Author: admin

The journey to wholeness through the path of Yoga.

by admin
Big Sur, Ca.

My first Yoga experience was back in 1998, Chandler Arizona. I was about 17 years old. In some ways I am the same as I was then, but very different from who I am now.

At the time I was athletic, but also a bit of a troublemaker and an artist. I’ve always lived between these two worlds of health and fitness but having a bit of a rebellious streak. Exploring alternatives, living outside the box and challenging the norms.

Which is probably why the Yoga practice resonated with me so deeply right away. Yoga is strength building internally and externally. Also, I feel like to be a Yogi or a Yogini, in a the way, you gotta rebel against old ways of thinking and being in order to grow into your true nature.

My first class was at the YMCA at 17 years old. There is something special that I felt about the practice of yoga. At the time I was studying astrology and metaphysics as I always have! it has been a great interest to me. I love the balance of science and spirituality that Yoga brought to the table even back then through my perception of it.

10 years later, at 27 years old I stepped into my first 200 hour yoga teacher training in Tempe Arizona. Alongside that, I studied therapeutic massage therapy. It was quite a unique program. Within a year I had a 200 hour yoga teaching certificate and also credentials to work as a massage therapist. I did this work in combination for close to a decade.

I wasn’t always in my practice. There were gaps of time even years where I didn’t practice at all, especially in my 20s. However there was something about the practice that kept calling me back; time and time again.  I would land on my yoga mat and meet myself at different ages, stages and forms of self. 

Often I would seek refuge in the practice when I was going through something challenging or traumatic in my life. It often, with great grace, got me through the other side, a whole person. A more integrated human. 

My first Yoga community was in Portland Oregon. The studio was called Santosha Yoga and it was owned by these two lovely women that played an integral part of my growth, healing and teaching. I practiced at the studio for eight years and I taught there for six. Most of my friends came from that community, it was my family.

Living in Portland I had access to many amazing teachers, studios and even famous guest teachers that would often travel through the city and teach workshops. 

As each teacher (seasoned and green) had something unique to share in a different perspective to be known, I felt the same about the practice of Yoga. The practice brought me great peace, helping me to align with truth and coax me back home to my center.

Being a Yoga practitioner for almost 2 decades and teaching for nine years I have walked through many challenges and adversities on and off my Yoga mat.  I would have to say that the one thing that kept me whole, even in the perceived brokenness was the light of the Yoga practice.

Often we think that Yoga is just a physical manifestation in our body. The more I practiced and learned about myself, I found that the real practice is the one that cannot be seen physically within a Yoga pose. Rather; the radiance of ourselves, our light and aura, is the marker on the road to emerging and awakening within.

The practice becomes the heart of how we live our lives from a place of presence, alignment, true purpose and calling.

Yoga is a Sanskrit word that can translate roughly to wholeness, to unite or integrate. Ultimately this practice, I believe; is a healing practice that allows us to be who we are, as we are. Cultivating compassion, acceptance and humility along our trajectory of growth and expansion. 

Accepting ourselves fully, with great love even the dark things! Even the hard things! Especially those things! Brings us hOMe to the freedom within.

If we are constantly compartmentalizing or pushing all the dimensions of ourselves that we do not like, or “approve of” it is challenging to return to our intrinsic wholesness. 

Each lesson in life is but a great teacher that is meant to guide us back to our soul self, the atman. Through the unification of self, we then begin to expand the matrix of unification beyond the self.

The work takes great courage. The work starts on the inside, with desire and intention. Stepping into all the unknown spaces of our mind and hearts that maybe we have suppressed or been afraid to look at as a part of our wholeness.

The practice of Yoga or wholeness can then integrate through our whole being and beyond. The practice then overtime becomes less about doing and more about being. 

We already are the Yoga, and in the practice of remembrance we are assisting in peeling back the shrouds and the layers that get in the way of our light and truth.

We are already whole, complete and filled with great light and love. The Yoga practice helps us to navigate our humanness, samskaras, and tendencies with more awareness and compassion. And with practice, lots of practice! We then may find and experience all we are, and all that we are truly unified with as a whole in each moment, as it’s unfolding. 

