Brittany Boles
live a magical life
Daily Devotion
I’m exhausted. Drained. Done for the day. Ready to stay in bed with the toddler at 8pm.
But – I didn’t do that. I had a promise to keep.
Three weeks ago I awoke from a dream with a chant ringing in my head:
Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha
The remover of obstacles, given to me as a response to my plea for help. I had hit a wall and couldn’t seem to find my way around it.
I googled the Sanskrit, not remembering what it meant, and found an article stating that one would do well to commit to chanting it each day for forty days. I took that to heart.
The mantra’s effect was immediate and powerful. So I’ve kept my promise, despite late nights writing, solar flares affecting my energy, fighting off a head cold, and all the rest.
A full mala: 108 repetitions daily.
That’s dedication to practice, or tapas. A daily devotion. And damn, it feels good.
Even though I teach yoga and meditation almost every day, multiple times a day, my own practice can slide. Teaching isn’t the same as devoting myself. Any teacher will tell you the same. It tugs at us, drains a bit of our life force energy, when we neglect our own practice in favor of guiding someone else’s.
My devotion is to myself, and to this chant, and the great One-ness to which it is sent. It feels a bit like prayer, or worship, or fiery austerity; and I am glad I have it.
Tonight, I was drained. But I kept my promise, even though it meant I had to sit on the kitchen floor in the dark because the kid was asleep in my room and my husband was watching TV in the other room.
That’s devotion. I get it, now.
Daily practice matters. Mine is everything; it fills an empty cup and gets me out of bed at 8pm. Yeah. I said PM.
Didge You Know? Sound is Healing! (Press Release)
Sound healing is a thing. In fact, the didgeridoo is an ancient musical instrument and powerful tool that produces a broad range of sound frequencies proven to effect – and even aid in healing – the human body and psyche.
On Sunday, March 25th, from 1-3:00 PM at Magical Yoga, internationally-renowned Didgeridoo Sound Therapist Joseph Carringer returns to Wolfeboro to offer a “Quantum Manifestation Workshop.” The workshop covers: the significance of “reality,” cross-cultural ideas of consciousness, and co-creating through intention and meditation. Joseph will be playing his aboriginal didgeridoos for nearly an hour as he leads an experiential quantum manifestation meditation.
Studio owner Brittany Boles writes, “Every. Singe. Time. I go to Joseph’s didgeridoo workshops, I have an out of body experience. I expect Sunday to be otherworldly.”
What is it about didgeridoos that so powerfully affects us? Joseph explains that the didgeridoo produces ultrasound frequencies similar to those used by medical practitioners for a wide range of muscular skeletal therapies. The low frequency creates a “sound massage” that can relieve a wide range of joint, muscular, and skeletal pain as well as aid in post-operative healing.
“Even though the workshop is in my yoga studio,” Brittany says, “it’s not going to be ‘yoga’ how we think of it. People will be laying comfortably on blankets and pillows the whole time, listening to Joseph teach and play his instruments. It’s a low-key, comfy affair. No movement necessary!”
Joseph, in addition to being a concert musician and sound therapist, has a history of alternative healing and consciousness practices. He has spent time learning and practicing alongside Acupuncturists and Shaman, and strongly believes that “we possess the power to influence, change, and recreate the world around us.”
Sunday’s workshop is about the whole person: mind, body, and spirit. Joseph says, “The didgeridoo’s unique sound enables listeners to achieve deep meditative brainwave states of theta and delta quickly and easily.”
Magical Yoga is located in the Durgin Stables building overlooking Back Bay. Joseph Carringer and his didgeridoos will be there for the Quantum Manifestation Workshop on Sunday, March 25, from 1-3:00 PM. Tickets and more information can be found here.
Extra Terrestrials Panel – Press Release
An extra-terrestrial discussion panel happens at Magical Yoga in downtown Wolfeboro on Friday the 16th at 6:30 pm. Studio owner Brittany Boles has developed a series of Metaphysical Discussion Panels, in which this is the third topic.
“The public seems really interested in these things,” Brittany said of the series. “I think Wolfeboro is a microcosm of the world around us, which is waking up a little more each day to the idea that life is more than what we maybe thought it was.”
