Less is More: Embracing Personalized Yoga, Healthy Habits, and Breathwork with Brett Larkin

Christine Li  0:01  
Welcome back to the Make Time for Success podcast. This is episode number 161. 

Have you ever wondered how you might be able to incorporate more calm ease and movement into your daily life? Even when you're feeling like you're busier than ever? Well, my special guest Brett Larkin is here with me today to share with us how you can do just that. You'll learn not only so many different interesting facts about the history of yoga, coming to the west, but you'll also discover how you can make yoga and your breathwork tools for your everyday wellness and healing. I learned so much from Brett I'm so grateful for all the wisdom that she shared inside this episode. Brett Larkin is the founder of Uplifted Yoga and the author of Yoga Life, Habits, Poses and Breathwork to Channel Joy Amidst The Chaos. Her online yoga teacher trainings have set the standard for quality online certification since 2015, and matriculated 1000s of yoga teachers. Brett's award winning YouTube channel with over half a million subscribers and Uplifted Yoga Podcast empower you to actively design your life using yoga as ancient wisdom. Yoga enthusiasts love her courses on Kundalini Yoga, prenatal yoga, and the Uplifted Yoga Academy. Learn more about her at bretlarkin.com. Now it's time to go explore yoga movement, life and healing with Brett now.

Hi, I'm Dr. Christine Li, and I'm a psychologist and a procrastination coach. I've helped 1000s of people move past procrastination and overwhelm so they can begin working to their potential. In this podcast, you're going to learn powerful strategies for getting your mind, body and energy to work together so that you can focus on what's really important and accomplish the goals you want to achieve. When you start living within your full power, you're going to see how being productive can be easy, and how you can create success on demand. Welcome to the Make Time for Success podcast. 

Hi, my friends. I am Dr. Christine Li. And today I'm joined by the lovely and very, very talented and generous Brett Larkin. I know her not in person, although we're sitting across the screen from each other as we record, but I know her from the sound in my own house as my husband has been. And I have been fans of her work. But my husband is more than a yogi in the house. Brett Larkin is a Yoga expert. And now she is the brand new author of the book Yoga Life Habits Poses and Breathwork to Channel Joy Amidst The Chaos. And I wanted to welcome Brett to the show. And we're going to talk all about this fabulous book. Welcome to the show.

Brett Larkin  3:11  
Thank you so much for having me. And thank you to your husband for practicing with me on youtube for so many years. Yes, yes,

Christine Li  3:17  
you've got a clear voice, great poses, very centered atmosphere in your videos, your wonderful guide. So I look forward to learning more from you in this modality today with you on the podcast. So let's start with just being open like you've encouraged me to be open with you. What would you like to share with our audience? Before we get into the book? What do we need to know about you? What would you like us to know about you? Hmm?

Brett Larkin  3:46  
Well, there's a couple things. I'm someone who never thought I could make a full time living teaching yoga. So I had this big dream, and it felt very far away. Slowly. Over time, I started putting videos on YouTube that luckily your husband discovered. And that's now a very big channel, I have over half a million subscribers. They're close to a million through all the social networks. I have a membership site where people can practice with me and I was the first to put online yoga teacher training on the Internet back in 2015. So now online education and doing a yoga certification online is very normal. But I was shunned for it. Five years, or I guess seven years ago, eight years ago, probably by the time this comes out because it'll be 2024. So that's a little bit about me and my background. The book and what I want to share with everyone today is that yoga really is for everyone. Yoga is a state of mind. It's an awareness. I think we have this preconception that yoga is this pretzel poses and that we need to be really bendy and I just want to help people make a total reframe because this ancient science and technology has helped and change my life so much and we reality is you just need five to eight postures. The book helps you meet those soulmate postures, which are the right ones for you, the breathing is more important than the poses. And you really can integrate yoga into your life. I like to think of my whole life as a yoga studio. So in the book, I'm talking about doing yoga in the car. And as I'm cooking my kids meals, and it's not a thing you do, like another thing you have to do on your to do list, it's a mindset, you and habit. So we can talk a lot about what that looks like. Because I would love for everyone listening to really benefit from yoga, even if they never step on a yoga mat. And the book doesn't require you to step on a yoga mat. So I think that's a good jumping off point. Maybe, wow,

