Nourishment Through True Presence

When was the last time you allowed yourself to just be? There are so many benefits to letting ourselves do nothing every once in a while, and be with what is. Here's a practice that guides you to presence through your senses throughout a rhythmic, engaging and strengthening flow. Learn to discern how to feel a balance of effort and ease and experience 75 minutes of mindfulness in motion.

Wrist- Free Strengthening

Sometimes our lives (and our yoga practices) can be hard on our wrists. Enjoy this sequence that shows you how you can strengthen the muscles of your arms without load, and how to care for your wrists and hands so they stay functional.

Member Request- Tight Hip Therapy

A 15 minute set of therapeutics for tending to tight external hip rotators (piriformis, gluteals) which often occur and can cause pain around the sacrum or in the deep buttocks. Try this program to keep the area mobilized, strong and flexible!

Emotional Freedom Technique

EFT, or "tapping" is an evidence-based technique that soothes obsessive thinking with a somatic interruption (the tapping of meridian points on the body) along with a cognitive skill to reframe worries and cultivate self-compassion. With continued use, you may experience more freedom from thoughts that create suffering.

The tapping protocol: Top of head, outer eyebrow, inner eyebrow, above the lip, the top of the chin, above the collarbones, sides of upper torso, below the breasts, wrists “karate chop”, tips of fingers and thumb.

Rebuild & Restore Through Effort & Ease

One reason we may feel depleted is having to continue to take action to fulfill our responsibilities even when we may need rest. This necessary tendency can desensitize us to our energy levels and lead to burn out. The intention of this hatha flow is to re-sensitize yourself to how much energy you are expending by committing to work at 70-75 percent of your ability during the dynamic portion of this practice. The last third of this class is a series of restorative poses to further help us rebuild the energy we scatter through our lives every day.

Nourishment for Body, Energy and Sense of Self

A rebuilding gentle and abdominals- focused flow that invites you to receive restoration through awareness of your "center"- drawing breath, attention and physical strength to our "core" area that is symbolic of our personal power, boundaries and self-worth. Nourishing depletion of energy and motivation through movement, breath and present-centred focus.

Craft a Supportive Morning Routine (May Workshop)

In May's workshop, I offered you a bounty of ideas for helping you to start your day vibrant and tranquil.

We explored an exercise where we examine what we already do each morning, and where we could add in small new habits that can add up to big changes over time.

Workshop notes:

-New habit ideas from bed: Breathe into right side nostril/right side body to encourage a new day of energized activity, eye exercises, joint freeing. Cultivate a thought as your feet hit the floor, like: "May something wonderful happen today".

-Let the light in, a ritual while opening blinds, windows, standing joint freeing and shake off the night's sleep.

-5 essential yoga postures: Plank, Cobra (or Locust), Leg Lifts, Bridge Pose, Bow Pose (with modifications and options. Body Brushing

-Turning aspirations into reality through habit change (written exercise)

-Prana Nidra: a supine guided meditation intended to encourage presence, (the wellspring of vitality) and balance our energy.

Breathing Your Way to Balance

We begin with three brief breath techniques intended to calm a distracted mind, invigorate and increase focus. The breath leads a rhythmic flow through a full body strengthen and stretch. Closes with more gentle concentration and overall ease for mind, body and heart

Freedom and Fluidity for the Hips

A 30 minute movement and breath practice that focuses on creating mobility and strength for the hips while inviting an intention to increase the ability to experience pleasure through movement and go with the flow of life.

Energy Burst

When you need a quick lift, this short standing practice includes big breath and movement to reduce stagnation and encourage an uplift of body, mind and heart!

Strong Arms Without Strong Arming

Strengthen your wrists, arms and upper body in a sustainable way by learning to mobilize joints and strengthen muscles without load, preparing the arms for appropriate challenge. In this 75 min invigorating therapeutic class, you'll warm up before weight-bearing movement and explore how focus on arms and chest can enhance breath and the connection with qualities of the heart.

Low Body Love

While this 60 minute hatha class is conditioning for the whole body, there is enhanced focus placed on therapeutics for the feet and knees. To keep the feet and knees healthy and happy, we need to keep them mobile and free while strengthening and stretching the big muscle groups around them like the glutes, quads and hamstrings. Throughout the experience, there is also an invitation to offer focused appreciation for these hard working parts of our anatomy! Low body love!

A Mid-Week Reset

A useful practice anytime you feel like you need a reset for the body and mind. Explore a breathe technique that can in itself create a shift in your state, followed by a refreshing full body movement sequence (with an appearance by my malti-poo Bowie near the end). Close with a renewing meditation.

Cultivating Healthy Habits, Week 3- Easy Morning Meditation & Movement

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.

Building Renewed Vitality Through Breath and Movement

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.

Strengthening a Kind Inner Voice (and the upper back)

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.

Yoga Nidra for an Afternoon Refresh

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.

Cultivating Healthy Habits, Week 2

Here are three more ideas for tiny, easy habits that you could connect to activities you already do each day. This week, I offer inspirations for shower time, the moments we spend waiting and a quick pre-meal ritual that can turn eating into a sacred moment of gratitude.

Strengthening Body and Mind

Many come to yoga to create stronger bodies, which is one of the many benefits of the physical practice. However, we soon discover that we also strengthen our ability to question our habitual thoughts, hold broader perspectives and cultivate more compassion for ourselves and others. This 60 minute practice strengthens weak areas of the body where we often feel discomfort (neck, upper back, core, glutes) while offering a breath visualization and inspiration to strengthen our kinder inner voice.

Transitioning from Work to Home

Small practices to help you let go of one activity before shifting into another are threaded through this 45 minute mellow practice intended to release the tension of the day and past events to arrive back in the present moment, refreshed and renewed.