SHE Asked Podcast
Welcome to The SHE Asked Podcast with Anna McBride—a space where the stories we tell ourselves are challenged, reimagined, and rewritten to unlock personal transformation.
Hosted by former therapist, storyteller, and lifelong seeker Anna McBride, this podcast dives deep into the power of narrative. Through personal stories and intimate conversations with guests, we explore how shifting our internal dialogue can change not just how we see our lives—but how we live them.
Each episode offers what Anna calls “practical hope”—real tools, lived experience, and emotional honesty for anyone feeling stuck, lost, or ready for change. Whether you’re navigating divorce, grief, reinvention, or simply trying to understand your past, The SHE Asked Podcast invites you to become the author of your own story—and the hero in it, too.
Follow along for weekly episodes filled with compassion, perspective, and the courage to ask yourself:
What story am I telling—and is it still serving me?
SHE Asked Podcast
Yoga Nidra + The Awakened Path: How to Embody the Divine in the Everyday | with Tanis Fishman
In this episode of She Asked: Tools for Practical Hope, Anna sits down with Tanis Fishman, founder of The School of Sankalpa, a mystic, teacher, and master of Yoga Nidra meditation. Together, they explore the profound intersection between spiritual awakening, motherhood, and the embodied path to the divine.
Tanis shares her remarkable story from a disorienting start whil searching for meaning, to awakening experiences in India, and through motherhood as her greatest spiritual teacher. She discusses what it means to be a modern mystic while raising children, paying bills, and navigating the complexities of life, and how true spirituality is not an escape from the human experience, but a deeper embodiment of it.
This conversation invites listeners to see their pain as a portal, their daily life as practice, and their human story as sacred initiation.
✨ In this episode, you’ll learn:
- What Yoga Nidra really is and how it can awaken consciousness
- How motherhood can be a profound spiritual practice
- How to stay connected to Source while living in the modern world
- The meaning of the Upanishads and their timeless truth
- How to stop seeking and start embodying your spirituality
- Why pain, imperfection, and disconnection are all part of the spiritual path
🎧 Listen now to rediscover the peace, purpose, and presence that’s already within you.
TANIS FISHMAN
🗺️The School of Sankalpa
🗺️Yoga Nidra Online Courses
🗺️Mentorship Container
RECOMMENDED READING
Essence of the Upanishads by Eknath Easwaran
Welcome back to She Asks: Tools for Practical Hope. I'm your host, Anna McBride, and I'm so excited that you're here with us today. On today's episode, I'm gonna have a conversation with one of my teachers. I find her to be a very wise and interesting woman, although she refers to herself as a mystic. She is a master of Yoganitra, and I'm a big fan of her meditations. That's how we met. But more on that later. For now, it is my pleasure to introduce the founder of the School of Sankulpa, Tennis Fishman. So glad you're here, Tennis. Welcome.
Speaker 2:Hi Anna. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really happy to be connected with you and for our paths to cross. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, me too. Thank you. Tennis, on our show, she asks, we like to start with a story. So I would really love for you to share a story about how it is that you came to this world of work that you do. Would you share that with us, please?
Speaker 2:Yes, sure. I just want to preface that I see things from like a wide angle lens, and how I've mapped it thus far in retrospect, is I see it from my human lens, and that's how I'll describe the story. But underneath that, and through that, there's the inner child that had unmet needs and it was wounded. And then also enmeshed in that is the soul consciousness that is here to grow and learn and requiring very specific experiences. And then holding the entire container of that is the higher consciousness that is untouched by it all. And so that's happening, those perspectives are happening for me all the time. And so I'm going to hone in from the perspective of sitting in the front seat, and from my human perspective of this. So when I reflect back on my journey, I would often describe my early life as a feeling of being a bit disoriented. Like I got off the bus at the wrong stop, kind of that feeling. People seemed to know the rules and were so in the game. And I was standing off on the sidelines, watching and feeling very misplaced and very overwhelmed. And I could sense that there was this ache or this restlessness in me to understand what this is all about. And the without knowing these were my questions and having the words for it, it was like, who am I and why am I here? And these questions were really alive in me at such a young age. And then as soon as I was old enough to follow my own path, I went looking for truth and for even the institutions and the people that could support me with these questions. And so I read a lot, I studied, I practiced, and then I went to India multiple times and went to study in ashrams. And so eventually in my early 20s, I was back in India in Rishakesh and I was on a meditation retreat. And in our downtime, something that I can't fully explain what happened, but it was like when your ears get plugged and you can't hear, and then all of a sudden they unplug, and it was like a popping sound like that. It was like a bubble of me popped, and suddenly I was everything. And like my conscious spilled over, and I was afield. And there was no thinking, there was no striving, it was just pure awareness. And that was, I guess, like my first awakening where I felt fully alive and at a depth of peace I had never touched before. There was no reference to a personal self, there was no personal point of view. And so that was a really significant moment of touching the benevolence of consciousness and that it's all really a source of oneness. And then for a while after that, my mind was completely still. And then it was almost probably like a year after my ego construct started to slowly reconstruct itself. And the noise of life returned. And my personality and my conditioning and my old patterns, the habitual tendency of my thought patterns all came back. And that's when I also realized like if that wasn't a sustainable state for me, then the journey is not finished. I'm still on it. And my path became deeper in that time period. Another significant experience that also shaped the work I'm doing is that later I met someone on a spiritual pilgrimage who I really connected with and felt was like my home frequency. Like I had found the one, like this is it. And the one I've been waiting