Christine Li  5:38  
I have about eight questions. So let's do this. I would say what a lovely way of being about your practice that it is a life practice that it doesn't have to be something that you go to do, it can be just a part of your life, because I'm sitting in my podcasting chair, feeling tension in my shoulders, and I'm thinking, wow, if I had that kind of mindset, I would maybe have a different feeling on my shoulders, or maybe have a quick move that I could do even while on camera to just ease the tension. You know, I got off a plane the other night, maybe I'm still it was super cramped, actually that flight that I had. And I really love that thought. So thank you for sharing that. And also, thank you for being a pioneer in the yoga space of training, yogi's online and expanding on what people can find online with yoga and being brave in that way to get out of your own professional zone and go into this new territory so many years ago, but to do that bravely. I really honor you for that. And thank you for doing that. I am curious about the being shunned. Because, you know, my ears perked up when you said that, I am curious about that. So that was probably three questions. If you can guide us with some simple moves, maybe that we can do to let's say, ease the shoulders if we're at work, and we're feeling some tension. And then also, if you could talk about kind of some of the difficulties of building a business and bringing your message to the world, how you got through that, and what you've learned from those experiences? Absolutely.

Brett Larkin  7:34  
I mean, one of the things I talk about in the book is I give what I call yoga habits. So there's a ton of them sprinkled throughout the book. And what this is, is essentially I also call it like yoga in between. So it's yoga in between other activities, or just as you're doing, like as we're sitting here right now, Christine, I don't know if people will be able to see the video, but we could just do some shoulder rolls, like taking the shoulders forward, up, down and back. Oh, it's feels so good. Forward, up, down and back. So I love hacking yoga into my whole day. And I even play a game with myself where I'm like, how many little yoga moments can I hack into my daily routine, and I kind of like to tally them up at the end. There's a fun part in the last chapter where I where I charted out what that looks like. Because we tend to have this all in all or nothing approach when it comes to exercise or fitness or yoga, where we think it needs to be a 30 minute class or, you know, I have a lot of 10 minute classes on YouTube. But even that it can feel like one more thing, as I said on the to do list. And the reality is that the results of your practice are cumulative. So that's a big reframe that hopefully everyone listening can take, just like if you put money in your savings account in the bank, that money slowly grows over time. And so what I'm saying here is like even one deep breath, amidst the chaos or amidst your kids fighting, or amidst your argument with your partner is worthwhile, right, it all adds up, all the little things add up. So when we start looking at our life for these moments, and of course, the book also teaches you how to create your own personalized 20 minute ritual because that's awesome. But I also say you know, some days, you're not gonna have 20 minutes. So here's how you make it five here, here's how you make a 10. Here's how you change it up depending what you have going on in your day. And then let's be real, sometimes you just won't make it to the mat because you have a teething infant or you're getting on a plane or all the things that we know exists. There's so many demands on our time. And then here are the habits that you can supplement instead. So for example, while I wait for my tea kettle to boil, that is a great place. I love just putting my hands pressing my hands into the counter and just doing a little stretch or just doing some hip circles with my knees bent, Zoom conference calls that are really boring, everyone listening you can stretch your hands under the table. I know not everyone will have the video probably listening to this. But you can do some nice finger stretches. You can roll the wrist, interlace the fingers and roll the wrist and slow down your breath. So once we get creative, there's just so many ways to slip Yoga. And so I think that's hopefully speaking a little bit to your first question.

Christine Li  10:05  
You've just changed my life, by the way. So thank you. I really think I am just ready for this kind of information. In my own life, I think the COVID years really took my exercise frequency and intensity Weigh Down. And I've been gradually over the course of this year trying to ramp it back up, it's still not anywhere near where it used to be. And I think I know, in my head, how important movement is staying flexible, staying strong. And you've just given me so much more time and space, to be able to reach that goal of being strong and flexible. So thank you for that. Really, I hope our audience is really just as enlightened by you as I feel right now. So thank you.

