Amy Thiessen is , among many other things, is a yoga teacher and a musician. She’s melded her two passions into one beautiful craft. Her talents are extensive, but her best known music in the yoga community are of mantra and prayer. She mixes her captivating voice with alluring soundscapes to create space that’s perfect for internal exploration. Like with so many others, it has been (and still is) quite a journey with this Yoga. There's an exceptional story to be told. In this episode she shares her story and we talk philosophy, mythology and mantras. In specific, how philosophies in yoga correlate with modern day psychology, the power of story telling to help us relate to ourselves, and the visceral effects of mantras. Get those earbuds into your ears and listen in!
Key Nuggets:
- Amy on life and living: Our lives are a collection of moments. Each moment is like poking a pencil through a piece of paper. A little more light is let in with each moment until everything becomes translucent.
- Project Sundari is a project that Amy started where she uses her music to help people connect their world, pulling all the the pieces of yourself together so that you can just be and be whole.
- On Love: based on the Brahmavarta, you don’t need to love the world all at once. Begin by loving what is easy to love. Love internally. Begin by loving the parts of you that are easiest to love. Then love the places where you were wounded. Compassion toward ourselves allows us practice compassion with others. It will allow us to see that sometimes other people are wounded too.
- Change takes time. The first step is to become aware, then we observe our behavior in this awareness. Finally, we may choose to change the behavior if we wish.
- On Mythology: Stories allow us to utilize stories to explain psychological aspects. It's what makes the information rich and relatable.
- Amy shares with us her favorite story - The birth of Lakshmi, Goddess of Wealth & Beauty. The story depicts how going into the depths of ourselves allows us to uncover a deeper beauty than ever before. Plug in those earbuds to listen to this captivating story!
- A mantra is a mind vehicle. A place where you can place tour mind so that you can find presence
- Each sound of the mantra correlates with one of the 50 petals of your bottom Chakras
- Each mantra has a different resonance so different mantras are used to achieve different desired outcomes
- How to use mantras:
- Choose a mantra that will cultivate what you're looking for (ex. grounding, connection, manifestation....)
- You can sing, chant along or quietly listen to the mantra
- Can use a mala to help repeat the mantras. The audacious number is 108. What does 108 mean? Well, one variation of the explanation is that 1=the oneness that we are, 0=the circle of life, 8=infinity, the eternal flow of life.
- Mantras to try:
- So Hum: "I am that". Inhale “so”, exhale “hum”. An excellent basic one to begin with
- Gayatri Mantra: A very popular and beautiful mantra to help you come back into your spirit and come back to listening to self
One of Your Biggest Lessons So Far:
There’s no one big lesson. There’s no one big thing. It’s about everyday, every moment, doing the best we can and allowing ourselves to make mistakes and learning to hold ourselves in a way that honors who we are.
Links:
If you have any questions for Amy or want to learn more, connect with her through:
Website: www.amythiessen.com
Instagram: amythiessenlive
Facebook: facebok.com/amythiessenlive