for that's gonna solve my entire life. And we married and we had a child. This is my second child. I have a child from a previous partnership, and it felt like this was the dream I had always longed for. And then that relationship became a sacred fire. And what I thought was my greatest love, it was the greatest initiation. And it cracked me open. It made, it brought me into the darkest corners of myself and places that I was not willing to see. And as that, as the marriage was unraveling, and I was navigating sleepless nights and postpartum psychosis and single parenting, then of two boys. And I was at my wits end. It was brutal, absolutely brutal. And somewhere in that total collapse, I was brought through a very strong inner ceremony with the support of a dear friend that was there to witness me through this. And I can only describe it as like a soul initiation. And I was turned around from trying to get out of everything and escape. And I am with the thought, relentless thought forms. I'm not my body, I'm not my thoughts, I'm not this, I'm not that. I want to get out of here. It turned me around to face and feel everything that was there. And it was almost like a life, like a very deep life review, meeting my resistance, my pain, my emotions, facing it, feeling it. And the process, I met my pain, and then I asked for forgiveness. And then eventually I felt gratitude with every single experience. And this went on for hours until I was completely broken down and there was nothing left. And in that moment of nothingness, I stood up, and this was after like hours of ugly crying and emoting and struggle. And then I just stood up and I vocalized I am. And that was the recognition of the self, the non-self or the self. And that was also what initiated me into the teachings of the Sankalpa, the I am presence. So that that stopped the search of seeking the self. That came full stop. I realized I had healing to do because I was no longer a seeker. I had to actually start to heal the physical body. I had to heal the mental constructs. And so my healing path began. My embodiment path began from that moment. I wasn't interested in any of that when I was seeking who and what I am. And the last little piece that's shaping the work I'm doing right now, I was at a retreat that focused on recreating the conditions of our birth. And it's a process called rebirthing. And we entered warm water and we're wearing a mask, doing holotropic breathing to access the body's cellular memory and to make the whatever was unconscious in our birth conscious, and how we came into this incarnation. And with a support of very skilled facilitators and trusted practitioners, I was guided right into the core imprint of my birth, the original pain that I came in with.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:And that pain was that was like at the default of my nervous system. It was like underpinning everything, my whole life's journey. And so when I met that pain directly, without trying to fix it or escape it, and actually merged into it to experience it consciously, but a download came in and it was from my soul. And there was the understanding that pain was a fuel that shaped and created my path. All the experiences on my path were required and all led to this moment. And lots was happening in that moment. But then there was the very clear message that it's time to reopen my spiritual channel again. And after that, I started to listen to the guidance that led me to my teacher that I have right now. And what I'm learning now is almost like a doorman, I'm connecting with and allowing more of the benevolent energies that are here all the time, these primal sources, and inviting them more consciously into the space to hold the container. And this is also happening in the guidance of my meditation now. Yeah. So just to sum up the journey, it's that the mystical and the mundane, the humanness of it all really for me is it's all sacred. It's all an initiation from spirit to embody this human form.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Wow. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Quite a story because I feel that what you're essentially saying is the work that you're doing, you authentically came to it through your own transformational healing experience. And that as a result of that initiation, you're able to bring those modalities, bring those healing practices to your clients. Does that sound right? Yeah. I love it because I certainly do the same thing myself. I would never and have never wanted to espouse or teach something that I wasn't authentically doing or have done myself and felt the benefit of it. So that's great. Now you use the word mystic, and even in your the information that describes you, it's it you're actually listed as a mystic editor. So can you tell me a bit about what that means and for our listeners as well as particularly in the world as it is now where there's so much noise, so much distraction, so much information.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So when I use the word mystic, for me it's not someone like removed from daily life or in the moments of seeking the divine. To me, the a mystic is is uh someone who's in relationship all of the time with the unseen, with the divinity of our consciousness. And just to speak very personally, it's like there's a constant knowing, a constant recognition that the divine is already here. It's enmeshed in everything, every moment, every experience. Living in constant relationship with a greater force that is beyond my personal local self. And from every breath and every moment, it's made of the one true source. It's made of the same consciousness. It's there, present in the background all of the time. And there are times where maybe there's more spiritual experiences that are happening, but that happens far and few between for me. It's more of this constant relationship and recognition that the ordinary is sacred. And when I use the word mystic editor, it's about my relationship that I've had with words. And I think because I myself was very dysregulated as a child, and I wasn't able to express what I needed, or I just felt so disoriented in this world. And me as a guide, these words are pathways to a return to home and to peace and to ease. And using these words to guide people through the wilderness of their consciousness, it was it's birthed from not only my own wounding, but also what I'm here designed to support and guide others through the terrain that I've had to know so deep and intimate because I was so confused and disoriented. And like when I discover these maps, my my words become like the rope, the tether that people can trust that they're it's here. And I feel like very there's like for some reason there's this responsibility for keeping words alive.