Brett Larkin  10:49  
Yeah, I think a big theme, and one of the chapters is called this is like, less is more, right? So we tend to think more is more. So we need a 60 minute class and 90 minute class. And what I say here is actually, if you just know your five to eight soulmate postures, and you have a personalized routine that incorporates a couple poses, and breathwork, that 20 minute routine can actually be more potent than a generic group fitness class or generic group yoga class because it's personalized to you. So what we do in the book is we look at yoga SR science, which you may not have heard of some people listening may have heard of it. It's called Iron VEDA. So what's interesting is, when yoga came west, it spread and it became very popular. But for whatever reason, yoga is twin sister, these two modalities were always meant to operate. Yoga was always meant to operate in the context of either beta eye or beta didn't come west, for some reason, it's just not as well known here. Some people might know it. But for most people, it's very unfamiliar. And so for those of you who don't know i are Veda means life sciences. And it's this galaxy of holistic and healing modalities originating in India, the core principle of it is that we are all unique, so that we're all made up of three primary elements, fire, earth, and air, and depending which is dominant within you, there's breathwork practices and yoga practices that will make sense to indulge in because it'll be very balancing for that element. And there's also breathing and yoga techniques that you should avoid, because they will skew that dominant element out of balance, which is what we don't want. So when we look at something like a standard yoga group, exercise class, where everyone's supposed to be doing the same poses, in the same way, on the same breath cadence, it makes no sense, right? Because we're all physically so different. And then, you know, taking out like joint variability, and, you know, the different range of motion we all have in our hips, like, even if you take that out energetically, we're also different. I mean, chemically, we know that we respond to medications differently, right? That's why there's so many like side effects, because we don't know, right? And so there is energy behind these breathwork and poses. So the book is full of these quizzes that help you figure out first of all, what's your dominant element, that's the thing we do right off the bat. And then once you know that dominant element, what might you choose to do or not do in your personal ritual to get the most kind of bang for your buck? Out of the 10 or 20 minutes that you're potentially going to practice? So I know, that was a lot of information. But I think it's like, why shop off the rack for yoga, if you can create your own yoga, couture, essentially. And it's a little more work upfront, right? Like you got to do the book. Again, the quizzes make it really easy. So if you're ever not sure, it's like you just take the quiz. And I tell you that the poses that might make sense. But then you're really in the driver's seat of your practice. And then you can adapt your practice to meet you in the moment you're in. So if you're feeling tired, instead of like, Oh, I'm not going to do my yoga practice. You're like, Oh, I know exactly how to adapt this practice to be nourishing for me. So that's what I really want every one to know.

Christine Li  14:00  
Beautiful, thank you. Did you come up with the concept of the personalized yoga experience? And if so, was it out of a need that you had? Well,

Brett Larkin  14:13  
it's interesting. No, I did not come up with it. Because yoga was actually always meant to be personalized. So the research that went into the book and the catalyst for for this book was that I Christine went through a really intense year where I became a new mom. So I gave birth to my first son. I lost my father to cancer. I was his sole care provider. So he was living with me in my home. I'm an only child, he never remarried. My parents are divorced, like really just like me and him. One through this death portal. Yes. And it was also the year online yoga teacher training in 2015 started really, you know, getting popular and my business was expanding rapidly. And so in this 12 month period, it was like scaling, becoming a new mom and saying goodbye to my father. And I could didn't practice the kind of yoga that I used to practice. I couldn't make it to group classes anymore. I couldn't even do the kinds of routines and videos that I was posting on social media telling everyone else to do. It was so humbling in my new normal of diapers and bedpans and fighting on the phone with the insurance companies that I just thought, you know, can yoga still help me yoga still work. And after that year, I Well, that year, I started intensely experimenting with what I teach in the book, which is shorter routines, more personalized routines, these habits like interweaving yoga into other activities. And when I was able to then do the real thorough research for the book, you know, it turns out that in, in ancient India, yoga was always meant to be practiced within the context of IR VEDA, there's a long complicated history of yoga, which I won't go into. But at a high level, originally, yoga was about transcending the body. It wasn't about health and wellness at all. And then one key man really shifted this at the end of the 1800s. His name was Krishna Macharia, we call him the father of modern yoga, because he said, No, actually, yoga is not just for elderly, you know, aesthetics and elderly people who are primarily those who are practicing at the time. He said, No, it's for everyone. And he really integrated the philosophy of yoga with the fitness movement, that gymnastics the calisthenics movement that was sweeping Europe at the time, he also blended in a lot of postures from Indian martial arts. So he created this melting pot, which is when we look at these ancient texts, Christine, there was like 15 to 20 postures like nothing compared to the amount that we have now where it's, you know, Chaturanga, push ups, and all these I mean, a lot of that came in from these wrestling drills. So he repositioned yoga to be about the health and well being of the body. And he had three main students who came to the US and started proliferating yoga patottie, Joyce, iron, gar and desikachar. Of those three students. desikachar was very passionate about personalized yoga. However, Joyce, who developed a stronger yoga and I Ongar, many people are probably familiar with him. I don't think it was their intention, per se, but just as their method spread, and at the time that yoga came west, which was sort of during the 1970s and 80s, it got swept up in the Jane Fonda fitness movement, and just sort of became like a one size fits all activity. But that was never the intention. And in fact, at Krishna, Macharia is original Yoga Studio in Mysore, the way that yoga would be taught is that everyone would meet in a yoga room, and then I'd start doing my routine, you'd start doing your routine, there were common elements, and the teacher was silent, just walking around. And then he would just pause near you and say, Hey, Christine, I think you're ready to learn a couple more moves, let's go over those I'll show you or had maybe, you know, helped me adapt something. But it wasn't like instructor in the front of the room telling everyone to do the same thing. At the same time, you learned more moves as you were ready. And that has also gotten lost. So I cannot take credit for this idea of personalized yoga, I am happy to take credit for like hoping to try to spread the message. But this is actually the original spirit of yoga that's just kind of gotten buried and lost.

