantra.
Yoga can be devotion.
Yoga can be prayer.
Yoga can be self-study.
Yoga can be sacred rest.
Yoga can be service.
Yoga can be silence.
Yoga can be the way you live, speak, listen, love, and respond to the world around you.
Yoga is a complete spiritual system. It is a path of self-awareness, discipline, healing, liberation, and connection.
And when I say discipline, I do not mean punishment. I do not mean forcing yourself. I do not mean shaming yourself into a practice.
Spiritual discipline is devotion.
It is the gentle choice to keep returning.
To keep listening.
To keep breathing.
To keep remembering who you are underneath the noise.
Yoga teaches us that the body is not separate from the soul.
This is so important, especially for those of us walking a spiritual path.
Sometimes spirituality is taught as if the body is something to escape. As if the body is lower than the spirit. As if the body is a problem, a distraction, or an obstacle.
But yoga reminds us that the body can be a temple.
The breath can be prayer.
Movement can be meditation.
Stillness can be healing.
Your body is not something you have to defeat in order to become spiritual. Your body is one of the places where your spiritual practice begins.
And this is where yoga becomes such a beautiful practice for the mind, body, and soul.
For the mind, yoga helps us slow down. It gives us a way to observe our thoughts without becoming completely consumed by them. It teaches us to pause before reacting. It teaches us to create space.
For the body, yoga invites us to listen. To notice tension. To notice numbness. To notice where we hold stress. To notice what feels supportive and what does not. Yoga helps us build a relationship with the body based on compassion instead of criticism.
For the soul, yoga opens a doorway into deeper connection. It invites us to ask: Who am I beneath the roles I play? Who am I beneath the stress, the expectations, the fear, and the busyness? What is my spirit longing for?
This is why yoga can meet people exactly where they are.
You do not have to be flexible to practice yoga.
You do not have to be young to practice yoga.
You do not have to be thin to practice yoga.
You do not have to be athletic to practice yoga.
You do not have to be calm before you begin.
You do not have to know how to meditate.
You do not have to have a perfect spiritual practice.
You do not have to be anyone other than who you are in this moment.
Yoga is not reserved for one body type, one age, one personality, one culture of modern wellness, or one idea of what a “yoga person” looks like.
Yoga belongs to the seeker.
The beginner.
The tired one.
The grieving one.
The curious one.
The anxious one.
The person starting over.
The person who feels disconnected.
The person who wants to breathe again.
The person who wants to feel at home in their own body.
And this is why accessible yoga is so important to me.
Yoga can happen in a studio, yes.
But yoga can also happen in a chair.
Yoga can happen from your bed.
Yoga can happen on your couch.
Yoga can happen through slow somatic movement.
Yoga can happen through three mindful breaths.
Yoga can happen through Yoga Nidra, where you are lying down and being guided into deep rest.
Yoga can happen through mantra, where you repeat sacred words or sounds.
Yoga can happen through prayer, journaling, meditation, or simply placing your hand on your heart and saying, “I am here.”
There is no one single way to begin.
And that is one of the reasons I wanted to begin this podcast series with the deeper meaning of yoga. Because if we only see yoga as physical poses, we may think it is not for us. We may think we are not flexible enough, not strong enough, not peaceful enough, not experienced enough, not disciplined enough.
But when we understand yoga as connection, everything opens.
Suddenly, breath becomes yoga.
Stillness becomes yoga.
Rest becomes yoga.
Listening becomes yoga.
Self-compassion becomes yoga.
Returning to your body after years of ignoring it becomes yoga.
Saying no when your spirit is tired becomes yoga.
Choosing peace over chaos becomes yoga.
Honoring your intuition becomes yoga.
Living with greater awareness becomes yoga.
That is yoga beyond the poses.
And for those on the Divine Feminine path, yoga can become especially powerful.
The Divine Feminine is deeply connected to embodiment, intuition, cycles, receptivity, creativity, compassion, and sacred inner wisdom. Yoga helps us connect to these qualities not just as ideas, but as lived experiences.
When we breathe deeply, we connect to life force.
When we move gently, we connect to the wisdom of the body.
When we meditate, we connect to inner listening.
When we rest, we honor receptivity.
When we practice with devotion, we remember that the sacred is not somewhere far away. It is here. In this breath. In this body. In this moment.
This is why yoga can be a priestess practice.
Not because we are performing something perfect or mystical, but because we are entering the temple of the body with reverence.
We are listening.
We are honoring.
We are becoming present.
We are connecting the earthly and the spiritual.
We are remembering that the Divine can be experienced through breath, movement, stillness, and awareness.
And that brings us back to the main reflection for today:
Yoga is the practice of returning home to yourself.
So I want to invite you to pause for a moment and ask yourself:
Where do I feel disconnected?
Do I feel disconnected from my body?
Do I feel disconnected from my breath?
Do I feel disconnected from my spirit?
Do I feel disconnected from my intuition?
Do I feel disconnected from my inner truth?
Do I feel disconnected from the Divine?
And instead of judging the answer, simply notice it.
Awareness is the beginning of practice.
You do not have to fix everything today.
You do not have to transform your whole life in one moment.
You simply begin by noticing.
And then you breathe.
That is enough for today.
As we move through this 8-day series, I invite you to let go of the idea that yoga has to look a certain way.
Let this series be an invitation.
An invitation to explore.
An invitation to soften.
An invitation to learn.
An invitation to reconnect.
An invitation to honor your body.
An invitation to deepen your spiritual practice.
An invitation to come home to yourself.
Before we close today, I want to guide you through a very simple practice.
You can do this seated, standing, lying down, in a chair, on the floor, or wherever you are. If you are driving or doing something that requires your attention, simply listen and return to this practice later.
Begin by noticing your breath.
You do not need to change it yet.
Just notice.
Notice the inhale.
Notice the exhale.
Notice your body being supported.
Now take one slow breath in.
And slowly release it.
Take another slow breath in.
And slowly release it.
Take one more slow breath in.
And slowly release it.
Now silently or softly repeat after me:
I return to myself.
Take a breath.
I honor my body.
Take a breath.
I welcome peace.
Take a breath.
Again:
I return to myself.
I honor my body.
I welcome peace.
Let those words settle into your body.
Let them become an invitation.
Let them become your first practice of this week.
Your journal prompt for today is:
Where in my life do I feel disconnected from my body, breath, spirit, or inner truth?
You may want to write about this after the episode. You may want to sit with it in meditation. You may want to pull a card, light a candle, or simply take a few breaths and listen.
Thank you for joining me for Day 1 of International Week of Yoga: Movement, Meditation, Spirit & the Divine Feminine.
Tomorrow, we will continue with a gentle introduction to the history of yoga, exploring its ancient roots, sacred teachings, and how this beautiful practice has evolved over time.
Until then, may you remember that yoga is not about becoming perfect.
It is about becoming present.
It is about connection.
It is about returning home.
With love,
I’m Bertena, and this is The Spiritual Sanctuary.
