Bryan Kest quotes:

Higher states of awareness is a by product of mental development and conscious evolution.

Mental development is a by-product of hard work and effort.

Being empowered includes developing the powerful qualities that lead human beings to cultivate wellness and healing. And those are the same qualities that enhance all relationships on earth and reduce stress (which seems to be the largest precursor to disease)-gentle ness, calmness, patience, humility, compassion, and gratitude.

Yoga doesn't ask you to be more than you are. But it does ask you to be all that you are.

It doesn't matter what it looks like; it matters what it feels like.

Fall with awareness and acceptance.

When you're experiencing what's happening right now, all of a sudden everything that happened to you in your entire life melts away.

Yoga doesn't want to change you - it wants to take care of you.

Welcome to your body.

Be gentle with everything in your life.

Jesus said "love," "forgive," have "compassion" and "don't judge." Buddha said "observe," "be silent," and "serve."

Learn to take pleasure in the search.

Conscious evolution means having the desire to evolve.

Enlightenment is higher states of awareness.

We all know what the moon does to the ocean in the form of tides. Well, we are about 85% salt water; don't you think it is also affecting you? Maybe you cannot quantify that effect along with zillions of other effects, but certainly you are being affected.

Please stop worrying about how much you can do! STOP judging yourself and others on physical abilities and prowess, stop believing MORE is better, stop the madness!

Everybody wants to be pretty because that's what they've been told will make them feel good even though there's no proof that people who are prettier are healthier and happier. So why don't we just cut to the chase and go straight to what makes us feel good?

Most of us can agree there is nothing more special, mysterious, mystical, powerful and important than life!

I need to somehow peel away the dullness and heighten my sensitivity and alertness. I need to start sucking the juice out of every single moment of the most precious gift ever to be had, "my life!"

Everything is natural and nature is the whole of everything of which I am apart of and so are you.

This is what our yoga practice is trying to accomplish. Not white light descending from heaven and engulfing you, not energy released from the base of your spine going up through your crown chakra so you become a human lightening bolt, not a halo floating on top of your head. Simply heightened states of awareness, enlightenment, becoming more and more aware which gives more and more insight, which brings wisdom and gives choice. With that wisdom and choice, we become the masters of our destiny and at peace in our life.

The goal of yoga according to Patanjali I am told is citta vrtti nirodha, which means to be silent or free from mental fluctuations.

I see exercise taking this perverted detour. The original intention of exercise was to heal and maintain health. Now I see it as having nothing to do with health. I see most exercises based on looking good. They actually make you less healthy. You overdevelop the obvious muscles. You take drugs to enhance that. You ignore the rest, and you become more out of balance.

Because we are not separate and we are a strand in the web of this existence, there is nothing about us - which includes who we are and what we do - that is not happening perfectly.

It seems to me if I would want to access the special, mysterious, mystical, powerful and most important, I simply need to live my life more fully.

We are acting on our desire; there is nothing wrong. Just remember if it does not pan out, if our desires go unfulfilled, it's perfect!

If it feels right to recycle our waste or purchase solar panels for our house or rescue an animal or adopt a child or stop someone from hurting another or donate our time, money, or goods to charity, then do it.

I do not believe you could intellectually comprehend all the different forces playing upon us. Yet what you can do is become very silent, so you are not distracted and then begin to feel how these forces playing upon us are affecting us, and according to how we feel, we can then make intelligent decisions as to how far, how deep, how much, we explore in any pose.

If we do destroy most life on this planet, science says it won't be the first time.

Without challenges we would literally wither and die (which also would be perfect).

There is nowhere pressing to get to because there is absolutely nothing wrong with where I am.

There is nothing wrong with what he said or she said or they did, even though it does not feel good.

No reason to get angry at anybody for slapping you literally or figuratively. It's just nature unfolding perfectly and obviously that slap is part of my process that is shaping me as I become all I'm becoming. I'm sure this understanding will be a big help to us in our yoga practice and also as a teacher. More than anything though, it will affect the way we look at everything in our life, which affects how we respond to things.

