5 Pranic Arrows: The Hidden Power of the Prana Vayus

In this episode, Brooke reflects on our multifaceted nature as humans, and how, at any point in time, we can turn inward and discover something about who we are right now. How are you showing up—or not showing up? What becomes visible when you take an honest assessment of where you are in your life?

This turning inward is especially potent during the energies of the New Moon and solar eclipse. Brooke begins with a few questions for reflection: What are your goals at this time? What skills have you been sleeping on that wish to wake up? What are you imagining, avoiding, longing for, or ready to see more clearly?

The episode centers around two areas of introspection. The first is the Seven of Cups, the Tarot card Brooke pulled before recording. This card speaks to where we are in our own storyline and to the many possibilities before us—possibilities that can sometimes feel conflicting when we aren't clear about who we are or what we truly want. It invites us to look honestly at the stories, desires, dreams, and illusions filling our inner world, and to discern what is actually asking for our attention.

This is a perfect card pull for the heart of the episode: one of Brooke’s favorite teachings from Ayurveda and Yoga, and one she believes is a missing ingredient in many modern yoga practitioners’ repertoire. It brings us into the hidden power of yoga—the intelligence of prāṇa, and how understanding its five movements, the prāṇa vāyus, can aid us in designing practices that support the deeper inner changes we seek—the ones that can often feel difficult to access or shift on our own.

Through Prāṇavidyā—the study of prāṇa, or the life-force energy moving through us and all of nature—we begin to understand yoga practice in a different way.

Brooke introduces the five prāṇa vāyus of Ayurveda and Yoga and explores how, when they become the centerpiece of a wisely designed practice, they can function like five pranic “arrows.” Each vāyu becomes a direct force we can work with to support the change we are seeking and help move us toward a particular goal.

And these goals aren't only physical. While each vāyu describes a particular way energy moves through the body and supports our physiology, these movements of prāṇa also influence our emotions, thoughts, behaviors, and patterns.

The five arrows therefore give us a surprisingly simple map for self-inquiry: Where is our energy stuck? Where are we holding on? Where are we scattered or depleted? Where are we having difficulty expressing ourselves, receiving what we need, or moving forward?

And because the same life force that moves through us also moves through nature, Brooke introduces another layer to this exploration: the Yoga of Flowers.

This is where nature-loving yoginis can begin to understand the relationship between prāṇa, plants, and the power of the subtle. Drawing from more than 25 years of experience with yoga and plant wisdom, Brooke distills these teachings into an episode about learning to see ourselves more clearly—and then using the intelligence of yoga and nature to help move our lives in the direction we wish to go.

At the heart of yoga is learning not only how to move and breathe, but how to experience prāṇa as a living intelligence within us. 

August 28–30, Brooke will be teaching 5 Pranic Arrows: The Yoga of Flowers, a three-day immersion offered in person and online through Hidden Yoga Studio in Colorado, for yoga practitioners and teachers, Ayurvedic coaches, and nature lovers.

www.hiddenyogawithkittymoore.com for more information and to register

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

What if what you face when you really look at yourself is inaction. You're just not doing the work. You're talking the talk or you're thinking about it a lot. Thinking, ruminating, dissecting, making it absolutely perfect before you put it out there. That is all, I'm so sorry to say this, called inaction. Once you, you know, you've cooked it, it's you know, you're it's no longer a half-baked cookie, it's cooked. Maybe it's a mostly baked cookie, and yet you're still just sitting on it. The inaction can create hesitation, doubt, confusion, fear, and smallness. So what can you do as you face yourself to move from inaction to action? What can you do to when you face yourself to move from wishful thinking into actualization? To move from the discontent of being small into actually getting big and bright.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Weave the on the potents, limitations of time, taking ancient dreams and technological pride, take the stories of the fold right through the soul until they told and told until they start to transform. The bone again, the next step with the monopoly, put them there, stuff. This one and the money will ever be claiming you've come in. The place we come in the place for the finding the party is all that we just become a friend of all. Welcome to the wild temple. Welcome to the wild temple.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Welcome. I'm Brooke Shannon Sullivan, founder of the Global School, the Wild Temple School of Yoga and Herbal Wisdom, and the host of this Wild Temple podcast. Through shared inquiry with myself and guests, we explore embodied wisdom and subtle problems, with a focus this season on desire as a generative force, Shakti and motion, and its role in Dharmic Living and Conscious Evolution. This space is for practical mystics, heartlet seekers, and wellness professionals drawn to the Vedic and the Vedic sciences and in cultivating a deeper relationship with Mother Nature. New episodes arrive every new and full moon as we follow the wheel of time. And in the spirit of reciprocity, you're invited to follow this podcast, to leave a comment on the platform you're listening on, and to share with others. Thank you so much for being here at The Wild Temple and to stay connected. Please visit theWildTemple.com or we're on Instagram at the Wild Temple. One of the most beautiful things about being a human is that we're truly multifaceted. So we can, for example, just take this moment in time, pause it, and reflect on how am I feeling, what's going on in the environment, where am I in my chapter of the storyline of my life, kind of review what's been in the past, what you want to have happen for the future, but just checking into the now, every time you check into the now, hopefully you are in a different kind of now, a different almost universe of the now. And so I've been reflecting on this as I pulled a tarot, and I love to do this personally. It's not something that I offer, it's not something that I want to market by any means. It's just for my own personal growth and orientation. And for this time of year and this very beautiful, like just synchronistic events that are about to happen, this planet parade, a meteor shower, a solar eclipse, a new moon, everything all at once. I pulled the Seven of Cups. And this is a really beautiful teaching as I learn more and more about the tarot, which I am not, I would say, an expert at, just want to be very clear. It's just something I love. But each suit actually tells a story, and each number of the tarot can be where you are in the plot, in the chapter of your life. And so if you think of sevens, right, we've gotten a lot of experience. We have a lot of experience behind our back. We actually have a lot to work with for the present moment, and there's still a lot of life left. So it's not all downhill from here. But the seven of cups is also who are you? Who are you now that you've tried on all of these clothes, all of these personalities, all of these jobs, relationships on for size? And you're in every case figuring out a little more about who you are. Who are you now? And then from this real looking inwards as to your authentic you, where do you want to go from now? Where do you want to go from here? And what I love about this card, this card pull, and what it's sharing with us is the conflicting aspects of doubt, of hesitation, of even confusion, or expectation, or a coloring of a cloud of someone else's expectation over you that distorts the clarity of either your authentic self or what what are your next steps. And so this is a really great time. And I think when we have such a uh a light show going on in the universe, a really good time to self-reflect and to just assess where have you been? What have you done? And I find it to be more empowering when you can really write things down and give yourself a little moment of brag time. Like, here I've achieved this, I've experienced that. Um, brag time can even be the hardship. I made it through that. Whoa, that was shitty, but I did it. I'm on the other side, yay! And then from this assessment, you start to remember really who you are. I know speaking personally and also with the many clients that I work with, we often forget how many skills we carry, the talents that we innately have, what our expertises are, sometimes that expertise that we have to show up and bring it forward in the form of a job or as our family offering, right? We each contribute in certain ways to the family unit. Those expertises are really highlighted, but we have all these other, because we're very multifaceted, skills and talents that maybe aren't highlighted, and we've forgotten them and they've gotten a little dusty. And so the sadness or the heaviness that you feel when you wake up is really that part of you that really loves to paint, and you haven't been doing that and you're really good at it. You have an affinity for a particular musical instrument, and you know it puts you in flow state, and yet you've put it down to tend to all of the children. And if you were just to pick it up, not only would it make you happy, but it would make everyone in the room happy. Like that kind of remembrance, that kind of assessment of who are you? What have you put down? What have you forgotten? Let's remember, let's recall, let's bring it forward, bring it back. I think that's what we're doing now in this time. So I was talking with my friend yesterday, and I was like, Girl, have you heard about what's going on in the stars? She's like, Holy shit, I know the last time that this happened, it was this and that and this and that. It wound up being a nonsense burger.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

A nothing burger, that's what she said. I was like, Oh my gosh, a nothing burger.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

And I kind of feel like, are we entering the domain of a nothing burger where we're expecting a light show and a cacophony and chaos, or the universe to support some great catalyst that we are move forward, you know, by you know, an incremental amount in a manner that we've maybe been striving and evering, and now it's just gonna be like popping the zit. Maybe we'll get that. Maybe it'll be hard, maybe it'll be a catalyst for easy. Or maybe it's just the light show. And it's how can we reflect using all of these things that are happening on who we are, on our authenticity. It is probably the most important question that we can carry as we are growing up, right? And I would say, as we're growing up to be a good human, as we are on this spiritual journey towards Boga and Abhavarga, fulfillment, worldly fulfillment, and spiritual freedom or freedom from suffering. The who are you is the most important thing. And so I want to speak a little bit to people who love Ayurveda, who love yoga, and who love nature, especially flowers, because I've created these little masterpieces that, and I'm I'm not saying this to stroke my ego, it's just my nature. This is what I love, this is what I do. And I would say they're masterpieces because they take a lot of time and skill and practice to learn them and then weaving them together. I call it the masterpiece tapestry. My husband coined that by the way. But I have this masterpiece tapestry of these different sacred technologies, weaving in the yoga of Ayurveda, which in this case are called the five prana vayus, and I'm gonna get to this in a minute, what this is about, with nature, flower essence remedies in particular, to really help us understand our our authentic selves, to get out of our own way and finally uh unleash whatever it is that's been holding you back, release whatever it is that's been burdening you, open up to and be inspired by your potentials, being able to walk proudly in the world, no matter what community or group you're in, still remaining you. It's really amazing that we have actual yoga practices. When we design a practice and we weave in these different sacred technologies, where yoga then becomes the perfect container for, mm-hmm, we can feel us ourselves dropping into these facets of ourselves to kind of clear out the cupboards and really start to shine and really start to gain momentum and really start to feel empowered. So I teach these subjects in in various ways. One is in my sage apprenticeship, which I know not everyone can be a part of. I like to give little windows into what this is about. And in the sage apprenticeship, we go for a full year following the seasons, and when we get into the spring, we're tapping into energy and prana, life force energy that is basically the subtle realms. And we work within the scope of Tantra, Yoga, Ayurveda, and the plants to enhance the subtle realm so that we can see them more clearly, we have a language to define them, and that we can work with them, work with these energies to reach goals. I also offer this in a teaching I called Plants Drop Wisdom, which is a dedicated flower essence therapy training course, but it's also a plant spirit meditation course for especially people who love yoga and know the language of or are interested in the chakras as a map of study or the koshas, which is another map. And these are other tools, other systems that get you into the subtle realms. And in these modalities, so chakras, for example, the subtle realms are also correlated with your development, how you developed as a child, what was your environment, who was around you, the ease or dis-ease that you had at this time in your life, and then each phase growing up from pre-verbal to stepping into the world, the community as a kindergartner, for example, to moving through adolescence, right, to stepping out into the world as a little adult, right? All of these aspects of our brain development and our experience of the world, and how our mind and our energy are reflections of these experiences and inform these experiences can be looked at through the chakras, for example. And so this is one way that we as yogis, as nature lovers, as Ayurvedic practitioners, can really get inside into the subtle realms to affect the changes in the external world that we want to see or to affect the changes within ourselves, healing and transformation that we want to see. We also do this through the psychic blueprint or the sheaths called the koshas, which are a phenomenal mapping system of the psyche and yoga psychology. And yet, what I want to talk to with you about today is a different system than those. And what I love about why I can even share it on this podcast is that I'm giving more of an opportunity to study with me and to learn these ways without having to necessarily become part of a full year-long apprenticeship. Although, if that's something that you're wanting to do, it's coming around the corner. We start again in October. Maybe it's that you can't join or you didn't join our summer plants drop wisdom course, and you still want to get an understanding of how to connect with nature in a way that can really support your growth, your evolution, your healing, your transformation. And yet you still want a taste of something, right? Or maybe you're like, I have no idea what you're talking about. Give me some more uh examples. Give me another little bit of understanding as to what are you doing here in the Wild Temple school. So I'm gonna answer all of these things, or I'm going to give you a little window into this third map. And it's for Ayurvedic practitioners, yoga therapists or practitioners, and nature lovers. And it's gonna give you a window into how to work with the subtle realms, the subtle body to be able to affect how you are moving in the world, how, and there's different subsets of this, you are able to or not able to let go. So we hold on to so much that we really don't know how even to let go of it because maybe we just feel safer holding on to things, even if it's like a painful emotion or painful relationship, it's just comfortable. It's the it's the painful familiar, the the devil we know. And if we could learn how to let go, how freeing that is, and how it does propel us towards a more enjoyable life. Right. This is another map that kind of gets you into these ways of thinking, but with the tools from nature and the tools of your yoga practices. So designing with your body particular postures enhances your ability to tap into these subtle energies. Working with mudras, hand gestures, or body gestures, full body gestures, for example, can also gather and condense particular energies that then you can work with them kind of like a wizard, kind of like a witch. And from all of these uh tools that you find in nature and the practices of either yoga asana or hand gestures or even pranayama, even meditation, even mantra, they all weave together to support the same thing. And that's the intelligence of Tantra. That is the weaving intelligence of Tantra, and this is where we get true empowerment. So I did a podcast episode a little while ago. I honestly I totally forgot about it. It came up on my feed of my podcast platform and it was like, you know, you've had maybe the majority of downloads. I think it was maybe my third most popular episode was Tantra and the and the subtle power of plants. So if you haven't listened to that yet, please go listen to that. This is gonna be a similar episode to that. But I want it to be specifically talking to people who hold or love or want to learn the language of Ayurveda, of yoga, of Tantra. And then we're bringing in the flowers a little bit to help you understand. So maybe get yourself a little cup of tea. I'm gonna sit back and I'm gonna share with you what I'm calling the five pranach arrows, yoga of flowers, and I'll be offering a workshop here. It'll be live and online in Colorado coming up soon, the end of August. But I have a feeling it's just gonna be a continuous workshop that I'll offer in areas around the world. So if you want me to come to you and teach this, please reach out. I will come to your yoga school, I will come to your retreat center, I will come to your home, we can do a little house party, and we can talk about the five pranik arrows, yoga of flowers, and do practices and make remedies to help you be your authentic you to live a life of fulfillment and freedom. So going back just to this Seven of Cups, this you, the protagonist, has come this far on your path, and you have still a good amount of momentum to continue, but you're in this crossroads, and the crossroads is perhaps a conflict. And the conflict doesn't mean something doesn't does not have to be huge. Maybe it is really big. Maybe it's something like a pattern or a thought that has been coming again and again and again, and it's just like tar keeping you stuck, and you know, if I could just be free of this thing, if I could just overcome this thing, then I can move forward. Often that thing, that conflict, that burden is our own mind, is our own way of thinking, of how we relate to ourselves, and of even how we see ourselves. And so this is a really beautiful time to face yourself, to get to know yourself. And I'm not just meaning your capital S self here, like the best, the brightest, the most shiniest parts of you. Let's look at the lower S self. Let's look at where are you getting small instead of deciding I'm gonna be a little brave today and speak up instead of holding back, or walking forward into this group and just talking with them to connect instead of holding back, or just enjoying life a little more, dancing a little harder, going to that exercise class, giving it your full-on experience of joy, or I'm just gonna sweat it all out, like this kind of moment of facing yourself and your small S self in the ways that you've been small to just get a little bigger, to just get a little brighter. And if you don't know where or what that means and what this means for you at this time, you can look at what do you want? My goodness, that's the hardest question. I find personally when I'm asked that, I'm like, I don't know. What do I want? I'm just kind of going with the flow. But that doesn't shape the existence of fulfillment, spiritual freedom, and self-mastery that we are heading towards, that we are wanting as our goal. What do you want? What are you aiming for? Do you need to adjust anything in your approach? So when you're looking at these questions and you really sit with it, and I do invite you to sit down and sit with it. What do you want? What are you aiming for? What are your goals? Do you need to adjust your approach? Maybe you have a lot of wishful thinking. And you're kind of just up there in the ethers, and you're not necessarily bringing things down into the body, into experience, into reality to make them materialize. Is this something that you are facing as a conflict or an obstacle within yourself? This could be a good time to reconcile that. And there's a remedy for this. And there is a yoga practice that you can do that can access is this what it is that you're looking at? I'm gonna get to all this here in a moment. What if what you face when you really look at yourself is inaction? You're just not doing the work. You're talking the talk or you're thinking about it a lot. Thinking, ruminating, dissecting, making it absolutely perfect before you put it out there. That is all, I'm so sorry to say this, called inaction. Once you, you know, you've cooked it, it's you know, you're it's no longer a half baked cookie, it's cooked. Maybe it's a mostly baked cookie, and yet you're still just sitting on it. The inaction can create hesitation, doubt, confusion, fear, and smallness. So what can you do as you face yourself? To move from inaction to action. What can you do to when you face yourself to move from wishful thinking into actualization? To move from the discontent of being small into actually getting big and bright. When we have these patterns within ourselves, these are usually results of not knowing ourself. I mean, how cool is that? That means we have an answer here. We have a solution. When you know yourself, you know, well, I have this habit after 6 p.m. that my energy fades. So it's really hard for me to go out in the evening. It doesn't mean that you're just small and uncapable and antisocial and an introvert and not as funny as all of those other people. It just means you are a morning person, my friend, you are an afternoon enjoyer of life. Go get your buddies and create a different time of day to engage. That would be the action. That would be knowing yourself to empower yourself in a way that you can clear the obstacles or the conflicts that you find are being held in you. So we have these practices in Ayurveda and in yoga called the five prana vayus. And this is a really good topic of study for people who perhaps study either and really want to get to know and a little more deeply yourself. Really want to get the power tools to affect the changes in your life and how you show up in the world by understanding yourself through the lens of yoga and Ayurveda called the prana vayues. Okay, these are keys. This is wizardry school, this is where you're getting into mastery, and it is called the subtle body, the subtle realms. And honestly, it's one of my favorite domains to play in. When we really start to embrace yoga, and it may be that you've just started out and you love the physical practice and you really feel healthier, stronger, more balanced, more capable. But yet what's happening is you're starting to notice some things about your personality or your temper or your emotional volatility or immaturity. And you're like, my goodness, can yoga help me with this? Why, yes, ma'am, it can. Absolutely, it can. And so in this way, we can turn towards the prana vayus to discover where it is that there is the conflict. What are we up against? How is it that we are in relationship with the world and how is it affecting our body and our mind and our emotions? And then from there we can choose how to m how to remedy it. But first, it's getting to know yourself. That's the key. First get to know yourself because that's where the power lies. First get to know yourself because that is where the power lies. So the five prana values are broken down as this. The first is called prana, and this is not prana with a capital P like life force prana, although it is life force within your body. It's more of a lowercase P. We sometimes call it prana, but it's your in-breath. It's your how you've taken in life, the senses, your food, life force energy through the senses and the food to give you life. So it's all it's the energetic force, the energetic intelligence. So that's pretty much what the prana vayus are. They are the energetic intelligences or forces that have a particular direction. And so when we are taking in something, that will either fill us, or it will maybe be too much and overwhelm us, or maybe we are not taking in enough and we feel depleted. So this is where that energy, it's actually situated around the heart, can show physical signs of depletion or radiance based off of your power of intake, how much you've been intaking. So I'll give you an example. You've had a long day, or your friend has had a long day. You can think about the person who's the nurse or the school teacher, and you know they've been doing a lot of work, a lot of talking, a lot of giving, a lot of service, a lot of outward energy movement. So when we've been giving and giving and giving, we have got to replenish. So you could sit your nurse friend down or your teacher, you can just imagine her or yourself closing your eyes and noticing the quality of your next breath in. Maybe it's shaky, maybe it's uh a little tense, the rib cage is tense, the chest area is tense, there's still a lot of stress in the body, so it's blocking that in breath. But the more the body softens and the more it feels you have the time to actually breathe, you're not having to run off to the next thing. She's sitting down, she can just listen and receive. That the building of that inhale naturally fills and expands the body. It expands the space that was once previously tense, contracted, shortened, blocking into a deepening of being able to receive. Or it's very similar to, and that's one replenishment. It can also be very similar to the tired that you feel until you have someone hand you a home-cooked meal. It's vibrant with colors, the aroma is luxurious, and your every cell is drooling. And you just take a bite and you take ten more bites slowly, luxuriating, luxuriating, and you can feel all of a sudden the blood flowing down into your toes, into your extremities, your life force just picked up a little bit, your eyes stopped uh just being a little dull, there's some gleam back in them. This is prana. This is prana by you, the energetic force of replenishment, the intake. Okay. The second, so there are five of them, is the opposite. It's the release, it's the outbreath, which we need to have an in-breath as equally as we need to have an outbreath, and this is life. This is birth, and this is death, this is inspiration and expiration. This is taking in and giving back, receiving, releasing, receiving, giving. Okay. So when we're working with this force now called Apanavayu. Apanavayu is everything that governs the letting go. The sigh out, the good poop, the ability to walk away from a job, walk away from your workday, and letting it all go. It doesn't cling to the mind, it doesn't cling to your back, it's not weighted heavily on the shoulders. Now, what's really interesting is we often have an area of stuckness with the Apanavayu to fear, due to moving too fast, taking on more than we can chew, so to speak. And this results in we're still holding on and it becomes burdensome. It becomes a physical and spiritual constipation. It can become pelvic floor tissues so tight that there is no relaxation, and then this results in your period being painful, no period, amenorrhea, or early onset menopause. Upon a value, the ability to down-regulate, the ability to have a downward flowing motion of metabolic waste, of a release of your menstrual blood, of your urination, of your defecation is necessary for your health, and it's necessary to create the space for the next thing to be ingested. So there's a cycle here, right? You can see that. And I'm just gonna pause here because as the five pranic arrows, when we're looking at this, when we're looking at these values, they're called, they're subsets of air. Value just means air or wind. They're energies. There's five subsets of energy. When we're looking at these two, the one of inspiration and the one of expiration, we can start to look again at who are we? What is our relationship or story to being replenished? What is our relationship or storyline? Right now, right now, in the pause, during this light show or in between the light show, the Seven of Cups momentum, this particular chapter in your life, what is your relationship to being able to truly let go? And it can be look in your closets, like literally look in your closets, look in your junk drawer.

SPEAKER_00 33:37

Are you starting to become a little bit of a collector? The kind word for hoarder.

SPEAKER_01 33:45

Are you holding on to things that are of the past and it doesn't really serve you? It's kind of cluttering the mind, cluttering your emotions. What about if you're in a no-burn um, if you're in a uh an area that does not have a burn ban, right? So you're not in a wildfire area. Go take some things out with some good old gasoline, set it on fire, say a prayer, bon voyage, set it free. Or maybe you can just do a meditation. Um we have a number of meditations of letting go, clearing overwhelm, even because the more we're taking on and we're not letting go that, my friend becomes overwhelm.

unknown 34:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

So we're gonna get to remedies here and solutions here in a minute, but I first want to just map out the five pranavayus. In Ayurveda, they are looked at more as functions of the body. So I spoke a little bit into the inspiration, right? The pranayu being actual breath. It's the intake of breath, it's also the power of um just the life force that moves through you in a manner that gives you the energy for digesting whatever you're gonna digest, for even being able to release what is no longer needed. The actual tasting of your food and taking in of the food, the bringing it into the mouth and chewing. This is all in relationship with the prana vayu through the lens of Ayurveda, and it is a subset here in this mapping system of vata. So, vata, when people are, I use the word vitiated when we say someone has like a vata vitiation or derangement, or they're they're predominantly vata as a constitution, means they're scattered, all energy is all over the place, um, they're not grounded, they're uh you know, very depleted, they're not eating, they're erratic eating. This can be a depletion of prana, prana vayu, and a depletion of a pana vayu, which actually grounds, right? So these are the subsets of vata that we can get a little more granular and working the solutions into each of these particular vayues, this then balances the full capital V vata. Okay, so for some of you, this Ayurvedic speak is a little over your head. Bear with me. I'm just gonna go over this stuff. You can at least get the idea. You don't necessarily need to know the Sanskrit, although if you want to just write it down, there are only five. I'm only saying five words when it's you know in regards to this particular map, and then you can start to understand, wow, I just learned something about Ayurveda. That's very cool. Now, as a practitioner of the yoga of Ayurveda, so I come from the yogic lens. I am, I live Ayurveda, um, but I'm a tantric and I am more of a practitioner-based embodied wisdom keeper. So I'm going to share with you all of this from the yogic lens. So when we're looking at this from the yogic lens, this same function, oh sorry, apanavayu is pooping, peeing. It's actually childbirth, it's defecation, it's urination, all those things. Um, it's also governed, it governs the force of all of those things, and it governs the force of sweating, even. So that kind of release, right? Anything releasing as um, but mostly things that are down and out are Apanavayu, right? And that's the through the Ayurvedic lens of physical. It's getting really hot today, so I can already feel my brain is melting my words. I hope I'm being clear. Now, when we look at this through the yogic lens, we're we're now getting a little more refined into the subtle realms of energy and how we can shape our body in particular positions to enhance these energies. So, looking at that, these same two, prana and apana, we can weave together a sequence of practice that enhances the in-breath. Maybe it's just a little more backbending postures. Maybe you even start off reclimed over a bolster where your chest is being stretched open, the heart is open up to the sky, and you just start to drop in to take deeper and deeper inhalations. It's not that you're avoiding the exhale, you still exhale, but you're building those inhalations and you start to like clear out the cobwebs of that low capacity, of the burnout, even, of the giving too much and being of servitude and not actually replenishing. We have also mudras that we can work with with the hands that directs that energy that we find in our postures, which are also directing that energy specifically to the heart and lungs here, to hone in with the hand gestures, the heart and lung area, or the pranvayu area, which is that same area, heart and lung, a little bit ahead. We can also work in the realms of solutions with flower essences. So this is where we get even more granular, and in this case, I'll share with you one that is really special. I just spent a whole month in Tuscany in an olive grove, and I got to experience just firsthand being around the olive tree, how deeply replenishing it is. So, yes, olive oil, very nutritive. It's like the highest bar, one of the highest bars next to ghee. I'm a huge fan of ghee. Ghee actually can raise cholesterol, so you got to be mindful of that. Olive oil is extremely nutritive on every level. And if you're looking at the tree, it's it makes so much sense. I did a little short story on this. It's going to be in my book, I think, under the banyan. It's coming out maybe in two years. But when you look at olive, it glows, you can see the prana is palpable. So when we are taking in aspects of this plant, it is going to very naturally, because we are also nature, infuse us with more prana. As a flower essence, it's one of the main go-tos for replenishing. It's not only replenishing on a physical level, like if we were to eat olives or to, you know, have olive oil on our salad dressing or cook with olive oil. It does so on an energetic level of spirit. It is spiritually refilling your cup from source. Magical. So magical, so beautiful. Apanavayu, on the other hand, we could frame and sequence a yoga practice where it's maybe more forward folds, maybe longer exhalations, strengthening the ability to let go. And this can be really hard. It can be very hard, especially if you have history of trauma, history of having to be very highly intellectual for survival. It can be very hard to just get into your body to relax, soften, and trust. So here again is where we have our other tools that we can weave in to enhance the value of a pana. Because when you're working through the yogic lens, you work through the power of just energy. Energy is just that. It's just energy, it's just power, it's a force. But that force working with you to help you releasing those thoughts and emotions, to help you feel more comfortable in your body, to help you ground down in a way that you can actually have a nice clear period with no PMS, is working in the subtle realms through yoga as the container, but through this map of the values, you're supporting your uniqueness, right? Learning about you who you are, what do you need, what do you want, and then applying these tools to actually reach the goal. And often we need more support than we think we do. And when we're weaving in these very key tools, I call them sacred technologies, these very key sacred technologies that all have a very similar way of working with the same energy, but through a slightly different perspective, a slightly different wavelength, we could even say, a slightly different modality. Like one would be yoga asana, the other one is how you're holding your hands, those create circuits of energy, where you're focusing your mind and attention, how you're breathing, all of that works with this again, these energies, and then you bring in the plants too that have specific qualities for the area that you are focusing on. This is called anupana. The carrier brings it right in. This is a little Ayurveda or Tantra Oshadi, tantric herbalism. That carrier of the medicine is going right into the place where you need it. This is Tantra. This is the five pranagaros, the yoga of flowers. And it will be an offering that I would love to come to a studio near you. Or if you just want to host it and gather your friends together, I'll be more than happy to give you these practices and share with you the particular remedies that work with each of these values to help you in your authentic self in whatever chapter you are in in life, because it's formulaic, it's not one size fits all, but they work, right? And that can help you. So I'm going to talk about the other three values, and we'll just wrap it up for today. But the last three are Samana Vayu, which is located around the belly. This is power of metabolization, your ability to assimilate that which you've ingested through the pran value. Take in whatever is needed. So you're not the hoarder, but you're actually holding on to things that are worthy that will help you in the moment and in the near future, and maybe future future, and you let go of all the rest. The Apanavayu then gets cleared. There's no blockage there. A lot of our root insecurities, doubts, fears, um, feelings, habits, inherited belief systems that make us hold on to things actually have their source here in the naval center, how we're metabolizing. And when that is weak, we have practices from yoga that we can do, specific practices. And, you know, some would be twists, some would be forward folds because that helps to clear out whatever has been building up, maybe in the form of a constipation, right? We're clearing that out. Maybe it's a little lateral stretch, like banana asana, where you're actually opening up more space in your colon so that the old stuff can be released. This is Samana Vayu through the physical function of Ayurveda. We can work with the physical body of yoga to actually help move things, right, for metabolism and digestion. But then we can drop into the subtle realms that are the domain of Tantra Yoga, of yoga, of um flower essences. So this is all the subtle domain. And we can take things like Shastadais, for example, to help you integrate all of the different wisdom tools that you've been studying so that you can no longer feel overwhelmed, no longer feel like you've been Frankensteining all of these things together, but there is a cohesion. There's a cohesion, and that cohesion empowers you. And you realize, oh, my seven of cups is holy shit, I know enough. I'm gonna work with this essence, and I'm gonna focus on building my website, designing the workshop, giving the dharmic offering, doing the project that I've been hesitating on, finishing that quiz, getting my certification, showing up in the world in a way that I am no longer stuck, I'm no longer playing it small, and I am shining my authentic self like a badass, like a badass. S star that you are. This is the power of Samana Vayu. Last two, when you have that power of integration, you've assimilated, you're releasing, you're not holding on to the stuff, you are feeling uh pronically filled, replenished, then what very naturally happens is you, your expression of self, the beauty that is you, your authenticity, your creations, your eloquence start to come out of you. And often this comes out through your voice, how you speak, how you write. Um, we can even see it as action and will, but it's really through the evolution of you, this wiser version of you, the mature version of you. This is called Udana Vayu, U-D-A-N-A. Udana Vayu is around uh the energy is located around the throat. And we can work with sound, we can work with yoga asana while chanting. We can work with particular mantras to enhance this evolutionary self, the ability for you to really bring into the world you. This is the heart of what this energy, this seat is about. In Ayurveda, as a function, it can be, yeah, the power of your voice, the vocal box. Your um sometimes we have shaky voices, right? Or we have little mousy voices, or we're holding back and we're whispering instead of really vocalizing what's needing to be said. Maybe you're a singer and you just are too shy, but you know you singing, you're getting vocal lessons, it's going to clear the blocks. There are a lot of vocal us, vocalists out there. I would say this is a really good time to find them because I'm sure they need the work, and this is supporting someone in their dharma. They can help you clear the blocks through your own voice to evolve. It's a specific niche. Find that person, okay. So clearing that, moving that energy. This is going to be you evolving into the next chapter of you. So you're Seven of Cups. You're now woof. I'm gonna jump forward into the next chapter of freedom and fulfillment, and you're really starting to gain some traction. You're really starting to become the leader, the leader that is not an authoritative do what I say leader, but there's a non-hierarchical togetherness where you are a good listener, you still delegate well, you take the reins well, there's no emotional immaturity and drama that is befuddling your leadership skills. This is what we want, right, as evolving humans. The last is called Viana, V-Y, A N A. And this is your circulation, both inside, so through Ayurveda, this is your literal circulation, how your heart is moving oxygen and blood throughout the body, how you are circulating your lymphatic system so that waste can move out of the body, even the circulation of proper sweating, like the sweat itself, that release is a pana. But if you're not circulating, if you're not getting the pranic movement, the energy behind it, the exercise behind it, which is in the domain of the vyyana vayu, Ayurvedically, right, the physical form of it, then you'll not sweat. All right. And a lot of times, even when we don't move, when we're not circulating more on a subtle level, we become depressed, we become stagnant, we become lethargic, we stay small. We're not um able to let go because we're holding on to maybe an idea or a belief that is untrue. And if we were just to get out in the damn world, we would realize that, oh shit, what you've been thinking is dated. That person does not hold a grudge with you anymore. You are actually being seen as a very loving, kind person. You actually just have to show up into the community to feel it. You don't have to hold back anymore. When you circulate in this way, your viana vayu gets really strong. But also, if you have a hard time circulating, focus on viana vayu, focus on the subtle body to get the actual physical movement happening, whether it's your circulation, your lymphatic system moving, your sweat releasing, or it's you getting up off the couch, actually going to an event, going to the art show, going to a music event, calling your friends, gathering them together for brunch, this kind of circulation. It's okay, you can do this too, even though you have 1,000 things to do on your list as a mom or as a caretaker, and 2,000 things to do for work. You can carve out that Tuesday afternoon for the bike ride with your friend and feel the circulation of your exercise and the body and the communication and the brilliance of the sun on your skin and how that makes you shine and you get big in all of the beautiful ways. And that bigness, that bigness feeling, the subtle body bigness is freedom, it's joy, it's pleasure, it's no longer staying small. On a flower essence level, mallow, m-a-l-l-o-w, mellow, like a marshmallow, is a really beautiful one for community connection. If you are the one that is a little more introverted and you want to be a little more circulating in the world, into the book club, into the friend's home, into bringing people into your home. Mallow helps with really connecting the heart forces so we can think about the prana, that heart force of love. And I have enough inspiration, I have enough capacity, energy, even just life force energy within me to connect. Mallow is a really good one to turn towards. So we're gonna go more deeply again into all of these. This map called the five prana vayus. I'm calling it the five pranic arrows, because these are the subsets, the subtle body energies that when you direct them toward a particular goal, it's like an arrow. The arrow will meet you exactly where you're needing to go, where you're wanting to go when you're answering these questions. What do you want? What are you aiming for? What do you need to adjust for the approach to reach the goal? Five pranic arrows. We got this. And then the yoga of flowers is bringing nature and to support you, getting out in nature and learning from the intelligence that nature is, which that intelligence is also subtle, subtle and profound. All right, dear one. Thank you so much for being here with me in this beautiful time of the Wild Temple Podcast episode. Please feel free to drop me any questions, any comments. You can leave them right in the reviews on whatever podcast platform you're listening, or you can email me Brooke with an e at the wild temple.com. I would love to hear back from you. I can actually address questions that you have on the next episode. And if you're interested in joining our community, we do have a free Twilight community. Go to thewildemple.com and you'll just see how to hop in there. I'd love to have you. All right, enjoy your day.