Brenda L. Feuerstein

03/17/2026

My next online retreat experience is on Sunday, May 3!
Yoga for Brain Health one day retreat.

Early bird price until April 15th and 90 days access to the recordings after the retreat.

This one-day online retreat will focus on brain health by combining specialized gentle movement, meditation, breathwork, and neuroscience to enhance cognitive function, boost memory, and reduce stress.

03/13/2026

There are are a couple of spots left for the Somatic Movement Online Retreat!

Join me on Sunday, March 15 for a one-day Somatic Movement online retreat! If you're unable to make the live event you'll have access to the recording for a full 90 day.
Early bird pricing is until March 8, 2026

This one-day online retreat will focus on restoring a sense of balance while creating more fluidity and ease in your body and mind with gentle somatic movements, breathwork, meditation, and journaling.

03/12/2026

Hearing the news that Lilias Folan had died made me pause and think about some of my early years. Some Yoga practitioners may not recognize her name but she was the reason why millions of people started practicing Yoga in the US and Canada many years ago.

Here’s a poem I wrote about Lilias, and in the comments I’ve added a link to a lovely interview.

***

Lilias, Who Taught the Morning to Breathe

In a quieter decade of television light,
when living rooms held s**g carpets
and kettles hummed like soft mantras,
a gentle voice appeared between the channels,
not loud, not dazzling,
but steady as breath.

It was Lilias Folan
sitting calmly on the floor
as if the whole world
had simply paused
to stretch.

She did not command the body
like a drill sergeant of flexibility.
She invited it.

“Come along,” she seemed to say,
as shoulders softened
and spines remembered
they were made to sway
like young trees.

Through the glow of Lilias, Yoga and You
she slipped ancient wisdom
into the ordinary morning
between toast crumbs
and the newspaper.

Somewhere,
a grandmother tried her first forward fold.
A truck driver sat cross-legged
and laughed at himself.
A child imitated the cat stretch
with perfect seriousness.

Lilias smiled through it all,
like someone who knew
the body was not a problem to fix
but a friend
we had simply forgotten to visit.

She spoke of breath
the way poets speak of rivers,
always moving,
always patient,
always returning us
to ourselves.

And long before Yoga mats
became a fashion
or studios bloomed on every block,
she planted quiet seeds
in living rooms across a continent.

“Be kind to yourself,”
her voice would say,
as if that were the most natural thing
in the world.

And perhaps it is.

Now the decades stretch behind her
like a long, beautiful pose,
not perfect,
not rigid,
but alive.

Somewhere a student still hears
that warm Midwestern kindness
in the back of the mind...

Lift gently.
Breathe slowly.
Smile if you wobble.

Because the practice,
as Lilias always knew,
was never really about touching the toes…

it was about touching life
with curiosity,
with humour,
and with a heart
wide open
like the morning sky.

Brenda Feuerstein

03/01/2026

There are are few spots left for the Somatic Movement Online Retreat!

Join me on Sunday, March 15 for a one-day Somatic Movement online retreat! If you're unable to make the live event you'll have access to the recording for a full 90 day.
Early bird pricing is until March 8, 2026

This one-day online retreat will focus on restoring a sense of balance while creating more fluidity and ease in your body and mind with gentle somatic movements, breathwork, meditation, and journaling.

10/02/2025

Sometimes I miss in-person teaching and other times I’m more than happy with my simple cave life and Zoom classes. For me they both have their pluses and minuses but my personality is such that I prefer to focus on the positives it brings to my life and the lives of the people who join me in practice and study.

Several years ago, a dear friend, Marcy, had a fabulous retreat centre just outside of Saskatoon and I regularly had events there. One of my favourites was leading a K*m Nye Yoga practice which most people had never even heard of. I’d offer a short talk and then we’d practice and end the session with tea and treats, and conversation. Life seemed very simple in those moments.

To this day, K*m Nye Yoga remains one of my favourite practices, and I’m positive it’ll stay in my life, in some form, til I die.

I’m thrilled to announce that this weekend a small group of students begin their deep dive into this practice. They’ll learn 115 practices, full body self-massage, philosophy, and more! I’m so excited to be on this journey with all of them.

"Kindly lead your attention to make contact with your inner experience. Enter the sensations as if entering through a door . . . into a whole new way of being."
Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche

*Photo by Marcy at a K*m Nye Yoga event held at her beautiful retreat centre.

10/01/2025

While I know death is a given I am so deeply saddened to learn that Jane Goodall died today. She's been such a positive role model for so many people around the world, and knowing her physical presence is gone feels like a gigantic hole in my heart.

I am picturing all the beings - human animals and non-human animals - grieving this loss. May we all find ways to care deeply like Jane did, and may we be strong, compassionate advocates for the health and welfare of non-human animals, human animals, and the environment.