Everything becomes an opportunity to evolve and grow.

When we start understanding that all challenges are really opportunities to learn and grow and become all that we are becoming, which is all being guided by nature and her desire to maintain perfect balance, then what could be wrong? If there is nothing wrong, then the burden of humanity has been lifted from my shoulder and I'm free to be me - to play, to cry, to laugh, to work, to explore, to serve, to unfold and grow.

Simply because everything is perfect does not imply there is nothing to be done. Actually, it is pretty much the opposite. There is everything to be done.

If all is happening perfectly then all that we are feeling is also perfect, which means if there is something happening that feels like it needs to be changed, then change it.

Even if we are destroying this planet, we are playing our role perfectly.

From inanimate object, to microorganism, to plant, to insect, to animal, to human, there is an evolving level of intelligence.

Just as the seasons change and the honey bees pollinate the planet and make honey, we are also doing exactly what we are supposed to be doing. We also are apart of nature, certainly not separate from nature.

Unwittingly, every event and every microorganism - insect, fish, bird, animal, etc. - is playing a role that maintains a perfect balance to our ecosystem, which also includes our atmosphere. Have you ever considered that we, you and I, are also apart of that?

Have you ever noticed the perfection of nature? The seasons and how one changes into the next, the falling leaves, composting soil, rains, new seedlings, sunshine, growth, blossoms, etc. Grass grows, deer eats grass, lion eats deer, deer population is stabilized so there is grass for other animals; sunrise and sunset, boy and girl, winter and summer.

Every experience we have is necessary and perfect. In other words, everything is Perfect.

There are certain yoga laws and principles that are, shall we say, less tangible than others. For example, the law of karma. Science has proven what goes up must come down, but that's about as far as it's gone. To believe that for every action, word, and thought, there is an equal consequence takes something more intuitive, more personal; it's more metaphysical.

We are so busy and have become so complex, being simple is actually esoteric.

It seems to me in a general sense we as a society are enamored with the mystical, mysterious, the unseen & unknown. We are looking for the hidden teaching, the secret scroll or fountain of youth, and of course heaven and hell.

Your physical capabilities have nothing to do with higher consciousness. The depth achieved in any posture only has the ability to hurt or help your body.

Yoga practice seems to be used to access some deeper dimension or some enlightened state. Understand right now there is no connection between flexibility and enlightenment.

Exactly like everything around us, we are made of the same elements of this earth and are totally dependent on this earth for our sustenance.

We are creatures on this planet that have the capacity of self-awareness, playing out our role just the same as all else.

Just because we can think does not mean we are separate from everything.

Natural events have completely destroyed this planet on numerous occasions in the past, and just like them we are a natural event destroying this planet.

There is nothing that exists, that is not existing perfectly, which includes every thought we have, every word we speak, and every action we commit. Therefore, there is nothing wrong with me, with you, with them.

There is no reason to not trust your process, no reason to get frustrated, no reason to criticize, or judge others, nothing wrong with getting old, or not being able to get pregnant, or being handicapped, or being short or tall or gay, or injured, or divorced or married to an idiot, or with Christianity or Judaism or Islam, or indigenous beliefs, or pollution, crime, war, Bush, etc. When this understanding grows, we realize where we're at now is just as perfect as wherever we could possibly get to.

As a matter of fact, wherever I get to is a direct result of where I'm at now which makes where I'm at now equally important.

Everything is unfolding perfectly. As this perfection unfolds, I learn and grow and become all I'm becoming.

One thing I have learned in my 46 years on this planet is that the greatest opportunity for growth and understanding comes through the challenges that we encounter.

Without challenges, there would be no opportunity to evolve.

The only reason that we humans and all creatures have made it thus far is because of the lessons learned consciously and unconsciously through the challenges we have been through.

If we want to try again, then try again. The point is we have free will to act and accomplish along with the peace of knowing whatever happens is what needs to happen in order for nature to fulfill its destiny, which we are part of.