Happy practicing! Keep going.

Love,

Brittany Adams

Lose yourself to find yourself in Big Sur, Ca.

by admin

California has many iconic locations along the coastline, HWY 1. From the Redwoods in Humbolt county all the way down to San Diego, there is something inspiring for the new and seasoned traveler alike. One of my all time favorite locations is Big Sur California. Big Sur is located south of Monterey Bay and Carmel about 30 minutes down the epic HWY 1. With sweeping coastlines tucked between the hills and redwood trees and the sheer drop offs is a magical paradise that feels like you have been transported to a national geographic documentary.

We camped in our 23 ft sprinter van at the Riverside Campground South of Andrew Molera state park. We woke up to views and sounds of a flowing river surrounded by old sacred redwoods and fall colored leaves. Sunlight dancing through the trees, and the almost full moon peaking through coastal clouds. I love the simplicity of having all you need with you and the freedom to explore. Surrounded by nature; less noise and city energy. A quietude my soul often longs for but doesn't get enough of.

I have always been a vagabond, a traveler searching for truth. Not that the truths I am seeking are located at some destination, rather the exploration of self, broadening of my perspective often guides me to the answer I seek in the moment. The caveat is the answer I find is transient, ever expanding knowledge that shifts as I shift, and moves as I move. I have learned to not get attached to what I find, inside and outside of myself. Maybe that is the allure of traveling, the constant unfolding, learning and novelty of the new and the now.

In Big Sur, there are only a few beaches you can actually walk down and on. Most of the ocean experiences are spent cliff side, looking down 100 ft + edges to untouched, pristine bliss. One of our favorite things to do is drive down HWY 1 and intuitively choose a pull off to stop at. And they are everywhere! We ended up spending a couple hours at a pull off with stunning views of turquoise waters, rock formations galore and and waves crashing right on the shore. Creating sea foam, abstract patterns I could get lost in.

Heading back to camp on the first day, we stopped at the famous McWay Falls. It is literally a waterfall dropping into a tropical looking turquoise colored cove. Staring at it takes you somewhere beyond and otherworldly. The best way to end the day is finding another pull out, grabbing your favorite drink and snack and watching the sea gulp up the sun.

Garrapata beach is a walkable beach just south of Carmel about 20 minutes. luscious white sand beach about a mile long end to end. It is dog friendly too! Surfers abound with head to foot thick wet suits, surfing 6 foot waves dancing along the rip curls dip, diving and dodging. Even on a busier day (weekends) You can nestle up to a private cove and just soak it all in. We spent close to 2 hours here relaxed and sunned. Deeply relaxing and nourishing.

Big Sur means the Big South. Many famous artists and writers from Jack Kerouac, Salvador Dali, John Steinbeck and more have traveled here for inspiration and deep soul searching. I liken the area to the Napali Coastline in Kauai Hawaii. It is a sight to be seen and cherished.

Places to stay in Big Sur are mostly campgrounds, boutique hotels and cabins. For more affordable options, stay in Monterey Bay a half hour north. Keep it simple! Pack a cooler with food, snacks and drinks, a few chairs and blankets. Give yourself a few days to get lost on one of the most iconic California coast lines.

Highlights of Big Sur: Andrew Molera state park, Point Lobos, Garrapata beach, Bixby bridge, Mcway falls, town of Lucia, Julia Pfeiffer state park and hidden beach. And MUCH more!

Have fun, be safe, and never stop exploring,

Rob, Brittany and Gypsy

 

 

 

5 years post cancer treatment.

by admin

5 years post cancer treatment 2 days ago on November 18th 2020. 5 years, maybe 5 lifetimes, it seems. What I thought my was going to kill me, saved me, awakened me and gifted me life, again. 

The last treatment was vincristine. A chemotherapy that made my fingers and toes go numb. It was actually the most kind of the 4 chemo’s. Numb phalanges were a walk in the park compared to debilitating diarrhea and interns staring down at you asking you to take a nauseas survey. Do I look nauseas? I’m yellow, and I can barely open one eye? A 6 question survey? 2 pages?…I just circled  a 10, on a scale of 1-10 and handed it back. 