Christine Li  18:31  
I remember the Jane Fonda craze, and I'm fascinated by the fact that that could affect how a practice took root and took shape in the West. And also, it makes me curious, have you practiced it with a group in the way that you've described where you would move around and then individually help people as they were ready to adopt a new move.

Brett Larkin  18:59  
So that exact style of teaching is called Mysore yoga, because it originated in Mysore India, I personally honestly, I haven't mainly just because students wouldn't know what to do. That just I think, be really confused. I have attended some Mysore classes. They're very hard to find Christina very hard to find. But this book is kind of my solution or my hopeful solution to that because if everyone created their personalized routine, using this book with the quizzes, and then we all got together in a room, I could totally help refine them. And I'm hoping to lead a lot of workshops, both in person and online to to help people supplement what they're learning in the book. Right. So for example, you know, they think they should do this and I can, you know, just give them another layer of feedback and opinion on what might work well for them. This

Christine Li  19:49  
is beautiful. How did you come up with the idea for the book, and what is your vision? You just gave us a little view into to your vision moving forward. But what gave rise to the book? And what part of you did it arise from?

Brett Larkin  20:08  
Well, it really arose from that kind of rock bottom year that I mentioned. Because that's when I just started questioning everything. For example, yoga is full of a lot of rules, especially if you know certain styles say that you can't alter the poses, you have to do them in the same order, you have to do them for a certain length, you have to do a particular breathwork technique after you can't mix and match different styles. And when I was in that year of total overwhelm, I really just out of necessity, started breaking some of those rules, because I was like, You know what, I think I'm just gonna have to shorten this like, sorry, I know, the book says it's supposed to be longer, but like, that's all I have right now. You know, I think doing some Yin, after this Kundalini type of movement would just be really soothing for me right now. So I'm going to do it. And I thought the yoga police would show up in my house, I thought I was gonna get in trouble. So I wasn't teaching this publicly, but what I started experiencing in my body, and I'll never forget the day that I set, you know, cuz this is how I used to practice in those days. And I still sometimes practice now, when I'm crazy. I set a timer for however many minutes I can do, right? So it's like 13 minutes, seven minutes, you know, 25 minutes, whatever is feasible. And I'll never forget this day where I started, I did that. I think I set the timer for 20 minutes. And I just really went inward, and use my knowledge of yoga to be like, I'm just going to do what my body is craving, the breath work that it's craving, even though it didn't really make logical sense. I just decided to go with it. And I remember finishing and feeling so relaxed, so peaceful, so calm. And I had this beautiful blissed out moment. And then I was like, the timer hasn't gone off yet. That's weird. And I remember looking at the timer, and it was like 15 minutes or something like I hadn't even hit the 20. And it was because out of necessity, having so little time I so had honed in on what I call those soulmate postures and the book, the ones that really Usher me into my flow state, my deepest breath cadence, you know, the parts of the body that I need to work with fastest and most efficiently that it was so potent. And that's when I knew, like I have to write about this, I have to share this. And that it was definitely a three year journey from their multiple year journey, of course, to write a book and everything that goes into that. But that's kind of the origin story of how it came about.

