I was 30 years old, 100 pounds overweight and a very skilled four-pack-a-day smoker.
As a touring musician, this kind of lifestyle was supported. One day I was home doing some renovations and the next I was in intensive care with a rare autoimmune illness that was killing my red blood cells.
I was a mess, and the prognosis was grim. I was well enough to not be in the hospital, so eventually I was sent home—only my doctor expected me back in the hospital within a short period of time.
Instead of being sad about this reality, however, it inspired me. I began researching alternative healing options. My friend sent me to a yoga class where I met a really great teacher who explained to me the power of lying still.
She taught me Yoga Nidra that day, and I was convinced that it saved my life.
That was over 15 years ago. I am now a (healthy) full-time Yoga Therapist. I have a few different intellectual reasons why Yoga Nidra saved my life but I think I’m better off bringing myself back in time and remembering the feeling of just lying there, completely relaxed and blissful, allowing the world to work on me like the most skilled surgeon might.
Now I work with individuals suffering from a wide variety of diseases including obesity, eating disorders, acute and chronic physical complaints, chronic diseases, and mental conditions.
Read more about Brandt’s story in his “How I Got Here” blog post.
In addition, I created the Breathing Deeply Yoga Therapy training programs so others can now to do the same. If you’re also interested in helping others heal themselves, click here to learn more about our Yoga Therapy programs.
Note: the full article was originally posted in Elephant Journal here.
Welcome to episode 2 of the Breathing Deeply Yoga Therapy and Meditation Podcast! At Breathing Deeply we offer Yoga Therapy Foundations and IAYT Advanced teacher training programs. Inside these programs, we have weekly Q&A sessions with students and Breathing Deeply founder & lead teacher. Brandt Passalacqua. This episode has been taken from a live Q&A […]
Today’s episode is a recording taken directly from a live Q&A session with Breathy Deeply founder, Brant Passalacqua and students of our Yoga therapy foundations program. Brandt covers how a yoga therapy session usually flows, whether you need to specialize as a yoga therapist, the difference between depression and anxiety and how to approach mental […]
Although valuable on their own, combining the concepts of “Discipline and Surrender” can be important for the evolution of our meditation practice. In this episode, meditation teacher Brandt Passalacqua references the Yoga Sutra and the Yoga Spandakarika texts as he explains how discipline, or “the willingness to maintain the perspective we have found through practice,” […]