Speaker 1:Okay. So it's like a language, basically, and you're a translator. Yes, exactly. So the maps that you're talking about is the language that will carry you into these states of consciousness. Is that right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and many words can be empty. They can be learned, and many words I've had to recalibrate from what I learned the words to be to them getting calibrated to the very essence of what they are into an embodied state. So they have to be energetically aligned and true. So these words that I use when I'm guiding, they have to live through my body. And then once they do, they carry a frequency. And then often from just speaking, it becomes more of a transmission.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And yeah, and the one, and there's some words that I haven't fully embodied yet. I haven't lived, and I know that, and they sit on my inner altar awaiting realization. They're like pending with their realization, and so they're not fully calibrated yet. But I know that they I trust my path that the words that need to get calibrated and live, they will. And then that's when I can guide others to that.
Speaker 1:Some of the work that I do with my clients is about rewriting their narratives and taking the story that they've been re-enlivening in their minds all their life and revising. And generally speaking, it's an always in a much more negative way, which keeps the trauma heightened. And perhaps as I work with them to rewrite it, in a way, I've had to find language to recalibrate the energy of their story, which sounds a little bit like what you're doing. And some of those words to be really meaningful, they have to first carry meaning within you from your experience. Is that what you're saying? Yeah.
Speaker 2:Totally. Totally.
Speaker 1:Right. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And then just another add-on to this too, like with the Mystic Editor, it's now in my work, it's not just the words, but it's also the silence and the space. So that too has come really alive. And that's the words are can guide and point, but it's the silence and the space where the realization can happen. And so that too is all part of the realm of the mystic editor. Like words, no words. But yeah, it sounds like though in our own ways, we're yeah, we're calibrating what was maybe misaligned or miscalibrated, or like a lower frequency and making this come into full potency and aliveness.
Speaker 1:That's great. A follow-up question I have relative to this is how do you balance being in the world and not of the world? These old ideas of what yogis of the past used to be like, the mystics of their time, had to live in a cave to be removed from their the daily noise or what and so how do you balance that yourself? You don't live in a cave, right? I do. No, I don't.
Speaker 2:This is this is an ongoing practice for me. It definitely is not mastered. I'm in the thick of parenting, paying bills, working through the complexity of co-parenting, definitely no saint. But I continuously cultivate the inner qualities and the inner attributes of our pure awareness, which is non-judging and it's not identified with what's happening. And this isn't a constant state for me, but I would say the pure awareness is experiencing this realm, but it's beyond this realm. And I'm learning the art of being with what is arising with less and less judgment and less and less identification of it. And it's slow and it's a practice, but becoming slowly more identified, if I can use that word in that way, as the awareness that is holding this all, that is experiencing this all, and less identified by the parts that are having the experience.