Christine Li  22:36  
I love it. I love it. Love it, love it. And thank you for doing the hard work of those three years to from all of us to you. Let's talk about breath work. Since I mentioned before we pressed record that I had taken part in a session before but I didn't really come away with a real understanding of what was happening or what was going on. For me, and it was online, it was a while ago. And you've mentioned breath in conjunction with yoga. And if you could just explain to us novices or the uninitiated, the importance of breath work and how you use it and how you see it, I would appreciate that too. Absolutely.

Brett Larkin  23:21  
The Yogi's used to say the more space between your breaths, the more space between your thoughts. So the more we can slow down our breath, the more we get a reprieve from kind of the constant monkey mind chatter that's constantly running in the background. At the same time, the breath is essentially a thermostat for whatever's going on in your nervous system. So when we watch a horror movie, and we see someone breathing, like, like, we know that they're about to be attacked, that they're stressed that there's someone lurking, you know, around the corner. In contrast to that, if you've ever seen your children or your partner or loved one, fast asleep, you know, how are they breathing very slowly, very deeply. I mean, it's, it's a very beautiful thing to witness. So the breath is so exciting to me, because there's not really any other system where say, I'm thinking stressed out thoughts. But if I choose to practice, an extremely calming breathing technique, my breath kind of like the temperature dial on a thermostat can actually override those stress signals and change the chemistry of my body. And, and tell me that actually everything is okay. So this like really puts you in the driver's seat of your life. It's so powerful. And if you don't take advantage of your breath, it's kind of like who's driving the car of your life honestly. So I don't know is that helpful is kind of a opening context for the breath.

Christine Li  24:57  
That is very much so I think As a psychologist, I've always had to sit. So, so so much of the job is being sedentary and actually kind of doing a little bit of a restraining of things, right restraining of your thoughts, it's a, that may not be the perfect word to describe it, but being calm inside, to receive and observe what is happening with the other person, right, because if my brain is Monkey minding, and if my heart is not in a calmer space, I won't be able to understand what my clients are trying to communicate non verbally, verbally with their breath. So I think for a long time, I've been attuned to what's going on inside from the quiet side, from the part that may not be visible to the outside. And I've really always valued that, because I think it's helped me, you know, just doing the years of being a professional in that field, I've become connected to my breath and to my thoughts. And to that quiet the part where you don't have to respond all the time, you don't have to develop a quicker breath, because you can remain calm inside, even if someone next to you is in high stress. So that's just my own version of understanding breath and how important it is, I do see it as a very much a centering vehicle, maybe it is the vehicle of being centered. So thank you for sharing your perspective.

Brett Larkin  26:35  
It sounds like for you, it's helping you respond instead of react. And I think that's what the breath can do for all of us, right? If we aren't conscious of the breath, we're going to default to whatever those whatever our habitual way of dealing with stress is, which might be to doom scroll on our phone or yell at someone or raise our voice or, you know, whatever it is. And so that breath can kind of be that conscious pause, where we re anchor were able to connect with ourselves really soothe ourselves, honestly, do some kind of almost self parenting of, you know, okay, calming down. And then from that place, we're able to respond to people, instead of reacting from those coping mechanisms that we've had probably for years that we probably learned in childhood. I mean, this is, you know so much about that. But yeah,

Christine Li  27:20  
we both know Yes. Yes, we all know who email Yes. And may I ask now, a different question about the last part of the title, the part that mentions chaos, you. The title, again, is yoga life habits, poses and breath work, to channel Joy amidst the chaos? What were you meaning, when you put that last phrase in amidst the chaos?

