The Winter Solstice is the longest night and shortest day of the year in the Northern hemisphere, and so follows it’s the reverse in the southern. The solstice is considered auspicious in many cultures, including the Romans’ “Day of the Unconquerable Sun”, the Druids’ “Light of Arthur” and the Hindus’ Diwali and Lohri. This year it falls on December 22, when we’ll have just over 9 hours of daylight.
In many places, obviously including Ottawa, solstice marks the distinct shift into winter. While the days are getting longer with increasing sunlight after solstice, we enter a season where we desire hibernation. These cold, dark days remind us of the reverence and gratitude we have for sunlight and our perfect position in relationship to the sun for the abundance it provides. Like all things, there are dual, overlapping aspects to all creation, and so we embrace the necessary darkness and dormancy winter provides for renewal in the spring season.
The natural drawing in...
A study by the UPMC Center for Sports Medicine in Pittsburgh of athletes between the ages of 40 and 81 demonstrated that muscle loss considered typical in adults after the age of 40 has more to do with lack of use than aging alone. The study showed that the muscles used by the athlete's chosen activity were nearly indistuighsable from an athlete at the age of 40, proving that studies on the effect of age of muscle mass have focused too much on sedentary adults, and that the caliber of our golden years is quite self-determined. (They hypothesize a 70/30 ratio between lifestyle and genetics!)
It joins a growing body of evidence on what types of exercise are most effective for preserving muscle mass. While overall motor units (a group of muscle fibres commanded by a single motor neuron in the spine) decrease in the body over time, it's true, these can be preserved through use. Which means an activity with...
Chair yoga is an incredible experience for both students and teachers. Students who don’t believe they can exercise or improve their overall heath find accessible, rewarding techniques; and teachers find incredibly devoted, grateful students who cannot make it to traditional classes.
The journey for myself began by wanting to share yoga with my grandparents who were in their nineties, and I needed to come up with ways to adapt the techniques to suit them. At the time I had never heard of "chair yoga", but it seemed like a natural way to adapt yoga for people in their early 90’s. After a chance meeting led me to taking over a class at a senior’s residence, my student base grew from these initial two! We started with a monthly class and the residents kept protesting until it was offered weekly. Their devotion to the practice and its results was second to none, and it had nothing to do with being family.
Over time I've realized that chair yoga...
Gentle yoga
There is a general misconception that “gentle yoga” is not as beneficial as the more active styles. However, the gentle styles of yoga, such as Restorative Yoga, Somatic Yoga, Therapeutic Yoga, can stimulate the immune system and improve one’s overall health.
Gentle yoga styles help to get the body out of stress-mode, release tension, calm the nervous system, gain clearer thinking, and even restore an overall sense of balance to the body, the mind and the soul. While stress is essential in certain moments where we need to achieve a goal and the stakes are high, the body's stress aparatus (the brain, heart, lungs, blood vessels, and muscles) become chronically over or under-activated when even low-levels of stress are persistent. Chronic stress can produce mental and physical illness over time, and the list of potential effects is too long and sad to list to here.
People often think that gentle yoga classes are easy, but these may be students who...
From the Sanskrit words "shiras" (head, which you might recognize from the Sanskrit for headstand "Sirsasana") and "dhara" (flow), shirodhara is the gentle flow of warm oil from a brass oil fountain onto the third eye chakra (Ajna) just above and between the eyebrows. It's an incredibly relaxing, meditative practice that stimulates circulation, brain function, and a healthy head of hair.
Should you not be able to get to your local Ayurvedic practitioner, you can reap the health benefits of massage with Ayurvedic hair massage oils. Massaging increases blood flow to the treated area, and helps with fatigue, stress, and pain. This is also true for scalp massages, and they also benefit the skin, scalp, hair follicles and hair to grow faster and more luminous.
Only oils appropriate for the hair should be used for scalp massage. We have Banyan Botanicals Healthy Hair Massage Oil for you to try this at home, but you can also use Almond or Castor oil to...
The Desire Map fits like my favourite yoga pants. Comfortable. Transformational. Practical. Versatile. Natural. Like putting on a hug. An investment in awesome. An investment in forward motion. An investment in life: lived on purpose, with purpose.
It also solved one very big problem.
First, a little back story. Danielle Laporte, creator of The Desire Map, lights up truths and pulls it all together – practically and poetically. She asks us to turn old habits, beliefs, and ways of getting stuff done inside out. Born in Windsor, Ontario, she’s globally known as a powerhouse of manifestation. Without post-secondary education, she rose up through The Body Shop by achieving new goals, and then asking for promotions.
The Desire Map is premised on the clarity of intention. Clarity of desires. Clarity of choices. Clarity of action. Yet (and this is a big yet), the approach is oh-so-soothing. to body, mind AND spirit. Soothing to the soul. It’s gentle, powerful and life affirming.
I was an early...
Every year my family gave my grandmother lavender hand cream, soaps, and talc powder, until she had amassed such an inventory that it would take her the better part of a decade to use it all. Finally, we collectively decided to start giving her experiences, rather than things. She had enough things, and she was actually quite particular about the types of things to have, but she would eagerly use a gift certificate for massage.
We've got a few things happening at the centre for Mother's Day this year! See which experience suits you or your mother figure.
Yoga Classes
Yoga for Kids and Mom
Saturday May 9th
12:30 - 1:30 pm
Enjoy an hour with your little yogi and practice Yoga for Kids and Mom led by Victoria Lyons. Register here!
Mother's Day Yoga Workshop
Saturday May 9th
3 - 5 pm
A decadent two hour class for Moms to reconnect with a sense of peacefulness and celebrate all that you do and give. A little bit of everything...
Beat the Winter Blues with the PranaShanti 40 Day Yoga Challenge!
About the Challenge
The PranaShanti 40 Day Challenge is a commitment to attend yoga classes for 40 consecutive days. The Challenge runs Monday, February 9th, 2015 to Friday, March 20th, 2015.
Yogic science confirms that it takes 40 days to fully develop a new life-promoting habit or to drop a current destructive habit. The PranaShanti 40 Day Challenge is a great way to strengthen the body, unburden the mind, and begin a daily commitment to yourself. In 40 days, you can create a whole new way of being.
Start with any class on Monday, February 9th!
Optional Gatherings
There are 3 optional team gatherings!
1. Monday, February 9th, 5:45 PM - 7:15 PM ~ Kick Off Class
Join us for our Kick Off class, Hatha Yoga with Mike. We’ll follow the class with healthy snacks. This is a great opportunity to get to know your fellow participants so that you can encourage each other along the way....
It is more common than we think that people with a significant degree of trauma will turn to yoga for healing and even more common for trauma survivors to turn to strong and disciplined physical practices. Unfortunately, most yoga teachers and most students aren’t fully aware of how to support themselves and others in the process of unravelling the complexity of the trauma in a safe way. Students walk in and out of yoga classes everyday without sharing their feedback with teachers. So, sometimes, as teachers, we simply don’t notice or know that a student may have just walked out of class feeling exposed, raw, vulnerable, and confused about how a practice that has a potential for healing has just surfaced the very adverse emotional state that he or she has spent so much time suppressing and masking. Or sometimes, the immediate feeling after a class is a lifted energy. The adverse emotional state may surface a few hours later,...