I’m dying, screw nauseas.

Was that experience even real? The cancer, the torture.. I mean treatments? Maybe that’s a defense, a detachment. The dark humor, you know? You have to find ways to cope with suffering, or the suffering might kill you.. not really. But I suppose the heart break from it could. 

The last 5 years have been tough and equally beautiful. 5 years was a long haul for deep healing, but I tried to have fun doing it.  And in the fun department, I give myself an A++. Another coping skill. Fun, or F-ing off, maybe. 

Not all fun and games, I’ve worked extremely hard to get here, alive, thriving and as healthy as I can be considering. 

Every year I learned something, shit! Every day I learn so much post cancer. It’s like looking through a clearer lens, constantly rubbing my eyes after a long pointless dream, life is in technicolor and feelings too! both the sorrow and joys of this world more transparent and, just.., “Wow, ouch, damn, ok, breathe.. keep going.”

5 years cancer free from stage 4 cancer. How did that even happen or is possible? God knows, not me! I’m just down here floundering about and trying to figure it out. Maybe there is nothing to figure out, maybe the gift of it all is meant to be lived and loved.

What I know today, is that I don’t know nothing. That might be a Pennywise song lyric? Regardless, it’s true. The magic and miracle of not knowing blessed me with faith and trust. Each day is a wild adventure, even on the mundane ones. 

Layers of myself is still shedding. Each day I have to remind myself, “Don’t get too attached to her! You know she’s going to be a different, changed in the next breath and the one after that”…the unraveling of the self is both certain and uncertain. 

The un-spooling, death, transformation is messy and straight up awkward. The release, who I thought I was, or am.. is not her, or anything really. 

I have been given another day. Healthy, alive with no evidence of disease in my body. Most of the time it feels like such a ginormous gift, I don’t know what to do with it all. God has given me so much. In ways I couldn’t possibly repay. 

Even on the days that I am exhausted or unsure of myself or where all this is taking me, I give thanks and reminded that life is a series of peaks and valleys, keep walking and moving forward. When I slow down, I realize all this is happening so very fast.  

Slow down, breathe it in. The hard stuff too. 

I don’t want to hold on, or I’ll miss the next moment. Looking back at my life, it’s a simultaneous streak of oneness embodied in a single memory. 

The future, all I see is distance along a golden hour lit shoreline. I feel peace and hope looking forward in this vision, throughout the sunset of my life. 

Each day I wake up, look about and smile at the life God and I have co-created together. I am grateful.

Healing vs. Cure

by admin

These concepts are integrated yet unique in their presentation. The word heal means to restore, or return to wholeness. A cure translates to a banishment or elimination of an disease or illness. We can heal without being cured, and we can be cured without being healed.
Healing, at its deepest root meaning is making whole or holy. When I embody the image of healing, I see this phenomenon as something we intentionally call forth and act upon. We are the active participants in our healing process. 

As there are healers in the world from shamans, energy workers, yoga teachers and more. Ultimately we are our greatest healers.
In order to heal, it is imperative that we step into the healing space inside ourselves with heart centered intention. Healing does not work unless we are open to receive the healing in whatever form, and there are many. 


To heal is to return to our intrinsic wholeness. 
Nonetheless, there are life circumstances such as illness, loss, trauma and more that can leave us feeling fractured or broken. Where we feel like we lost a part of ourselves, or a sense of being broken by grief or suffering. 


When I went though heavy cancer treatment in 2015 I felt beyond broken and defective. My body had betrayed me. How did I get this dis-ease? Where did it come from? Am I a unlovable, shameful person for developing such an insidious disease that was trying to annihilate me?
I went through 10 months of grueling chemotherapy. I lost my hair, my business, all my savings and part of my dignity. It was a constant assault on my body, my life and belief systems. On top of that they burned half my spine, left rib cage, left side of my face and neck with radiation. During the end of my treatment I had purple burns all over my body, no hair, thinning bones and creaky old joints from the 4 different chemo’s they pumped through my port on a weekly basis. I felt like a 90 year old woman in a 33 year olds body. I was exhausted physically, mentally and emotionally. And my soul has never been so tired and fatigued.
What the doctors were trying to do was CURE me of stage 4 cancer.