Brett Larkin  27:45  
I think to me amidst the chaos means amidst the nitty gritty of real life, with things going wrong with waking up late with sick children with caring for elderly parents, I think, again, we have this preconception that yoga or spirituality or meditation can only be meaningful if it looks like a scene from Eat, Pray Love, or if we're at an eco retreat in Bali. And my direct experience has been that that's not true. I give a couple examples in the book. But I mean, I've had one of my most enlightening spiritual moments, practicing in a teeny tiny hotel room, in dirty pajamas, where my mat barely fit between the bed and the wall. A lot of times, my practice does not look glamorous. I'm practicing in pjs, and it's laundry. And it's still so beneficial, it's still so powerful. So when we can kind of get away from the aesthetics. And think about that money in the bank analogy for our nervous system, like we talked about earlier that all of this is cumulative. And that there's so many opportunities to soothe ourselves and train our nervous system. And really, again, yoga is not a To Do It is the biggest gift that is here to support you. Because when you know just a little bit about how to tailor a practice, you can make any practice nourishing, and I call this the skill of yogic adaptability. So I think that's what advanced yoga is. I think most people think advanced Yoga is the handstand, right and kind of the ascension model with the yoga postures. To me advanced yoga is really knowing how to adapt and almost like an apothecary and like whip up a tincture, right, a practice that's going to soothe me in the moment I'm in. So if my baby didn't sleep well, or something, you know, I'm stressed that I can create something that's really going to slow me down and be rejuvenating. If I need to give a big presentation or come talk on a podcast that I can do a practice that's going to be energizing, and help sort of center my voice and, and put me in a place of sharing and authenticity, right. So most people think oh, yoga is just about stretching and it's just to relax. And the reality is there are so many different levers within this body of knowledge that can amp up or calm down your nervous system and also a million things in between.

Christine Li  30:10  
I am noting you mentioned your voice and energizing your voice before podcast. And whenever my husband would have you on, I would note the power of your voice that that that really struck me how clear and strong and steady your voice is. And that I would imagine is a result of your practice and a result of all the work that you've done in your life. Do you have any other notes on the power of voice and and clarifying your voice?

Brett Larkin  30:41  
Hmm? Well, first of all, thank you for saying that, because I am quite self conscious about my voice. And it's been something I've worked on, I actually just released a chanting album. So I have three songs out now where I'm actually chanting and sharing that publicly, which is very vulnerable and did not feel comfortable at all. I did not teach chanting, I felt scared to chant for many, many years. But it's interesting that you zoned in on this or honed in on this, because so many women that I train, or students in the teacher trainings, talk about how they feel blocked in this area. And the throat, is in yoga, it's connected with the fifth chakra of Sudha, which is the element of space. But it's interesting, because the throat is this very narrow passageway between our head and our heart. So it's connecting the lower and upper energy centers. And it's very small, it's very narrow. And many of us didn't feel safe to use our voice when we were growing up. Many of us were told it's better to be quiet, or that what we had to say didn't matter, or that we should maybe be quiet and let the let the boys speak up or whatever. But I've noticed is, especially with women, so many people telling me that they feel constriction in this area. And yoga can help with this, I mean, all movement will help with this, you do not have to chant, I always say that. And if you even do choose to chant, you don't have to chant in Sanskrit. In a program, I just lead, we worked a lot with just skyrunning and saying the vowels, so like, e, i, o, u, and then like a lot of fun combinations of that. So there's so many ways that you can work with this. But if you're someone who feels blocked in your throat, just know that you're not alone, I think as a collective, a lot, especially women are feeling this way. May

Christine Li  32:34  
I ask what you felt anxious over regarding your voice? Because I definitely associate you with a strong, powerful voice. So if you wouldn't mind sharing, I think probably I'm not the only one who's curious where you doubted your own voice?

Brett Larkin  32:53  
I think there's so many layers to this. There's an impostor syndrome every time you're teaching, who am I to teach? Who am I to instruct others? Why would anyone want to hear what I have to say I had all of those self limiting beliefs. For me, when I used to upload those YouTube videos, Christine, it was like, I was like having a panic attack, because I hit Upload, right, like shaking, like, it was just so uncomfortable to put myself out there. So there's definitely the psychological aspect. More, you know, surface level, I often felt my voice wasn't deep enough that, you know, it was too too girly, or not serious enough, or not embodied enough. And I mean, again, these are things I've worked on. But it's just scary to put yourself out there. And I know you work with a lot of people who are building their business too. And we can circle back to that, which I know we touched on at the beginning. It's vulnerable. And so if you feel terrified, just know you're doing it right. It's normal.