The discussion panel is comprised of Brittany and two other locals: Raecine Delaney and Daosith Lemay, both of Wolfeboro. Together, they make up a “panel of humans well versed in ET, UFO, and other-planetary knowledge.”
Brittany described the event experience: “People come up to the studio bringing interest levels varying from mild curiosity to burning questions. The panel introduces ourselves and talks a bit about our unique viewpoints on the topic, and then we open it up to questions. So far, the discussions have been audience-driven and really interesting. We never know what’s going to happen until we get into it.”
What do extra terrestrials have to do with yoga, though? Panel human Daosith offered, “we are entering a wonderful time for Humanity. A time of drastic change and empowerment. We are receiving vast amount of help NOW. Some of the help is coming from ‘higher’ conscious beings, such as ETs, whom are here to assist us through this ascension process.”
Brittany elaborated, “Magical Yoga’s tagline is ‘discover the magnitude of human potential,’ because yoga is really about empowerment. It’s all the same. Ascension, waking up, magic, metaphysics, energy – call it what you want. It’s about becoming who we really are.”
On Friday, March 16th, at 6:30pm in the upstairs Magical Yoga studio, the Extra Terrestrials Discussion panel will be open to take questions and, as Raecine put it, “share our experiences and encourage others to open up to the healing energy of working with deity/extraterrestrials who have real messages for us as humans on our journeys.” Tickets are $15 at the door or by pre-registering here.
Choose Love
We are told that our motivations boil down to two basic opposites: love and fear.
I want us to take it deeper. I want to lean into fear. I believe that, if we can find enough courage to lean into what we consider darkness – anger, fear, hopelessness, lethargy – we will find, at the root of all emotion, a spark of love.
We see tragedy abounding in the world, and we feel it weighing on our hearts and minds. The media – “fake” and “real” alike – are touting sensationalized horror. We’re told to take sides, take action, have an opinion, fight for what we believe. We’re inundated with the illusion of separation by an onslaught of pro- and anti- everything and everyone, shown cruelty and injustice with the casual implication that it’s a systemic status quo, and continuously but subliminally shamed for these maladies to such a degree that we are blaming each other.
We are being force-fed fear and responding in kind.
So many of us – myself included, at times – equate taking a stand with acting out of love. We believe that to “fight for what’s right” means we are evolved, making a difference, or at the very least shirking off a system of oppression. I’ve been there. I’ve been at the protests, argued my morals, distanced myself from the whatever-ists that I deplore.
It didn’t feel like love, though. It felt like . . . like a good start, maybe. I felt angry, justified, visible, and alive – but I didn’t feel peaceful, loving, or satisfied. I felt hungry. Starving, even. I wanted more! More action! More separation from that which is wrong! More information! More! More! More!
And then one day, or maybe more slowly than that, it began to dawn on me. I was being manipulated by the very system I intended to revolutionize, in playing out the game of its orchestration. By picking a side, taking a stand, and fighting, I was staying in a place of anger, fear, and lack. I would never be satisfied, because it was a war that couldn’t be won – not like that, anyway. I would never know, do, fight, or say enough.
We are being pitted against each other, on purpose, because it serves the endless hunger for separation to which we have been unknowingly enslaved. Our food has been under lock and key for so long that we’ve forgotten what it’s like to have enough, to go easy, and to feel satisfied. We’ve become so used to fear that we don’t even recognize it anymore.
What’s underneath all that fear? And how do we find it? As cliché as it sounds, it begins by turning off the fear-machine. Years ago, I said no thanks to the news. As hard as it was, I even had to tune out my most trusted conspiracy theory outlets. It’s all the same: it’s all the fear machine, subtly and aggressively keeping us hungry.
Once I tuned into myself, and my community, instead, I started to recognize love again. Love is what’s underneath my sadness. When I get angry at another school shooting, I lean into the anger. What’s beneath the fury? Sorrow at the violence and loss of life; empathy for those experiencing the despair of losing their sense of safety and for those who were so consumed by fear that they turned to violence. Beyond the sorrow, I find love for my fellow humans, and a deep craving to share that love.
