A Return to Center with MARIE RUSSEL

A Return to Center ~ Episode 1

• Marie Russel • Season 3 • Episode 1

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0:00 | 21:02

What if the most radical move right now is not to power through, but to come home? In this episode, we (me + my inner teacher) return to the mic with a clear, tender, and unsparing look at spiritual bypass, the long shadow of 2020, and the courage it takes to rebuild from love instead of fear. After stepping back from teaching, trainings, and the public eye, I explore the terrain from free fall to a steadier ground and name the idea that changed everything: an aspect of us never left. That is the center we can trust.

And this is A Return to Center.

We walk through the difference between performance and practice, why “only love is real” isn’t a slogan but a daily discipline, and how thoughts become things when left unexamined. Drawing from Ashtanga Yoga and A Course in Miracles, we unpack core teachings—like “this is a required course” and “I don’t have anything that you don’t have; I just don’t have anything else”—to show how self-realization is less about adding and more about subtracting what blocks the signal. Along the way, we honor mentors who brought rigor to the work and share the messy truth of relationships, career shifts, and identity resets when forms change but essence remains.

You’ll hear a practical framework for discerning love from fear, tools to slow down and choose again, and an invitation to train attention until clarity becomes default. Think of this as a compassionate reset: original intelligence over noise, presence over projection, integration over inspiration alone. If you’re craving grounded spirituality, daily practices, and a path that welcomes grief and grace with equal honesty, this conversation is a homecoming.

Subscribe, share with a friend who’s ready for A Return to Center, and leave a review with one choice you’re making from love this week.