Trying to fix the disease with outside sources and treatments. I was in the process of attempting to HEAL myself. Yes, ultimately I prayed the cancer would dissolve, go away- and it did. After the cancer left my body, I was still left traumatized, confused and very sick and weak from the treatments. 


I believe even after “the cure” I had to get to the root cause of my disease, or I feared it would return. 
First, I do not believe cancer or any disease for that matter is solely a physical phenomenon. Often the physical manifestation is the final presentation of an illness. There is scientific evidence and qualitative data of this theory in the book, “When the body says no” by Dr. Gabor Matè. Along side other doctors and healers work I have followed such as Dolores Cannon, Louise Hay, Dr. Bruce Lipton, Dr Bernie Siegel and Dr. Joe Dispenza. 


I wish I could give some sort of blueprint for a successful healing model. Ultimately healing is tough to quantify and nearly impossible to reproduce. It is subjective and a deeply personal experience between ourselves and the light of love.


Today, I have been cancer free from stage 4 terminal cancer for over 5 years. Am I cured? I would say, I do not know..but for today I am cancer free. 


Am I healing? Always, everyday I connect with my healing. Cancer taught me great lessons in the resilience of the body in returning to wholeness. Cancer showed me possibilities in the the power of the mind and spirit when discovering our personal healing path and potential. 
All is within. 


Healing was and is a huge commitment. To this day I step into it with intention and purpose. Healing for me was messy and challenging, it still is! Also a somewhat painful process, it was essential that I had to let go of a lot of emotional garbage and fear I was holding onto in order to get well. 


I faced things about myself that I didn’t want to look at and circumstances that I shoved under the rug for most of my life. These repression’s of self and my authentic being contributed to my illness. And the reclamation of my true self was the core of my healing. 
It taught me to be open, explore other world views, ideas and concepts. To tap into what is sacred and holy. I worked with dozens of teachers and healers through the years that contributed and supported my healing process. 


But ultimately, it was and still is my responsibility to show up to it. 
Wherever you are in your healing process, be brave and have faith. Listen to your body, trust your guts and intuition and seek support. Healing is a practice. A inner quest for truth and understanding. 
To heal, is to REMEMBER your wholeness. The act of coming home to the center of your being, the remembrance of your holiness and uniqueness. 
Your self, your true nature is already whole, therefore already healed. 

“If we would heal, it is essential to begin the painfully incremental task of reversing the biology of belief we adopted very early in life. Whatatever external treatment is administered, the healing agent lies within.”- Gabor Mate


“Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn’t you – all of the expectations, all of the beliefs – and becoming who you are.”- Dr. Bernie Siegel 


“People don’t realize the power their own mind has to cure itself. The subconscious can be very literal with the physical symptoms it uses to deliver the messages. If more people became aware of this, they could listen to what their body is trying to tell them.” -Dolores Cannon. 

Welcome to your revolution

by admin


Welcome! My name is Brittany Adams and I have been fascinated with health, healing and transformation since I was a young teenager. As anything in life, my passion for self care health care has evolved into what it is today.
As an integrative wellness coach and Yoga teacher I find great joy and purpose in witnessing clients personal revolutions. This is why we are here as spiritual beings having human experience- to heal, grow and thrive!
Life is a soul journey full of ups, downs and spirals. It is our calling to remember who we are, and our choice in how we choose process and apply what we learn along the way.

Coaching and Yoga is that container for personal revolution and transformation.

My hope for this website content is to offer the resources to support you along your journey back hOMe to your true self. I will be sharing weekly wellness musings and frequent travel photography, inspiration, links to articles, books, stories, ted talks, you tubes and more!

If you need deeper support I offer integrative wellness and self care coaching, community Yoga classes and private Zoom Yoga sessions.

Self love and care is one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves and those we love. Self care is how we take our power back, and return to wholeness.

Taking great care of ourselves is how we fill our buckets. Giving us energy, vitality and the ability to share our gifts with the world in a powerful way!

It is my honor to offer this content, I hope you find great value in it.

Peace, Love + Health,

Brittany Adams CMT, RYT