Speaker 1:So for those of my followers, and I would include myself in that, where we do have roles that we identify with, whether we're parents or we're a worker, we're paying bills, we're raising kids, and we're living maybe in a big city like I am, New York City. How do you integrate? What does this integration look like? Is it really just a practice of letting things come up and then reintegrating yourself back to being connected to source?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I think it can like I have I have some practices that I do need to carve out time for. I meditate every day. For me, it's it's like the only thing in the day that I truly want to do. So I do. And that that's really important for my integration. And there's other things like I do need to carve out time to go into nature and to go for walks. I actually had to move on the outskirts of my city to where there's a provincial park nature reserve so that the moment I go walking, I'm connected again. And then sometimes there's like music I can listen to or certain scents or smells. And these like help help instantly reconnect me. I also have certain objects, like everywhere in my house, there's altar pieces to the moment I see them, it invokes a certain inner quality in me, and that just like supports, but I would say I'm constantly processing and integrating all day long because I don't sometimes have this time to just stop everything. And but the moment that I'm feeling so identified or so separated, I'm getting better at recognizing that moment and physically stopping for a moment what I'm doing. I pause the momentum of my action and I take a breath and I feel as much of it as possible in that moment with without making that feeling mean anything about me. And then I'm processing in the moment and trying to keep integrating as I go along one breath at a time. And this took a lot of attention and focus and training to do so that processing and integration is happening all day long, as opposed to letting it store up, needing to go carve out the time. One other thing is I use the natural windows of my brain waves when I know that's integrating. So when I wake up in the morning, there's a very small window where you're just stirring and you haven't fully come into your whole personal identification. And that's where the brain waves are quiet enough. It's the alpha brainwave state, and that's a time of really pure connection. And then when you're going to sleep at night, that's a natural pause to drop into as well. So you don't have to really carve out that time, you just have to make it conscious.
Speaker 1:So it sounds like intentional practices discipline to in order to continue to cultivate this connection that you have.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And like at first, like anything, it's like learning a new skill. You have to put the effort and the attention into it, and then it becomes more of a lived embodied state that is just more naturally happening. Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's wonderful. So let's talk about the Upanishads, scriptures, and so you often reference them, I know in your meditations. And the Upanishads are the ancient texts. For listeners who might not be familiar, what are they and how have they impacted your world, your work?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Okay. Yeah, like you said, the Upanishads are they're India's oldest spiritual texts and the Vedas, and they sit at the end of the Vedas. And the word Upanishad means to sit near that which is true. And they explore the deepest fundamental questions of our human experience and the questions of who am I and what is reality and what is the nature of consciousness and the nature of God. And these texts point us towards direct experience. So I would say they are the mystical texts because there's no middleman here. And at the core of these teachings, or the essence of these teachings, is that the what they call the Atman, it's the essence at the core of every human being, is the same essence as the entire universe, what they call Brahman and the divine. And the knowing of this is to have this recognition as a direct experience inside of yourself. And so when I first was introduced to them through my yogic studies, I didn't feel like I was learning anything new, but it was so comfortably reassuring that these texts existed. It felt this is what I've been searching for. And it's written down. And yeah, it just gave me such comfort in what often felt foreign and confusing. And so they were like anchors to truth that I couldn't really find anywhere else.
Speaker 1:Is there a particular teaching or passage that you would turn to again and again?
Speaker 2:Yeah, like right now they're there, but they're not there. I'm not referring to them on a daily or anything. The one passage that I hold with such reverence, and I put it into one of my meditation scripts, and it means lead me from the unreal to the real, from the darkness to the light, and from death to immortality. And for many years, that was like that was that was my prayer. That was the shining light for me, and it expressed what I was longing for, the truth and awakening and for liberation. And and yeah, I held that very close and dear to my heart. And then over time, also it's it's is the natural movement of consciousness itself, always leading us back home. When we're dissolving any separations, when we're dissolving these identities we hold of ourselves, these layers of conditioning, layers of resistance, meeting with what is as it is, this is the natural movement that the texts are holding. Like this is the truth that the texts are holding.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Now, for you know, a modern day seeker who feels disconnected from their spirituality, how can these texts speak to them or be accessible by them? Where would you recommend people begin?
