From the Heart with Rachel Brathen

Tune in to this episode and take a deep exhale as Rachel begins with a grounding meditation before diving into the topic of today: our relationships. Connecting with others lies at the root of this human experience. Our relationships with our loved ones can lift us up and carry us through incredibly difficult times. But, what can relationships with those who challenge us teach us? 2020 is bringing...

Are you struggling with finding your purpose in life, staying positive, or looking for changes to make in order to improve your spiritual health? You are not alone! This week Rachel is joined by former monk, meditation teacher, motivational speaker and author Jay Shetty. Jay offers valuable spiritual insight into the mindset of a monk, how to infuse your life with purpose, passion, compassion, and...

Today’s episode begins with a heart-centred meditation on acknowledging the feelings you are experiencing in this moment. Human beings are complex emotional creatures with the ability to feel many things at once, but sometimes it is hard to distinguish between them all - unless we really sit with our emotions and bring them to surface. This meditation is much needed by Rachel as she dives into tod...

Rachel’s life has been turned upside down lately in a way she cannot fully describe. In today’s episode, she recounts the story that unfolded in the past week after she was ‘cancelled’ online. Although she feels as if she is going through a process of mourning, she is having difficulty pinpointing exactly what it is she is mourning, and the purpose behind it.  Her family is safe. The Yoga Girl com...

Following the recent Aruban backlash from a social media post of Rachel’s, Rachel and Dennis are facing a situation they have never experienced before: feeling unwelcome and unsafe in their own home. In today’s episode, Dennis interviews Rachel to discuss the entire series of events that have unfolded. After living in Aruba for 10 years, having residency, being married to an Aruban, promoting the...

Are you feeling like you are perpetually living in a state of not knowing? You are not alone! As the world struggles through this pandemic, nothing is certain, and no one really has any answers. The best we can do is take good care of ourselves, hold each other up, and listen to Rachel and Dennis try to work through it on the Yoga Girl podcast.  This week’s episode features Rachel’s husband, the m...

As students and teachers we have a responsibility to look at who is missing in our yoga classes, healing circles and retreats. Healing tools should be available to all! Making a change begins with recognizing just how far we are from equity and diversity in the wellness industry - and taking active steps toward change, every day. This week Rachel is joined by the fantastically fierce Nicole Cardoz...

Life is full of so much doing. We move quickly through our day, from working to planning to organizing to… more doing. Even as this year forced us all to slow down, we didn’t stop ‘doing’. We cooked, baked, organized our homes, or started new projects. But have you ever stopped ‘doing’ for a moment to ask yourself why? What is the real motive behind your inability to be really, truly still? In thi...

We spend so much time in our armor, protecting ourselves with layers and layers of conditioning. If we do not have our needs met as children, if we are not seen, heard, appreciated or loved, we subconsciously begin to develop a resilience, an armor of protection. We seek to have our needs met elsewhere and develop coping mechanisms to be healed later in life. In this episode, Rachel reflects on th...

After everything that has occurred in 2020, there is no going back to the way things were. We have to do better and be better to ourselves. The only way through is to listen to our inner truth and show up for ourselves in a radical way. The world has intensified, so make sure your healing practices align along with it! Perhaps the old, comfortable practices you’ve had before no longer serve your d...

This is a time in history when we finally acknowledge the problems we have as a society. For as long as we live, we will remember 2020 as a year of huge change. But - is it enough? There are no quick fixes for issues that have been hundreds of years in the making. There is a beautiful collective healing that is beginning right now, but ultimately, it all comes from within each of us. We cannot be...

The past few months have given us a glimpse of what the world has the potential to be – a world where we work and commute less, where we have more time in our day to take care of ourselves, and most importantly: where justice is for all. In a world that rewards you for putting work and the idea of success above all else, the pursuit of joy and the practice of self-care is a radical tool of resista...

