Yoga Groove Workshop May 11th

An honour to host the upcoming workshop "Yoga Groove" in London, Ontario! This Saturday May 11th from 1 - 2:30pm, I will be leading a yogic dance inspired practice as we move along our bodies and breath to the beat. Here is a sample of the dub flows we will be grooving to! The cost is $20 at the door of the Downtown Yoga Holistic Centre across from the Central Library on Dundas St. Come and explore asana, pranayama and musical rhythm combined! Hope to see you there to play and flow together : )

Yoga is Radical: Toronto Conference Inspiration

Yoga is all over the world! It is amazing to observe the many incarnations and manifestations of this ancient practice. With an unlimited scope of form and content, the art of yoga has and is spreading widely and wildly. Attending the Toronto Yoga Conference last weekend was an invigorating and interesting experience. There was a lot of energy, a lot of action, a lot of frenzy over the culture of modern, urban yoga! The show floor was busy with attendees, a lot of smiles and health samples with everything from red beet crystals, to mushroom extract, to alkaline coffee.

In the middle of the show floor, there was a space with ongoing classes of many varieties. I attended a half an hour workshop of Kundalini yoga and how to de-stress as well as relax before bed. The meditations and movements from the school of 3HO Kundalini Yoga were so effective that I experienced an immediate change in my vibratory energy field. What a calming peace, emotional peace and exquisite serenity! I look forward to exploring Kundalini yoga more in the future. I received more from that short experience than I ever could have by buying into the consumer health products and fashions available. Overall it was a fabulous experience to more closely discover the range of levels and expressions in the yoga community in Toronto and beyond. The ongoing Kirtans were a special treat aswell. Hare Om!

A few highlights from the vendors were:

Toronto Kundalini Yoga Teachers Association which put on the meditation I mentioned above

The Lily Foundation - charity to benefit Vietnamese children supported by fundraising in Ontario with funds also raised from the artistic endeavours of Toronto's creative community.

Michael Moon and the Temple of Sound - healing and meditative music compositions focused on the power of sound during practices of consciousness and relaxation.

The teacher training workshop I attended was for Pre & Post Natal Yoga with Monica Voss. Learned so much about the female body and emotional landscape during pregnancy. Hopefully one day I will have the honour to guide women on a yogic journey during that sacred time. Most of all, I was inspired by the deep practice of teaching yoga in general that Monica Voss shared. She is one solid and grounded yogini! A few highlights from her class may touch you also.

Thankyou Monica! Thankyou Yoga!

"drop deep inside"

"postures give opportunity to teach the skills of life" (open, surrender, ground, expand)

"teach to the spine"



"empower women, empower yourself"

 

"'accomplishment' of poses is not important: where is our experience?"



                   "

YOGA IS NOT ABOUT CONFORMING

YOGA IS RADICAL

YOGA IS ANTI-AUTHORITARIAN

 ITS NOT ABOUT DOING WHAT WERE TOLD, ITS ABOUT FINDING OUT

                                                     "

Family & Kids Yoga

Yoga as a family can be a very rewarding and special experience! It is amazing to see people come together from the same family unit and consciously unite in breath and movement. It can create an ideal space for bonding and releasing together in relaxation and fun. This is especially true of incorporating partner yoga postures to cultivate sharing and trust with your family members.

Below are a few links with creative ideas and tips for practicing together. Whether you have mats or an ideal space in your home or not, these poses can be performed together in manageable amounts of time during your weekly routine together. Perhaps you will find that adding some time to focus awareness to breathe and body as a family will increase the level of mindfulness and peace in your lives independently and as a group!

It has been such an interesting pleasure to teach yoga to children as young as 3 years old! Just being in a space set intentionally for a yoga practice can benefit a child even if they can't focus on breath or postures. There seems to be a noticeable difference in each age groups response and ability in a yoga class. I feel that it is healthy to let the children explore movement and breathe instinctually, especially if they have impediments to concentration. Just being allowed to move and express in their own way can be a very relaxing and releasing process. As long as the class isn't being entirely disrupted consistently, I think that a productive and beneficial activity is taking place.

Singing bowls and other instruments are very useful to get the attention of a kids yoga class and can also be employed to create interest in yogic traditions and sound healing. Using sound and simple mantra an be very exciting for kids who get to let out free noises and engage with Sanskrit - a mysterious and ancient language foreign to them. For example, having the class lay down in relaxation pose and chant the sound of the vowels can be a wonderful throat chakra release that can help with communication and release of stored, repressed energy. Often children are told to be quiet and to listen, not the opposite of allowing sound to be freely released!

A - ahhh
E - ehhh
I - ihhhh
O - awe
U - uhhhh

Om Trayambakam Yajamahe - Mantra

“Mantra is a mystical energy bound to a series of sounds“. This and many other aspects of yogic knowledge will be featured on this page! Many of the quotes and information come from my yoga manual from an ashram. With gratitude, I was able to attend a 200 hour yoga teacher training in Rishikesh, India in the fall of 2012. The Anand Prakash Yoga Ashram is an incredible place in central Northern India directly next to the Ganges and Himalayas! Our teacher Yogi Vishvaketu Ji  opened and expanded us during our month together. We were eager for further enlightenment and that is what we found! We were open enough to allow the guru inside us develop. All of the various practices and teachings will stay with us, and will hopefully be shared throughout our lives and practices as eternal yoga students and teachers. Chanting mantra was a part of the ashram life and it is a tool that I hope to always engage. This is a particular mantra that we chanted often and its effects were very harmonizing! Much gratitude and grace to the World Conscious Yoga Family for giving me such a vehicle of transformative experience! It is my humble hope that I may share it with others in some capacity.

It is a joy and honour to communicate various lessons, observations and more through the medium of this yoga blog. I hope to use it to share my experiences and mostly, spread and cultivate the knowledge and love of yoga in all of its forms - which are limitless!

This powerful healing mantra is used to send ancient vibrational energy throughout the mind, body and soul. It clears, it opens, it releases. It is even supposed to elevate the immune system! This mantra is called the Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra. Perhaps you are accustomed to chanting and maybe you have never tried it before! I know that before I tried meditations longer than Om Shanti Shanti Shanti I was reluctant to dive into these mysterious words so foreign in content and purpose!

I have particularly noticed its healing effects when I send the effort of vibrations to the areas of my body that carry tension and act as a storage space for emotional baggage. Saying it enough times in a mantra meditation in a group or on your own is very powerful and you will feel noticeably different after this practice!

All you can do is try! Take a listen to the mantra in the video and try it out, probably a lot slower at first! Perhaps it is useful to begin with breaking down the words to experiment with pronunciation. Maybe chanting along with the song in the link can aid you. Soon you will be able to confidently chant this healing mantra!

Om triyambakam yajamahai

sugandhim pushtivardanam

urvaukamiva bandhanan

mrityor mokshiya mamritat

 

we meditate on Shiva - the 3 eyed one

knower of past, present and future

who permeates and nourishes all like a fragrance

as in due time the stem of the cucumber weakens

and the gourd is freed from the vine

so release us from attachment to the material

and liberate us into the eternal


THANKYOU INDIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!