Living From Love, Not Fear

Facing Bypass And The Dark Night

Stepping Away To Begin Again

Surrendering And Reentering The Work

Return To Center As A Path

Mentors And A Center Of Excellence

The Unchanged Self Within

Original Intelligence And Coding

A Course In Miracles On Love

Ego Programs And Fear

Heaven, Hell, And States Of Mind

Repetition And Deepening Themes

Discipline: Choosing Love Over Fear

A Required Course In Self Realization

Tools, Bundle, And Daily Practice

Closing Blessing And Invitation

SPEAKER_01

Greetings, Namaste. Welcome to a Return to Center, a place where we explore universal principles, bring them down to earth in a practical way, learning how to embody more and more love. I'm Marie Russell, and for over two decades, I've guided spiritually sincere women and some very soulful men back to center. Through the practices of Ashtanga Yoga on and off the mat, through the teachings of A Course in Miracles, and through the wisdom gained from a life well lived. Together, we explore what it means to live with love as your vantage point, your default, to hear the small still voice even when fear feels loud, and to trust your original intelligence, especially in the moments that stretch you. It's through the testing that we receive the refinement, the experience, the clarity, the grounded knowing that becomes our testimony. This is my humble offering, a space of remembrance, a rhythm of integration. It's about honoring what's already here within, beyond the noise, where only love is real. This is a return to center. All right, friends, here we are in episode one. This is such an exciting time for all of us. I really feel that so many heart-centered humans are kind of coming out of the fog. I think since 2020, we've questioned everything, right down to our very essence. We've we've been challenged, some of us have been canceled, we've been questioned. And our integrity really came, certainly mine, into question around where our alliances were. And over the last five years, it's been, I mean, wow, such a deep dive into the dark. And for someone who spent the first half of her career running around the world talking about how only love is real, it became very evident that there was time for me to really sit in in the fire of that statement. If I really believe only love is real, then what about all the rest? And what I found is that even though my heart was in the right place and there is a purity to my heart, like so many of you, there was an element of spiritual bypass, this kind of shrugging off of hard things, of moving through grief really fast, moving through disappointment, disregard, betrayal, and continuing to put on a brave face when really there was a misalignment in terms of how I was feeling on the inside and what I was projecting on the outside. And so I've I've really spent some time, you know, going into these deep and dark places within myself. I took a break from teaching yoga, I took a break from podcasting, from teacher trainings, from traveling, from being online, from my YouTube channel. I had spent so much of the first half of my career, like my yoga teacher used to say, you know, the first 10 years of his career was about achieving, the second 10 years was about letting go of everything that he had achieved. And then at year 20, he began again. And I really feel that although the time frames are different for me, there is that same element there where there was a climb, there was a free fall, and now there is this new level of stability. And here is where a return to center really comes from. So as I was contemplating how to not only rebrand that sounds like kind of so professional, but like, how was I going to re-enter this work? How is I going to present myself? I mean, certainly there was a part of me that thought, I'm just gonna throw it all in. You know, those days are over. The version of its yoga that I had been building had disappeared completely and disintegrated. I just wasn't sure. My family, you know, was moving. There was ups and downs in my marriage. I thought maybe I've just changed direction altogether. But, you know, what happens for so many of us is that when you know, you know. And there is such a deep connection that I have and a deep gift that I believe I've been given to express the wisdom of metaphysics, of yoga, of unity consciousness, of loving consciousness, to talk about yoga from the space of self-reflection, of self-realization. And no matter how many turns I tried to take away from returning into this form, it just kept coming for me. And so when I surrendered to that, I found that I could not really rebrand myself, but re-enter from a deeper place, from a sense of kind of accomplishment. Like I had been through several fires and found that I was so resilient somehow, and that there was no burns. Like even though it felt really difficult and a lot of relationships changed form, I remembered the essence of the teaching of its yoga that love is eternal and yet it does change form. So returning to center, this idea, you know, there was some apprehension when that phrase came to me so clearly, and my ego kind of jumped on it and was like, oh, a return to center. Well, it's too similar to a return to love by Marianne Williamson from, you know, she's such she's such a trailblazer in terms of the Course in Miracles content. And she's really the spokesperson and the main teacher. And how would I ever, in quote, compete with that? And my inner teacher just kept coming back and being like, this is not a competition, it's an offering, it's another pathway home. And there are many, many roads home. And some of us are gonna go right, go left, go a combination of right and left. And this return to center really felt like a coming home. When I started the yoga off the mat journey in 2024, no, no, 2004. Wow, 2004, 2005, when I was in San Francisco, just at the beginning of my career at its yoga, I was introduced, and some of you may have heard this story, to an amazing master life coach called Dorothy DeVac. And my teacher, Larry Schultz, my partner, my husband at the time, took me, you know, up these stairs up on Union Street to what was called a center of excellence. And throughout the years, I continued my mentorship with Dorothy. I did the coaches training, I did her Excel training. If you try and find her on Google, you will come up sorely disappointed. She was the kind of teacher that was behind the scenes. I felt very privileged and very lucky to have been tapped, to have been taken to meet her and see her, and to be a part of her community. And so a return to center kind of feels really auspicious that I can pull together all the work from yoga off the mat, from its yoga, from the trust project, from all of these different offerings that I put together based from my training in a center of excellence to really frame it as a return to center. And this idea is so important because it acknowledges that there is an aspect of you that has never left, that is pure, innocent, and as you were created to be. This is so power powerful. This is so empowering because it says to us that no matter what you've been through, no matter what someone has said, no matter what you have said, no matter what was done to you or you have done to others, there is an aspect of you that has been unaffected, untouched by that life experience. There is an aspect of you that is pure and centered. And so I just want to say that a return to center is this opportunity for us to kind of wash away the cobwebs. And it's not necessarily about learning anything new, it's about coming back to that original intelligence. I want to say that again. Original intelligence. I believe wholeheartedly that all of us are connected and coded with ancient wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of who we