Why do we come together in candlelight vigil? Why do we cry extra hard when someone hugs us? Because love offers us a way out of our pain – it gives us light to see through the darkness and to release the weight of it all. We always feel better when we follow that light, when we allow it in. To stay inside the darkness, to believe in its finality, is the true tragedy.
I say, lean into the anger. Lean into your fear, sadness, rage, and hopelessness. Find the courage to pull apart the threads of the black veil we’ve sewn over our hearts – stare the demons in the face and see how they change. See what lies under the initial emotion, and then ask yourself “what is motivating this?”
When you find the love, choose it. It’s not enough to know that love exists; we must choose to act upon it. We must make a daily practice out of love and allow it to inundate our experience to such a degree that true satisfaction is achieved. We do not need to be hungry! There is enough for everyone.
Start small, like I didn’t. I had to travel across the ocean to Haiti to try to solve the world’s problems before I realized that the solutions are inside each one of us. It’s all so, so messed up – how we “change things.” That’s not to say that there aren’t people and organizations out there choosing love; I am blessed enough to know a few. But, for the most part, anytime we try to change something or someone outside of ourselves, we are contributing to the fear-machine by perpetuating the illusion of hunger and lack.
Let us have faith in each other’s ability to choose and act out of love. Let us stop blaming each other for the state of the world and, instead, offer love and support to our fellow humans by taking real loving action. That person on FaceBook who never seems to catch a break? Buy them a new set of tires instead of donating to that political campaign you’re just sure is going to beat the guy you hate. Furious at the food industry for its decimation of the planet? Offer to spend a few hours helping your local farmer instead of going out to lunch. Sick and tired of gun violence in schools? Volunteer to mentor a child.
It’s that easy to choose love. It’s that obvious. We are not separate from each other. Laws aren’t going to change things. Corporations aren’t suddenly going to do the right thing, no matter how noble and touching their latest commercial.
Only love is real. Find it. Just fucking find it. And, when you do, make sure you choose it.
Magick (Ask a Witch) Press Release
Witchcraft has been hunted and persecuted throughout history, but ancient secrets survived the fires. On Friday, February 16th at 6:30pm, a panel of witches will share these secrets with the public at the second of a five-part metaphysical discussion panel series at Magical Yoga in Wolfeboro.
“Discussion panels are so ‘Wolfeboro,’” Brittany Dube, the owner of Magical Yoga, said. “That’s why I wanted to bring these topics to the studio. We have a thriving, but somewhat underground, metaphysical community here who is very eager to come together and learn. What better way to do that than through an interactive question-and-answer event?”
Magick (Ask a Witch) is the second in a five-part series and features three New Hampshire witches who are out in the open practicing their craft. While the stigma around witchcraft has lessened in terms of physical danger, it is safe to say that the practice is still deeply misunderstood by the general public.
Angela, one of three panel witches, has been practicing for nearly twenty years. She infuses science, herbalism, massage therapy, and spirituality into her holistic wellness career. As a self-proclaimed “nerd,” she spends as much time researching the science behind the practice as she does practicing. “That’s why people tend to listen to me when I go on a ‘woo-woo’ tangent,” she joked on social media, “they know I know my stuff.”
Jeremy (Wolfeboro) is the token male witch on the panel, and the one with the most mainstream career as a chef here in town. He followed a traditional path, finding Wicca when he was serving in the US Navy, and has taken it into his life as a spiritual practice.
Victoria (Wolfeboro) “understands the importance of shadow work and being in touch with our darker sides.” An avid bone collector, gardener, and floral designer, she spends every day immersed in magick.
Magick is a real, living tradition that has been passed down through generations despite persecution. What a time we are living in, to be able to come to a public event and speak to witches, out in the open, about this ancient practice!
Magical Yoga is hosting this discussion panel on Friday, February 16th at 6:30pm in the upstairs studio for $15 a ticket. All are welcome. Tickets and more information are available online at http://www.MagicalYoga.org or by calling Brittany Dube at 603-520-3512.
Brittany Boles 