This practice invites you to question habitual stories you tell yourself with specific questions designed to soften self-loathing tendencies. It features a breath technique that symbolizes linking the heart to the mind and movements that strengthen the upper back, countering rounded shoulders, allowing us to feel more "open" at the chest and maybe even open at the heart.
A practice that focuses on three of our "centers", our heart center, power center (abdomen) and the concept of a center of peace within. Sample a breath technique that visualizes placing peace in "the heart" throughout a physical sequence that seeks to stabilize the power center while creating freedom for the shoulders and making space for “the heart”.
A 90 minute experience featuring alternative ideas to bring into your mornings to counter habitual thoughts and feelings.
-An inspirational reading to encourage new thoughts and feelings. I shared the classic poem, The Guest House by Rumi. (text to follow)
-Focus enhancing breath to support the body and mind
-The "welcoming" of intentions during a joint freeing series
-Morning movements to promote energy and refreshment
-A guided meditation utilizing the imagination to help actualize your intentions.
The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
Welcome to a 75 minute class from a Toronto government-sanctioned quarantine hotel! This moderate hatha sequence is designed around mindful movement in time with full inhales and complete exhales. Slow strength, stretch and breath for calming refreshment.
Our practices can be a good time for cultivating specific qualities and thoughts we'd like to grow in our minds and our lives. That focus is threaded through this 75 minute therapeutic hatha flow using posture, breath visualization and guided meditation to support the concept.
An offering of movements to provide flexibility where there is chronic tightness and strength where there is often weakness along with techniques for the breath and focus skills for the mind. Practices that cultivate balance can help part of us stay tethered to the consistency of contentment in the face of inevitable change.
For my birthday I created a sequence intended to celebrate the strength and mobility we have available now. This 75 minute feel-good hatha flow features fluid and challenging movements intended to free the upper back while invigorating and inspiring appreciation for health and wellbeing. Closes with a guided body scan to enhance restoration post-practice.
Features a sequence that focuses on functional core strengthening. Expect a stronger practice that invites you to utilize a "warming" Ujjayi style breath (gently firming the back of the throat so your breath is more audible and long) throughout. Stoke your inner flame so it is sustainable, and stay mindful through this empowering slow flow.
A 75 minute hatha practice that invites you to experience the warm hearted feelings of "offering" your practice to someone you care about. Expect some challenging moments in this balancing, dynamic physical sequence before slowing things down for rest.
A 75 minute hatha practice that can be used to energize, or to calm down, depending on which aspect of the breath you choose to focus on. Deepening our inhales can add an additional sense of vitality while lengthening exhales can promote relaxation. A moderate sequence to free your joints, strengthen your muscles and ultimately rest your body and mind.
An experience crafted for a chillier time of year, or time of day. Warming, stronger postures are matched with a warming breath practice, leading to longer stretches, a relaxing breath technique and full relaxation.
Why we meditate, best practices to center ourselves and prepare to "sit" including movement (asana) and breathwork (pranayama) and an exploration of meditation techniques including a restoring yoga nidra.
An ideal class to close the day using various techniques to call our energy back to the present moment. From there, we can discern our most efficient use of it. Expect mindful, grounding centering and movement intended to be an embodiment of the natural cycle of expansion and contraction.
A moderate 75 minute hatha practice designed to get things moving, whether it be difficult emotions, habitual worrying thoughts or lethargy due to time of year. Explore a breath technique to break up inertia and a purposeful quality of movement to focus the mind and warm the body.
In this 75 min hatha practice, you will be invited to explore the repetition of a mantra throughout. Discover how the inward repeating of a meaningful sound can shelter the mind from habitual, negative rumination as you move through movement and breath matched to the rhythm of the mantra.
A deluxe practice full of therapeutic skills to assimilate the transition of the end of one year and the beginning of the next. Expect to explore the breath as inspiration to receive and release, along with mudras, symbolic movement and reflective self-inquiry.
A deluxe practice that begins and ends on the ground. Expect to prepare your joints for strengthening in postures that stay close to the mat. Once warm, we’ll move into a few yin and restorative shapes to balance the “yang” energy we experience in most hours of the day. Thoughts are also invited to slow and rest through several cues to “be here now”, an ideal evening practice
Our minds are built to look for what could go wrong, what we need to achieve and what to worry about. For busy modern humans, that can mean a feeling of overwhelm or even anxiety. This 75 minute practice teaches how to ground the mind in what is more uplifting but also very true through a breath technique, visualization and movement intended to create a lighter, more expansive physical sensation.
In December's workshop we explored several therapeutic skills for connecting with qualities of the heart. Expect philosophy, meditation and use of mantra. You are also invited to offer your practice to someone you appreciate and to deeply rest in a 20 minute guided Yoga Nidra.
A 75-minute practice using focused observation of the senses to drop into the present moment. Expect some strong, sustained postures to learn to observe sensation rather than judge it, a useful skill to to cultivate for managing reactivity off the mat.