08/29/2025

There are certain moments in time that seem so incredibly beautiful. A couple of years ago while our Yoga teacher training group was reciting the Bhagavad-Gītā I was tearing up. My heart felt so incredibly full and the moment seemed beautifully suspended in time.

If you know me you also know how much I love this text and how hard I fought to have our translation and commentary look and feel the way it does. I felt like Arjuna many times in the publishing process!

Today, this made me cry....

If the splendour of a thousand suns were to arise at once in the sky, that would be like the splendour of that Great Self. (11.12)

Georg Feuerstein,

Traditional Yoga Studies - Georg Feuerstein and Brenda Feuerstein

08/27/2025

Genuine love asks for nothing in return, though it always works toward duplicating itself in others. Thus, the greatest reward for one who practices the discipline of love is that another being has been illumined by that love and is now carrying that gift to others.

~ from SACRED PATHS by Georg Feuerstein

08/26/2025

Thirteen Years and My Heart

At 9:10 tonight it will have been thirteen years . . . Time is such a strange friend when it comes to love and loss. I never really know how it will knock on my door. Every year comes and goes and the scent of Georg remains. I’m not really sure how that works but I can still smell him . . . the brain holds the strangest things.

So much time has passed but there are still times when I can’t believe he’s gone. Maybe he’s returned and I’ve held him as a baby, or maybe I’ve walked past him on the street and he smiled from his stroller, and maybe he isn’t near me but we’re breathing the same air, or maybe there’s something else I haven’t considered. The fact is don’t know and I’m okay with that.

What I know is he walks with me, and he seems to be scattered all over the globe in so many beautiful ways. People email me and say they had a dream about him, they tell me they listened to one of his audios and felt like he was sitting with them, or they watched a documentary with him in it, or did a training or workshop where his name came up, or they read a book and feel so connected to him. How can that be? He’s dead, but also still so alive. At the end of the day it means he’s everywhere and that warms my heart.

People who are closest to me know that I morph this time of year as my body and mind fold into itself for comfort and ease. My heart aches in both painful and beautiful ways, my body becomes tired, and physical stillness takes over as I am guided to feel to a depth I haven’t felt before. It feels healing, creative, painful, and joy-filled all in one. I feel content to “just be” in the moment of grief as it washes through me over and over again.

Some people still tell me to find a new partner and it will be easier, while others tell me not to do that because it would be too difficult…for that person. It’s confusing being human and sometimes I just want to run and hide away with my dog, CC, and cry until it’s all over. I know life is meant to be lived and I do that as fully as I can but I also know life ends…abruptly, and the living can feel like they’re left standing on the edge of the cliff on a gale-force windy day. I feel like I’ve been there on that cliff far too often.

So, here I am today, sitting in all my rawness and being present for whatever arises. I refuse to keep myself busy because it’ll come out tomorrow or the day after or the day after that. During the past thirteen years I’ve learned that in the hardest ways I could possibly imagine and hopefully for the last time. I’ve learned that the busier I become in my body and mind the less likely I am guided by introspection based on discernment. Like eating an apple only part way we never really get to see the seeds that bring about growth. We enjoy the apple for its taste but don’t acknowledge its true nature. I think busyness is like this too. We jump from pleasure to pleasure or stimulation to stimulation without going inward to see our relationship with them and therefore never really get to the “seeds” in our life.

As Georg’s wisdom drifts through my body I recognize how much “missing” is still present and also how happy I am that I was with him when he transitioned. I wish for no one to go through loss but as loss is inevitable may it be in the presence of love. May we all be held in our final hours and may the deep inner sound guide us in life and in death.

So here is a huge thank-you to my daughter, Chandra, all my friends, family, spiritual family, and social media friends who I haven’t met in person yet (and just for the record I’d really like to hug you) Many of you have supported me in ways I can’t express well here but you know who you are and your actions in body, speech, and mind have never gone unnoticed. A huge thank you to all those people who understand me and honour my sensitivity and emotions instead of ridiculing me about them. A huge thank you to all those who walk with me on this path we call “living life” and especially those who understand “stillness” and have encouraged me along the way. Lastly, palms together to my spiritual teachers who are always there for me and often call me when they know I’m struggling.

In memory of Georg Feuerstein (May 27, 1947 – August 25, 2012)

10/19/2024

My weekend reading.

"Han explores how modern life, characterized by hyper-individualism, capitalism, and relentless productivity, contributes to feelings of exhaustion and disconnection."

If you're interested in reading this book, check out your local library (digitally or in-person), your local bookstore, or check it out at this link: https://amzn.to/3NwYWC4

09/10/2024

I will never have
this version of me again
let me slow down
and be with her

- always evolving

- Rupi Kaur

08/23/2024

It’s that time of year! Twenty three more Yoga teacher trainings are using my translation and commentary of the Yoga-Sutras!

If you’d like that option for your training, contact me through our website below or send me a message and we’ll get you set up!

https://traditionalyogastudies.com/product/the-yoga-sutra-from-a-womans-perspective/