are and how we fit into not only the world that we live in, but the world that we can't see, the field around us, what's happening energetically in relationships with others. There is an aspect of us that is coded with this intelligence that is original coding, and that cannot be changed. When I realized that, when I decided to subscribe to that idea that I truly believe to be the essence of who we are and what is actually occurring here in our reality, that we are returning back to this sense of self. And that is consistent within the yoga practice on the mat and off the mat. It's consistent in A Course of Miracles. You know, there's a beautiful teaching in A Course of Miracles that says, I don't have anything that you don't have. I just don't have anything else. Meaning, the idea of Christ, of consciousness, that loving consciousness, is that we are all coded that way, but the perfection of that doesn't have anything else, but we do. The perfection of Christ consciousness, whether you believe in this idea of the persona of a Christ figure figure or not, is that there is an aspect of us that is perfect, that is fully in the field, fully in the field where only love is real. And there is a place for us there, and there is a place where we are there. However, we have other things. We have this idea of ego, we have this idea of not being good enough, of not being lovable, of somehow being bad, of we are afraid of being judged, we judge others, we compete, we compare. We have all of these different programs that we have inherited since the moment of our inception, we began to realize that something was wrong here. And in quote, that wrongness is egoic consciousness, is fear. And so a return to center is about coming back to this aspect of us that is coded in loving consciousness and loving thought, and that is willing to be guided from that place. It's not necessarily someone else. This is not dogma or doctrine, it's not about believing and checking boxes so that you get to go to heaven. Heaven is either occurring, we're either in heaven or we're in hell right now. Just consider that for a moment. If we are in the state of love, we are in that condition of oneness, that idea of oneness. It's not necessarily a place we go, it's a place we return to when we can center into that reality where only love is real. All right, friends, here we are in episode one. This is such an exciting time for all of us. I really feel that so many heart-centered humans are kind of coming out of the fog. I think since 2020, we've questioned everything right down to our very essence. We've we've been challenged, some of us have been canceled, we've been questioned. And our integrity really came, certainly mine, into question around where our alliances were. And over the last five years, it's been, I mean, wow, such a deep dive into the dark. And for someone who spent the first half of her career running around the world talking about how only love is real, it became very evident that there was time for me to really sit in in the fire of that statement. If I really believe only love is real, then what about all the rest? And what I found is that even though my heart was in the right place and there is a purity to my heart, like so many of you, there was an element of spiritual bypass, this kind of shrugging off of hard things, of moving through grief really fast, moving through disappointment, disregard, betrayal, and continuing to put on a brave face when really there was a misalignment in terms of how I was feeling on the inside and what I was projecting on the outside. And so I've I've really spent some time, you know, going into these deep and dark places within myself. I took a break from teaching yoga, I took a break from podcasting, from teacher trainings, from traveling, from being online, from my YouTube channel. I had spent so much of the first half of my career, like my yoga teacher used to say, you know, the first 10 years of his career was about achieving, the second 10 years was about letting go of everything that he had achieved, and then at year 20, he began again. And I really feel that although the time frames are different for me, there is that same element there where there was a climb, there was a free fall, and now there is this new level of stability. And here is where a return to center really comes from. So as I was contemplating how to not only rebrand that sounds like kind of so professional, but like, how is I going to re-enter this work? How is I going to present myself? I mean, certainly there was a part of me that thought, I'm just gonna throw it all in. You know, those days are over. The version of its yoga that I had been building had disappeared completely and disintegrated. I just wasn't sure. My family, you know, was moving. There was ups and downs in my marriage. I thought maybe I've just changed direction altogether. But, you know, what happens for so many of us is that when you know, you know. And there is such a deep connection that I have and a deep gift that I believe I've been given to express the wisdom of metaphysics, of yoga, of unity consciousness, of loving consciousness, to talk about yoga from the space of self-reflection, of self-realization. And no matter how many turns I tried to take away from returning into this form, it just kept coming for me. And so when I surrendered to that, I found that I could not really rebrand myself, but re-enter from a deeper place, from a sense of kind of accomplishment, like I had been through several fires and found that I was so resilient somehow, and that there was no burns. Like even though it felt really difficult and a lot of relationships changed form, I remembered the essence of the teaching of its yoga that love is eternal and yet it does change form. So returning to center, this idea, you know, there was some apprehension when that phrase came to me so clearly, and my ego kind of jumped on it and was like, oh, a return to center. Well, it's too similar to a return to love by Marianne Williamson from, you know, she's such she's such a trailblazer in terms of the Course in Miracles content. And she's really the spokesperson and the main teacher. And how would I ever, in quote, compete with that? And my inner teacher just kept coming back and being like, this is not a competition, it's an offering, it's another pathway home. And there are many, many roads home. And some of us are gonna go right, go left, go a combination of right and left. And this return to center really felt like a coming home. When I started the yoga off the mat journey in 2024, no, no, 2004. Wow, 2004, 2005, when I was in San Francisco, just at the beginning of my career at its yoga, I was introduced, and some of you may have heard this story, to an amazing master life coach called Dorothy DeVac. And my teacher, Larry Schultz, my partner, my husband at the time, took me, you know, up these stairs up on Union Street to what was called a center of excellence. And throughout the years, I continued my mentorship with Dorothy. I did the coaches training, I did her Excel training. If you try and find her on Google, you will come up sorely disappointed. She was the kind of teacher that was behind the scenes. I felt very privileged and very lucky to have been tapped, to have been taken to meet her and see her, and to be a part of her community. And so a return to center kind of feels really auspicious that I can pull together all the work from yoga off the mat, from its yoga, from the trust project, from all of these different offerings that I put together based from my training in a center of excellence to really frame it as a return to center. And this idea is so important because it acknowledges that there is an aspect of you that has never left, that is pure, innocent, and as you were created to be. This is