Speaker 2:That's a great question. I think there has to be a natural impulse to want to even go near those texts. I really don't believe in telling anyone what to do or forcing. I just know through experience with my kids, like that is just not a useful technique. And I know that for myself as well. So I would say, yeah, if there's a curiosity, if there's a pull to sit closer, be brought closer to these texts, if somebody opens them up and is just drawn, that's the entry point. There's some commentary on the Upanishads that is commentated very simply and it's very effective. I would probably start with like one of those commentaries on the Upanishads. And I have the name of a commentary, it's slipping my mind right now, but he does such a great job. Even the introduction, where he's just introducing the text, is like a wealth of spiritual wisdom. But then if you're drawn to that, then it's your timing to go in. If you're not drawn, don't force yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And these texts, they're timeless, they're gonna be there, they're holding a truth that is timeless. It never gets old. And And I can go back to the Upanishads at any moment and see it and feel it from the state of consciousness I'm in now. And it's like an entirely new experience because these are reflecting truth. It's not a trend and it's not an opinion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And it's truth that and you just know it. You just know you just know it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:For me, my entry point towards them really happened, I think, during two times of my life, which I think I shared with you before. And that is that when I studied literature in college at university, and I was introduced to the Bhagavad Gita. I think I was 18 years old. And it meant something to me in terms of just being a story. And I only thought of it as an allegorical kind of story. I could relate to it so much easier than I could biblical stories. Then later on, decades later, when I was studying meditation and yoga teacher training, the Upanishads were part of that training. And even that mantra that you recited, I had to memorize as a part of my teacher training. And so I got to go deeper. And the Bhagavad Gita came up again, and it is remained one of my favorite stories. And when I got to study in India, I actually got to go to Kuratshetra to see where the battle took place. And there's just something sacred to be in the land where these texts came from. Right? You can feel the energy. And anyway, I understand and appreciate for sure how important it is to naturally be drawn to the readings, the texts, the search for meaning. And you're right, they're there. They're there for you when you're ready. But you want to be ready. You mentioned motherhood and the role of motherhood. You made a statement around not forcing your sons towards spirituality. And you've been very open about how motherhood became one of your greatest spiritual teachers. How has being a mother shaped the way your path in this mystical journey?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Motherhood anchored me here. I think if I didn't have kids, I would be that person living in a cave for sure. But it forced me to stop trying to escape this experience and my humanness and to really live here fully. And once I had kids, especially my younger son, there was no escaping. And the only option was to be with it, to move through it and to change my mind about it all. My younger son definitely is one of my biggest teachers, and he's a mirror showing me every single place. I'm still reactive, I'm still controlling, I'm afraid. Every idea or concept I've held about myself or how awake I thought I was, or whatever, it's questioned through him being my mirror. And it's reflected back to me to get really real and honest all of the time. And that brought me so deep into my inner child of realizing as well that I was extremely dysregulated as a child. He would externalize everything that wasn't okay. I internalized everything that wasn't okay. And so to parent, to stay present with him, I've had to and continuously have to meet every corner of my own inner child. And it's been the deepest work of my life. For many years, I wasn't a safe person for him. I reacted to his feelings because they triggered my own. And after swimming in that for a while, I at some point, I it's like I came to the decision, to the conscious choice that I'm going to be his safe person. So whatever comes up for him and my other child, like but whatever state they're in, I'm there unwavering. And I'm not trying to solve their feelings, and I'm not trying to make them more appropriate and not scolding or shaming. But that choice to be the safe person was the deepest work I've had to do. And so this is taking these spiritual concepts and having to embody them in the most challenged times. And apparently by apologizing a lot and by repairing, and by listening to them and actually getting curious about who they are as opposed to what I think they should be. Somebody said this to me in one of my retreats when she had a very deep experience of what it means to trust herself. And she said, I trust that I will change my mind. And that really hit me. So I like recognize that in my parenting. I trust that I have the ability to change my mind over and over again when I meet the limitation of a belief I hold.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:When I meet a perspective that I'm like, oh, it's it should be like this. This is what everyone else is doing. This is what how I was parenting. It's like I trust that I have the capacity to meet that mental construct, turn towards it, face it, question it, get curious about it, and allow it to change if it needs to. And I'm doing this over and over. Very conscious parenting. Yeah. But from starting from a very unconscious state, even though I thought I was awakened very spiritually. Motherhood is the path I didn't know I needed and a very accelerated path that is very hard.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah, it's a constant test. So, how do you model spirituality so that your sons can understand it or access it?
Speaker 2:I definitely don't push spirituality on my kids. They see me changing my ways with them. They see and hear me being more and more patient, more understanding, more compassionate. So to do that, they're not hearing me speak of me cultivating qualities of peer awareness, but they're they're getting that model to them because they're experiencing it. And then my home that they're in all the time, they may not understand, like the objects I have in my home are very intentional. The energy in my home is very intentional. And so they're absorbing it without me saying anything. They walk in and they they can sense and feel that the space is alive. They see me do meditation. They know that that I'm gonna wake up and I'm going to sit and do nothing, and they don't totally understand that. But sometimes my younger son will come and he'll just sit beside me, but I don't force, and only when they ask what I'm doing, then do I invite them in.
Speaker 1:Okay. That's great. Now, what would you say to some listeners who are mothers that might look at spirituality as a to-do item that you know that they're gonna do later in life when their children are grown?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I see this from a few different perspectives. There's some cultures like India that set up the four stages of life. It's very embedded into their culture. So that householder life is a very important time on the path. This is when you fulfill your duties and you're here and it's your full responsibility. And then after householder life, you go to ashram life and you devote your time and focus entirely to God or two. But I think this is the path. This is motherhood, is the practice. This is it. If we're waiting for that very specific time, we're missing what's here right now. It's not separate. It's the most intense initiation I've ever known. I think that if I followed the path that I thought I was gonna follow, like living in a cave or who knows? Yeah, it may have been actually a slower path. I think also motherhood, this is this is the teachings and the practices of being humbled. Yeah. It's just just by being in what you're in, you're getting humbled over and over again. It breaks you. And it's a call to practice and cultivate loving all the parts that are so not easy to love or messy, exhausting.
Speaker 1:I love that perspective.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I think this is this is it, like the this is the eventually, if you do have time later, oh my god, like smooth sailing.
Speaker 1:But parenting is such an intense spiritual training. Yes, I agree with you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like this is what you cannot study in books. No, you cannot get humbled in this way by reading it in a book. This is the direct experience of some of the strongest tenets of spirituality.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I totally understand that. So let's talk about something that's very near and dear to me because it brought me to meet you, and that is your Yoga Nidra teaching. How did you first come to Yoga Nidra and how has it evolved for you?
Speaker 2:So I first was introduced to the practice when I went to India to study and live on an ashram called Bihar Yoga Bharati in the state of Bihar. And at that time, I was very much in the seeker archetype. And I wanted to understand consciousness and feel the divine in a real embodied way. And so when I was at the ashram as part of the daily curriculum, they had the practice of Yoganidra. And my very first practice, I went in with no expectations, and I honestly thought I died. There was this timeless peace. I was, I had no idea where I was. There was no body, no story, no me. And yet it also felt like very deeply familiar, like I had been there before. But this time I had arrived there consciously. And what struck me most was that this wasn't a like a spontaneous mystical moment or, but it was actually a practice that there was a structure, there was a map. I could go there again over and over. It was repeatable. And that was so important to me that this could be a daily thing. And so after the ashram experience, I was like, I'm gonna understand it. I'm gonna unpack all the layers and the parts of it to really deeply know this map. And it meant at times too, going to study other disciplines, other traditions, other with multiple teachers to really get a take on what is happening in here.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. I came to Yoga Nitra, I may have told you this, I guess it's a little over seven years ago, one of my sisters passed away, and I was very close to her. And I so was so distraught by her passing that I wanted to know what it was like to die. And so Yoga Nitra, which I'm a daily meditation practitioner, also, that was the only version that I knew that mimicked death. And so I took it up. And it's the only meditation style I've been doing since. Because once you really get into it, I believe, you just fall in love with it. And it just is it's the quickest access for me to the divine. That's when I, although years ago when I studied yoga, which was 25 years ago in my training, I it was one of the many modalities that we were exposed to. And I can remember the very first time I practiced it, I fell asleep. Just the process of getting into just a relaxed state. I didn't realize or appreciate just how fatigued I was. And then now that I've been practicing it, I feel like such a rock star, the fact that I can move through all the layers, right? And still remain conscious and yet get all the benefits of it. It's a really great practice. For those who have never practiced it, what makes Yoganidra different from other meditations?
Speaker 2:I would say that it's a very systematic journey inward. Whereas some meditation practices might just give you it like one technique that you're focusing on, and then the mind drifts, and then you return to it. And I love that as well. But I see the Yoga Nidra as such a detailed map that meets you exactly where you're at. Most likely people are coming to the practice in a very distracted state, attention really fixated on the forms of consciousness and the food of the sense organs. And so the Nijra practice meets you there. And step by step, guiding the attention from also the brainwave state that we're in, coming to practice, we're in probably a more middle range to higher range beta brainwave state. We're stressed, even if we don't think we're stressed. It's starting there. And it's saying, okay, this really is a science. It's okay, my attention is fixated on my sensory organs. I can't get them off. So here we are. And then it's one step at a time to internalize the attention, to bring it inside, and then move through the layers of our experience from the densest layers of our physical body to our breath, to our sensations and emotions, and to our mind, to our thought forms, to our images, memory, and then until there's nothing left except what we are. And so it's like peeling back the layers as you move through. Absolutely. As you move through, and then the brain waves are slowing down, and our state of consciousness is becoming more and more in a yogic state, which is presence. And the silence and the stillness that is always there becomes more evident as the outer world starts to fall away. The inner world becomes more and more evident. And then it's also the posture of it as you're lying down with meditation. Sometimes the posture can become the obstacle. So this is like accessible to everyone. And then, but because you are lying down and it does resemble that sleep-like state, it is a practice. So we cultivate the capacity to remain aware even as the body is moving into a very relaxed, tension-free state. And one of our strongest inner programming is the sleep cycle, which is really necessary and required. But when we're bringing this into spiritual practice, moving through the threshold of the sleep is part of this. It's actually a really big moment of spiritual insight when you can cross the threshold of where you normally check out and now you're checking in. And I see this too as a larger metaphor for staying checked in throughout lifetimes.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Where I know we come into this incarnation like in an amnesia, that's part of our karmic cycle of learning, but there's something with us of we're learning how to actually stay awake through these thresholds. And I see this as learning how to stay awake across the great divide as well.
Speaker 1:That makes sense. How does the Yoga Nidra connect to your work as a mystic editor?
Speaker 2:The guidance or the cues are the stepping stones. It's the path when these are the stepping stones for people to follow. And the more that the terrain is really embodied and known inside of myself, I can guide people more accurately through the terrain. And this map becomes more and more reliable. But also, there's times in the Yoga Nitra where you're left in silence for long periods of time. That silence, again, I'm not disconnecting. And even though I'm not speaking part of the mystic editor of that, the space and the silence is just as important as the words. It actually is the ground of consciousness in which the words are arising from that's a checking in point, as you were saying, as opposed to checking out.
Speaker 1:Totally. That's exactly it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's an absolute checking in.
Speaker 1:Having been someone who's practiced this a while now, I can definitely relate to that. I was just listening to one of your meditations this morning, which was talking all about checking into your consciousness, which those spaces. And one of the things that comes up during this type of meditation is this thing called the sankalpa, the intention or the resolve. Is there one in particular that you suggest that your practitioners go to or you invite your practitioners to use as a part of a practice? Or do you just leave it for them to come to it on their own?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. This this can be a very this could be a whole other podcast. But just to keep it contained in this conversation, it's recommended that no one else give you your Senkalpa. Sometimes there can be suggestions. And also if somebody's not really clear on what their Senkelpa should be, leaving that space blank is also, it's like a placeholder for whatever is ready and willing to be recognized as truth inside the depth of your consciousness. Okay. And yeah, it can be silence. And then another suggestion is that if there is really like this burning desire that you are so deeply wanting to know as truth, that you like came to this lifetime to embody and to know, then that is a very worthwhile sankalpa to use. Like over time, the space from that truth starts to dissolve until it just is. And that's the recognition of that sankhalpa.
Speaker 1:Okay. Yeah. I could see that happening. And certainly I love the idea of leaving the space open for it to come to you on your own. So let's talk just a few moments about the human path to the div to the divine. You said that your work is not about helping people escape the human experience, it's about helping them become it. So can you share what that means to you?
Speaker 2:I'll speak personally. When I was trying to escape my experience and trying to almost yeah, pretend it's not there, that actually became more self-identities, more constructs, more separation from my own divinity. And so what I support people with is actually stopping the momentum of what we've maybe learned, or just through sheer survival of trying to flee the scene, but actually stopping and then turning to war instead of trying to escape the pain and the suffering, to see that the pain and suffering is actually our entry point and it's our path. It's our path towards the divine.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:It can become the doorway to deeper realization. It's like we're sitting right on top of the pending realization. The pain can be the lighthouse, pointing exactly to where the work is, where the processing is, where the integration is that needs to happen. And it's where the inner treasure lies, actually.
Speaker 1:Okay. You know, this is a great segue to my next question. And that is for our listeners who might be hearing all of this and feel like they have fallen off their spiritual path, like they can't meditate or they're basically surviving right now. What would you want them to know?
Speaker 2:I would want them to know that that this too is part of the path, that actually what is perceived as falling off the path is actually right on the path. Yeah. And the more that there's no judgment on this, too, this experience too matters. There's no judgment on it. And sometimes it can be very much required that these experiences of feeling are edges, of feeling like I've gone so far away from misalignment, that too actually is part of the path.
Speaker 1:Okay. Yeah. I could very quickly I'll share what got me on the path was knowing, just knowing I was out of alignment in my marriage, in my life. I was a young mother. Becoming a mother actually saved me from going on a path that would have just led to further destruction, I think. And because of that motivation of these beings, I went seeking for a solution for healing. So I understand and appreciate that it may have made it easier for me if I wasn't so hard on myself that I couldn't heal myself so quickly. Yet understanding that all of this, whether it's a concept or an idea of failing or a struggle, is almost that window that you were mentioning, or the precipice in which we might be motivated towards or drawn within to connect with divinity. It is a part of the path. You have to know you're of the path to want to get on it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And I see there's as you're speaking, like you're on, like there is a there is a path within the path. This is you're on this, you're on the path now. But that too is held within this great path. And on the great path was also all the experiences that were perceived as off-path. All of that is being held within the great path.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Within the great path is, yes, a more aligned path, but it's all on the path. All of it. All of it. There's actually we cannot fall off the path, but we can get more and more aligned on the path. Um and I speak as like having this direct experience in that download of every single experience was required to reaching our very dead ends, is part of it. Sometimes we need the curb. We have to hit the curb in order to know that we have to move in a different direction. When this goes to our free will, as human beings, we're granted the gift to not know ourselves at all in order to know ourselves. Animals aren't gifted this. My cat like is not walking around wondering who and what it is, it's just in alignment with its nature of a cat. So as a human being, this is all on the path of recognizing who and what we are. And misalignment is encoded into the path. It's how we're starting the path. Like it's here, it's all being held.
Speaker 1:Okay. So is there one question that you wish people would ask themselves when it comes to being both human and divine?
Speaker 2:What if the human experience I've been trying to transcend is the very expression of God I came here to embody. Wow.
Speaker 1:How freeing that would be. How freeing. As well as maybe expansive. Like you would want to have more of it as opposed to run from it. Maybe it might lead to more acceptance. Wow. I'm gonna have to meditate on that for a bit. This has been a great conversation, as I knew it would. I knew it would. Thank you so much, Tanis, for this time and sharing of your gifts. For my listeners that want to know more about you or access some of your things, tell us a little bit about how people can reach you. What are some of your places that people need to go?
Speaker 2:Sure. So I I have my website and it's schoolofsankalpa.com. And there's two self-paced courses are on there right now. One is like the Yoga Nitra training and immersion, and it's it's the training I was teaching in studios and community centers, and then eventually online. And then now it's it's there for anyone who wants behind the scenes of what's happening in the practice. It unpacks the practice, the map. We really study the map, and then it also supports people who want to share the practice with others. And then there is another course called the Inward Path. And it's for those, I would say, more seasoned practitioners with Yoga Nidra that want. To explore each stage of the practice a little bit more fully, track longer time of practice just in each of the stages. That's there. And then I have my uh recordings for free. I would suggest going to Insight Timer, which is the free app. There's no disruption, like ad disruption disruptions on YouTube, not by my doing. I'm not making any profit off my recordings. But on YouTube, there in some of them there are some ads embedded in. And but I do in the description have a folder where you can listen to the recording undisrupted on my website. Okay. It's just a heads up with that. But yeah, those recordings are they're my total service to people. If you feel drawn, if you feel connected to, you have to feel connected to the voice link, I think, to feel like trust and fully surrendering. If you do resonate and connect with me as a guide or my voice, and just trusting that I've mapped out this territory so deeply inside of myself because I had to. And then I want to share that with others. So that's available for anyone who feels called to that. And then at different moments throughout the year, I run mentorship containers. I have one coming up next week. It's all about the art of feeling, learning how to feel our experience that's arising consciously, and again, cultivating the qualities of non-judgment and non-identity. And I'm co-facilitating with a dear friend and exceptional, masterful teacher. And so we have that mentorship coming up and then have a retreat. It's filled already, but hopefully one or at least once a year moving forward too, I'll be hosting more international retreats. And the location comes to us very specifically, calls us, and the land that the retreat is held on, and the retreat center, all of it is part of the actual retreat as well. There's certain places that certain souls need to reconnect with in order almost like time capsules. There's parts of the consciousness with those environments and the energy and the timing of the retreat and the other people and everything else that the time capsules open. Recognition happens, remembrance happens, memories that are required and necessary for soul evolution become available. And so those are the retreats that I'll have moving forward.
Speaker 1:Wow. It sounds so powerful. We will have this information about your website, your containers, your immersion courses in the notes for this episode. So we'll make sure everybody has that. Wow. Thank you so much again for being here today on She Asks, where healing meets practical hope. You've provided so many tools, so many things for people to think about. Especially I am so grateful to have connected with you, stay connected with you, and have had this conversation. Thank you so much, Tannis.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Anna. It's it is such a pleasure, honestly, truly, to be connected with you. Yeah, you are so authentic and so deeply committed and devoted to this human experience and to supporting others. So yeah, I just yeah, I really love being connected with you.
Speaker 1:Great. Thank you so much.