How many times have you thought that racism was perpetrated by a select group of ‘bad’ people, that you were completely separate from it, or even that racism didn’t exist at all? The truth is, as white people we have inherent biases and prejudices within us and whether we like it or not, we benefit from that privilege every day. Once our eyes are open to our privilege and to the injustice that com...

With the current climate of the world, many of us may be noticing little things that we have never realized before. Little things that are actually big things, from the voices we elevate in the media to the color of bandaids. In this episode, Rachel starts by touching on the Black Lives Matter movement from the place of a learner, an observer, and a listener - as all white people should be doing r...

Today’s episode features three guest hosts, Dianne Bondy, Maite Onochie, and Rocky Heron, all guides on the yogagirl.com platform and voices from the Black community. Coming from different global perspectives, they share their views on how they see the world right now - and how the world has seen them. Offering up their deep wisdom on everything from white supremacy, complacency and allyship, this...

In this episode, Rachel finds herself in a place of shame after realizing she has gained weight during quarantine. But here’s the thing - she felt no shame at all, in fact she felt great in her body, until she stepped on a scale. What was it inside of her that caused that shift?  This pandemic has brought with it a lot of change, and many of us are seeing changes in our physical bodies. The minute...

In this episode, Rachel reflects on the patterns and relationships that haven’t been serving her throughout her life. There is one common thread between them all: she played a role in the decision making. The pace of her life, the people she invited into it, and the work she focused on was ultimately decided by her. What if this is true for all of us? Are we are all actively playing a part in the...

How often has your intuition warned you that the exchange (physical or energetic!) between you and another individual was unfair, unbalanced or absolutely exhausting? More importantly, how often have you ignored your intuition to benefit that other individual’s needs before your own? In today’s episode, Rachel discusses the importance of setting and keeping boundaries for the sake of your own ment...

We are all subjected to one ultimate truth of life: nothing is permanent. Plants, people, jobs, relationships, and homes – everything that surrounds us is fragile and fleeting. In this week’s episode, Rachel has been watching her garden be assaulted by lizards, dogs, white flies, mildew and a multitude of other challenges, and she is suddenly hit with the realization that her garden represents a m...

We are on the cusp of a major life transition. We can choose to stray away from ourselves, or we can make decisions that put us in alignment with our soul’s true calling. But how can we know what that calling is? In today’s episode, Rachel reflects on the times in her life when she felt actual peace and genuine happiness. She realizes that all of those times have a common thread - they were the ti...

Being human is messy! We are intricate, deeply emotional beings with the ability to feel so many things - and so many conflicting things - at the same time. We swing on a pendulum between productivity and numbing ourselves, between giving too much and shutting people out, between our ego and our soul taking control in the driver’s seat. But - it is all okay. This is exactly what doing the work loo...

Are you struggling with feelings of anxiety or is your nervous system exhausted from being stuck in fight or flight? In this time of quarantine, we may have found ourselves with the opportunity to explore our inner landscape and do some deep self-healing work, and that is exactly what this week’s episode is about! This week’s show is a perceptive and resourceful conversation between Rachel and hol...

How are you doing in quarantine? Have you asked yourself that question lately, and then allowed yourself to sit with the answer? Are you having a hard time being present with your surroundings?  In this week’s episode, Rachel unpacks the collective quarantine experience of slowing down, removing distractions and doing our inner work. While being faced with that regardless of the social isolation,...

This week’s episode is a special one as Rachel has on the ultimate guest, her hilarious and down to earth husband, Dennis Schoneveld! Rachel and Dennis are recording from Aruba on their 10th wedding anniversary as they have found themselves at home, like the rest of us.  Tune in as they discuss everything a husband and wife would discuss during this time of isolation, from how they reacted to Luna...

Tune in today as Rachel shares more than ten of her best tips to bring normalcy to your day, to move stagnant energy, and to clear your mind of repetitive thoughts so you can get through this period of isolation feeling whole. From doing yoga to making your bed, these small, day-to-day practices can keep you healthy and grounded in a time filled with so much uncertainty and loss of structure. The...