so powerful powerful. This is so empowering because it says to us that no matter what you've been through, no matter what someone has said, no matter what you have said, no matter what was done to you or you have done to others. There is an aspect of you that has been unaffected, untouched by that life experience. There is an aspect of you that is pure and centered. And so I just want to say that a return to center is this opportunity for us to kind of wash away the cobwebs. And it's not necessarily about learning anything new, it's about coming back to that original intelligence. I want to say that again. Original intelligence. I believe wholeheartedly that all of us are connected and coded with ancient wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of who we are and how we fit into not only the world that we live in, but the world that we can't see, the field around us, what's happening energetically in relationships with others. There is an aspect of us that is coded with this intelligence that is original coding, and that cannot be changed. When I realized that, when I decided to subscribe to that idea that I truly believe to be the essence of who we are and what is actually occurring here in our reality, that we are returning back to this sense of self. And that is consistent within the yoga practice on the mat and off the mat. It's consistent in A Course of Miracles. You know, there's a beautiful teaching in A Course of Miracles that says, I don't have anything that you don't have. I just don't have anything else. Meaning the idea of Christ, of consciousness, that loving consciousness, is that we are all coded that way, but the perfection of that doesn't have anything else, but we do. The perfection of Christ consciousness, whether you believe in this idea of the persona of a Christ figure figure or not, is that there is an aspect of us that is perfect, that is fully in the field, fully in the field where only love is real. And there is a place for us there, and there is a place where we are there. However, we have other things. We have this idea of ego, we have this idea of not being good enough, of not being lovable, of somehow being bad, of we are afraid of being judged, we judge others, we compete, we compare. We have all of these different programs that we have inherited since the moment of our inception, we began to realize that something was wrong here. And in quote, that wrongness is egoic consciousness, is fear. And so a return to center is about coming back to this aspect of us that is coded in loving consciousness and loving thought, and that is willing to be guided from that place. It's not necessarily someone else. This is not dogma or doctrine, it's not about believing and checking boxes so that you get to go to heaven. Heaven is either occurring, we're either in heaven or we're in hell right now. Just consider that for a moment. If we are in the state of love, we are in that condition of oneness, that idea of oneness. It's not necessarily a place we go, it's a place we return to when we can center into that reality where only love is real. So that's really what I'm here for. And that's what really encouraged me to get back in the podcast room, back in social media, back online, kind of putting out this information because it all sounds really great, right? This idea that only love is real and that I get to return to my center, and that I don't have to believe my thoughts, and I'm coded for greatness. Marie said so, Course of Miracles said so, the yoga practice told me so. The problem, or rather, the opportunity we have is to self-reflect on a deeper scale, to slow things down so that we can consistently and continually make the distinction between love and fear and act on love. Here's the truth: we have no neutral thoughts. We are either in love or in fear. Those are the only two choices we have. We are conditioned by the world we live in to a fear-based philosophy. We don't even realize that that's what's occurring. That is what this work is about. It's about waking up to the thought, to the realization that you are more than you suppose yourself to be. And that these thoughts about not being good enough or competition or fear about making mistakes, they're there. But the more that we think them, the more that they create matter. Thoughts turn into things. So, discipline really, this return to center, this idea that we can discern between love and fear is really the magic piece. It's that card that we get to play and say, all right, well, here I am. If I'm feeling uncomfortable, if I'm feeling overwhelmed, if I'm feeling in quote, negative energy, then my thoughts have gone and gone in that direction. And do I have the willingness to change course, to change my mind? One of the ideas from A Course in Miracles that I love so much, and it's it's right in the beginning of the book in the introduction, it says that this is a required course. Just that statement the first time I read it, and now 25 years later, speaking it here on this podcast, this is a required course is so powerful. I love the authority from A Course in Miracles. Now it's not necessarily everybody's book, but and it's not claiming to be, it's not claiming to be the only way. But what is required, what it means by saying this is a required course, is saying that at some point in life, it's required to self-realize. It is required to return to center, to decide who you want to be, to realize that there are adapted personality traits that you have carried that no longer work as you desire to integrate your authenticity, to live from a place of authenticity, to be honest, to be real, to be gentle. And I'm really, really excited to be back in this seat, to be back in this room, and to offer you really this new platform. If you're interested further, there are links in the show notes that can guide you to the return to center bundle, which includes tools and practices and meditations that really fill in the blanks. I think a lot of us know intellectually what we want, how we want to be, etc., but we lack the capacity to integrate those ideas and practices and wisdom into our day-to-day. And inside this, really, it's a sacred kind of sanctuary. It's it's this place where you can come to any time, any day, and find something that will speak to your heart, that will either give you a system, an action, or it will give you time to simply receive in terms of meditation, to sit still. There's so much in this bundle that has been instrumental in supporting me to embody more and more love and to move further and further away from fear. Now, that doesn't mean fear doesn't still come or difficult times, moments, extensions in life don't exist. But what I'm so grateful for is this immediate kind of default into center. And that's what I intend to offer the community here at large: this opportunity to return to center through tools and practices, transmissions, meditations, so that we can continue to come home to ourselves, we can practice, we can develop that skill set, and just watch as the world around you begins to change. I wish you a beautiful rest of the day, and I'll see you next time. Bye for now. Thank you, thank you for your ear today. Thank you for your heart space. Thank you for being open. Thank you for returning to center with me. This space is here for the moments you forget and the moments you remember. For the breath beneath the push, for the truth that doesn't shout. If what you heard today met you where you are, I invite you to take your time and let it settle. And when you're ready, share it, sit with it, or simply return to it. Because the center isn't a place we find once, it's a rhythm we remember. Until next time, stay true, stay open, share with your friends, family, and remember, only love is real. Anyway, now must be a little bit.