In June's Workshop I offer a selection of practices to prepare your body for rest. Explore them as part of this 90 minute ritual, or sample the various skills I offer as part of your nightly routine. Expect to receive reflections to help you release lingering thoughts from the day, movement and stretches to release tension, a specific breath technique, a meditation, a relaxing self-massage and a yoga nidra to help you drift off to restorative sleep.
For those who wish to include meditation and movement in the morning routine but aren’t able to create a habit, here’s an efficient way to add short and simple practices that can make a big impact over time.
A practice that begins with a breath technique intended to restore depleted energy, followed by a fluid sequence of asana meant to be approached with effort and ease. The experience closes with guided imagery to continue to rebuild and nourish.
This 30 minute yoga nidra (yogic sleep) is an experience of guided, deep relaxation. Throughout, your body will be invited to the restoring experience of sleep, while the mind rests, yet is still awake. You will be guided to notice areas of the body, the breath and various imagery to help you sink into a state of profound rest. Yoga nidra is known to support the healing of stress, anxiety, depression, sleep issues and hormonal imbalances.
Throughout the month of May, I will be offering simple, accessible ideas to add to your daily routine to help you stay connected to your wellness goals, even in tiny ways. Watch this resource page each Monday this month for a new short video inviting you to sample small habits that can add up to big results.
A short practice including a breath technique, mantra and grounding, gentle movements to reconnect with the present moment and an undercurrent of tranquility within resistance to change.
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.
A 60 minute breath and movement experience that invites you to sensitize yourself to the felt sense of your body, a practice that cultivates presence, the doorway to healing.
A micro practice featuring an easy breath technique to soothe critical thinking along with self-inquiry to cultivate self-compassion when you need it.
A quick breath technique and set of movements to energize the body and remind the brain to take in the sweetness of life a little more often.
A short, seated moving meditation intended to keep you embodied while connecting with higher perspectives and intentions. An opportunity to stay grounded while harnessing the vitality and motivation to follow through on planting and growing our dreams. Expect to move your spine in its various ranges of motion, practice enlivening breath and imagery.
My most essential practice to cultivate a sense of grounded wellbeing in my body and mind. An experience of warming and freeing the joints of your body, followed by a breath technique and visualization with the intention to leave you feeling calm, present and at ease. Use often!
Brief movement to prepare to sit, followed by a meditation technique that invites us to focus on the sense of touch, and then the awareness of sound. Learning to observe, rather than resist distraction can help us to become more accepting overall.
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.
If you’re building up your “sitting” time in this resource, welcome to 17 minutes! Expect to help focus your mind with a breath visualization and the repetition of a mantra.
If you’ve been progressing your meditation time in this program, I invite you to be compassionate with yourself as you explore a 15 minute sit. A breath technique and mantra are here to help your mind focus, but remember, thoughts will still arise. You are invited to be with whatever comes and goes. It’s a practice.
To help you increase your meditation time incrementally, this practice builds on the 10 min meditation. It utilizes a technique where you will “watch” the breath and repeat 2 mantras with your awareness at 2 different locations of the body.
Your invitation is to practice this meditation most days, if not every day of one week. Next week we’ll build our sit by a few minutes with the intention to sit for 20 mins by the end of the month. The technique offered is a breath visualization- watch the inhale move up from a few inches below the body to a few inches above the crown of the head and the watch the exhale flow back down from crown to earth,
A meditation suited for beginning a new day, week, month, or year! To support you in creating a new meditation habit in 2021, explore how techniques that prepare the body and mind to “sit” can create a more easeful experience. Includes intention setting on how you desire to feel, gentle movement and breathwork to enhance focus.
A special extended class featuring some of my favorite therapeutic techniques for reconnecting with your natural, peaceful place within. Expect a very calming breath practice, an extended guided meditation followed by nourishing movement and a deep, heart centered yoga nidra to close.