Christine Li  33:58  
Yeah, yeah. And your voice might reflect that. And that's okay. That's where you are at the moment. And I think movement is wonderful. I think voice coaching, which I have undergone and benefited from can be so freeing and empowering and can give you just that extra boost, when you are trying to put yourself out there, whether it's online, in your business or at the dinner table with someone that you're just having a conversation with our voice is such a powerful tool that we have for connection for being known for being seen. And so I don't know what our audience is going to do, but maybe just examine, is there something holding you back? And maybe are you connected with a resource in your life where you could explore that a little bit more to give yourself a little more space.

Brett Larkin  34:53  
The other thing we can layer on to this too, that I talked about in my trainings is that your voice is also uniquely healing for you. So just like we all have a unique fingerprint, your Voiceprint, like how your voice sounds is completely unique, it's unlike anyone else. And when you choose to make noise, whether it's chanting or singing in the shower, or just sounding the vows, like we talked about, our body is water. And if anyone's ever seen it, there's a lot of water in our body. So if you've ever seen the water and like a singing bowl, or a sound bowl, when they when they strum it, you know that water is vibrating. So when you choose to use your voice, it's like this potent tonic healing medicine for your system, that no one else could give you like me chanting or singing at you, Christine would not have any of the effect that you, you know, sounding yourself would on your body chemistry. So I always like to remind people of that, because it's this overlooked tool. And it's it's one of your greatest healing resources, honestly, that you just have built into your system that we don't use,

Christine Li  36:02  
I think you've just described, the reason why therapy works in a way that I have never put together I've always said, and I've been taught that when you speak what you need to it's very powerful. And it gives you that sense of mastery over your own stress, worry, trauma, anxiety, whatever you have to overcome, but what you've just described, it feels different. It's just another layer of that, of how healing it is to express and to release and to hear the sound of your voice in a true in his true form, that there's nothing like it, there's nothing to replace that. And it's so important for knowledge of yourself. So thank you for helping me again, I've learned so much from you, in such a short amount of time. I'm so grateful to you for again, being so brave being so bold, being so lovely, thank you so much. I wish you all the best. As you release this book, promote the book and as it heals the world can you give us more details about how to get our hands on the book, the release date, and anything else you want us to know about staying in touch with you.

Brett Larkin  37:11  
Oh, that's so kind of you. The book is available, so you can order it anywhere books are sold, if you want to order it through Amazon, or I know there's great independent retailers now as well. So you can find it Yoga Life is the title. There's also an audiobook that I recorded. The book has quizzes and also comes with 30 companion videos. So you and your husband will actually really like those. There's a QR code in the book that you can scan. I know a lot of people like the poses and ideas written out. But I wanted to make videos that serve as companions for some of the breathwork tutorials and things like that. Because obviously I love making videos and I think that's just a great way to learn. So just know that you'll also get those videos that accompany the book. And you can find me at Brett larkin.com br e TT la AR k i n for online yoga, teacher training and all sorts of modalities and yoga courses. There's a history of yoga course just lots of fun things that you can nerd out on if you're at all interested in yoga, including stuff for beginners.

Christine Li  38:12  
Thank you for being so open today. I really appreciate it. This has been an amazing conversation. I thank you on behalf of my followers and listeners and I wish you all the best. Thank you for connecting with me.

Brett Larkin  38:25  
Thank you.

Christine Li  38:27  
Thank you for listening to this episode of The Make Time for Success podcast. If you enjoyed what you've heard, you can subscribe to make sure you get notified of upcoming episodes. You can also visit our website maketimeforsuccesspodcast.com for past episodes, show notes and all the resources we mentioned on the show. Feel free to connect with me over on Instagram too. You can find me there under the name procrastination coach. Send me a DM and let me know what your thoughts are about the episodes you've been listening to. And let me know any topics that you might like me to talk about on the show. I'd love to hear all about how you're making time for success. We'll talk to you soon.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai