NOVEMBER 7-8
11:30-4:30pm
Heather Beier E-RYT500
in-studio
10hrs $199

There is a map of the heart that has existed for thousands of years. It does not tell you where to go. It tells you who you already are.

This course is a deep and beautiful self-exploration of the four qualities of the heart, known in Sanskrit as the Brahmaviharas. Often translated as the divine abodes or the immeasurable qualities, the Brahmaviharas are not abstract ideals to be studied from a distance. They are living, practicable virtues, capacities that already exist within you, waiting to be cultivated, refined, and brought into daily life.

In both yogic and Buddhist philosophy, these four qualities are considered essential to the awakened heart. Together they form a complete relational framework, a way of meeting yourself, meeting others, and meeting the full range of human experience with steadiness and grace. When cultivated over time they dissolve the habitual patterns of reactivity, judgment, and separation that keep us from genuine connection, and they orient us instead toward what is most true and most human in all of us.

This is not a course about being nicer. It is a course about being more awake.

We will explore each of the four qualities in depth:

Maitri, Loving-kindness
The unconditional wish for happiness and wellbeing, beginning with ourselves and radiating outward to all beings without exception. Maitri is not sentimentality or forced positivity. It is a radical, sustained openness to the fundamental goodness that lives in every person, including the ones who are hardest to love, including yourself. In a world that profits from self-doubt and comparison, maitri is an act of quiet rebellion.

Karuna, Compassion
The capacity to be genuinely moved by suffering without being consumed or overwhelmed by it. Karuna is not pity, which looks down, and it is not empathy without boundaries, which collapses. It is the ability to stay present with pain, your own and others', and to meet it with tenderness, courage, and an open hand rather than resistance or avoidance. Karuna asks us to let what matters to others actually matter to us.

Mudita, Sympathetic Joy
Perhaps the most quietly transformative of the four, mudita is the sincere ability to rejoice in the happiness, success, and good fortune of others as if it were your own. In a culture saturated with comparison and competition, mudita is the antidote. It is the quality that makes genuine community possible, the place where we stop measuring ourselves against each other and start celebrating each other instead. Mudita reveals where our shadows live and invites us to meet them with curiosity rather than shame.

Upeksha, Equanimity
A vast, spacious, and steady quality of mind that remains balanced and clear in the face of life's constant change. Upeksha is often misunderstood as indifference or detachment, a kind of emotional distance. It is the opposite. Upeksha is the deep, rooted ground from which genuine love and compassion can be offered freely and without depletion. It is what allows us to be fully present without being destabilized. It is the quality that makes the other three sustainable.

Together the Brahmaviharas form a complete map of the heart's potential. They are not a checklist or a self-improvement project. They are a practice, one that unfolds slowly over a lifetime of showing up with honesty and willingness.

This course weaves together yogic philosophy, contemplative practice, self-inquiry, and embodied exploration. You will leave not just with an understanding of these four qualities but with a felt sense of how they live in your body, your relationships, and your daily life. Whether you are a seasoned teacher or a dedicated practitioner, this course will meet you exactly where you are and invite you gently further

FEBRUARY 12-14 (20-25 hrs)
Wildrice Retreat/Big Raven
Heather Beier E-RYT500

Self-study, soul inquiry, and sacred intention

Before we can lead from a place of clarity, before we can serve from a place of steadiness, before we can speak from a place of truth, we must know what is really ours to say. We must meet ourselves.

This is not just another training. It is a return. A remembering. A necessary pause in the middle of the becoming.

Practice + Purpose is an immersive weekend rooted in the teachings of Svadhyaya, self-study not as self-analysis but as sacred encounter. Over two days we will move with the wisdom of Dharma, Karma, and Seva not as concepts to memorize but as pathways to walk. We will listen for the call of Sankalpa, that deep inner vow that does not shout but knows.

This weekend is for the teacher or practitioner who wants their life to feel like it belongs to them again. Who wants their service to be a reflection of their essence, not their effort. Who is ready to stop performing and start inhabiting.

We will explore:

Abhyasa and Vairagya, sustained practice and the art of letting go, learning to receive instead of control.

Dharma, defining the soul statement of your life, your values, your deeper why, and how you are here to serve.

Samskara Inquiry, recognizing the limiting patterns that create contraction and meeting them with compassion.

Sankalpa, creating a heartfelt resolve that speaks directly to your potential, one you can live into breath by breath.

Embodied Practice, movement sessions that attune you to sensation, release held tension, and support nervous system regulation through intelligent somatic sequences.

This training is intimate, thoughtful, and designed to meet you where you are without overwhelm and without urgency. You are not learning who to become. You are remembering who you are, and letting everything you offer rise from there.