Ottawa Yoga Blog - PranaShanti Yoga Centre Ottawa

Forrest Yoga: A Therapeutic and Powerful Yoga Practice

May 6, 2015September 11, 2023 by Devinder KaurNo Comments

According to its founder and North American yoga pioneer, Ana Forrest, Forrest Yoga is “an intensely physical and internally focused practice that emphasizes how to carry a transformative experience off the mat and into daily life.” This style of yoga is more about healing the body and mind than trying to achieve fancy poses. If practiced regularly, however, Forrest Yoga will guide you to a safe, beautiful and strong practice – enhancing beauty inside and out. Forrest Yoga addresses current stresses in our contemporary lives, focusing on cultivating a practice that responds to the stresses and injuries common in the world we live in today. For example, it is so common these days to carry stress in our gut, leading to various eating disorders and digestive problems. Our necks and backs also become places of undue stress when we spend so much of your time seated either working at desks, driving, or watching TV. Forrest Yoga’s poses and principles offer...

Yoga Teacher Training FAQ’s

May 5, 2015May 17, 2019 by Devinder KaurNo Comments

Our yoga journey is a very individual experience transpiring within a community practice, or at least that's our perception. You may find in discussion with other yogis similarities to your internal practice, reactions and questions. This is certainly true when it comes to choosing a yoga teacher training! We may all have a very unique experience, but we often have the same curiosities and questions ahead of the training itself. To help you make the right decision for your yoga teacher training experience, here are some questions I frequently get asked and the best answer I can supply without knowing you and your context individually. Is my yoga practice advanced enough to do a yoga teacher training? Although I have had students with very little experience ahead of their training, it’s best to have a regular yoga practice ahead of your yoga teacher training. The more experience you have, the more information you have to apply to what you learn. When yogis...

Raw Chocolate Truffles from Casa Om

April 6, 2015July 28, 2015 by Devinder KaurNo Comments

PranaShanti owner and Kundalini teacher, Devinder Kaur, took a group of yogis on retreat to Casa Om in Mexico this March. They had a fantastic visit: lots of laughter, yoga, meditation, relaxation and gorgeous food. There was also some extremely interesting time spent with Julie, resident massage therapist, shamanic healer, and chocolate aficionado. Several yogis, including Devinder, visited Julie for a healing session and reported some fascinating, releasing experiences! Other yogis joined Julie for an equally healing experience: a raw chocolate tasting. This is Julia's recipe for raw chocolate truffles, which are are delicious for the body and soul. Ingredients: Cacao butter - 250 gram Cacao powder - 50 - 75 gram Agave nectar - 10 - 20 gram Silicon mould Optional, depending on your taste: pinch of salt freshly grounded black pepper pinch of chili and/or turmeric vanilla extract or powder blue green algae (spirulina or chlorella) 1 spoonful cinnamon roasted or raw nuts candied fruit Preparation: Boil water in a double boiler or bowl set over smaller pot and bring the water to...

Kirtan with Krishna Das: Kirtan Wallah Tour 2015

April 1, 2015March 22, 2021 by Devinder Kaur4 Comments

PranaShanti Yoga Centre is pleased to present world-renowned kirtan artist Krishna Das for a live Ottawa concert as part of his Kirtan Wallah Tour of SE Canada and NE USA 2015! "Hailed as yoga's "rock star," Krishna Das put sacred Sanskrit mantras on the music map." ~ Alan di Perna, Grammy.com, April 17, 2014 Date and Time Tuesday, July 7th, 2015 8:00 pm to 10:30 pm Doors open at 7:30 pm About the Event Krishna Das layers traditional Hindu kirtan with instantly accessible melodies and modern instrumentation. With a remarkably soulful voice that touches the deepest chord in even the most casual listener, Krishna Das – known to friends, family, and fans as simply KD – has taken the call-and-response chanting out of yoga centers and into concert halls, becoming a worldwide icon and the best-selling chant artist of all time. Learn more at www.krishnadas.com. Tickets Advance tickets are available via Eventbrite until July 6th at 7 pm. The ticket price is $53.50 plus there is a $2.06 service charge for each ticket...

Give Mom health and relaxation this Mother’s Day!

March 24, 2015April 17, 2023 by Devinder KaurNo Comments

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...

Your Brain on Yoga – by Dr. Eileen Harris

March 2, 2015April 17, 2023 by Devinder KaurNo Comments

In your yoga practice, are you “paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally, to the unfolding of experience moment by moment”? Are you at least striving to do that? If so, you are practicing a form of mindfulness as defined by Jon Kabat-Zinn. I call it mindful meditation. There is a growing body of research that demonstrates that yoga as a mindful meditation can actually alter certain structures in your brain, including structures responsible for feelings of love, peace and well-being. Let’s use peace as an example, which I define as the absence of stress. The stress response is a complicated trigger system governed by the amygdala, the small but vital portion of your brain responsible for memory, decision-making and emotions. When presented with a stressful stimulus (in modern life anything and everything can be a stressful stimulus) there is often an immediate reaction. We know this as the flight, fight or freeze response. It is automatic and often without...

what is a mala necklace and how do you use it?

February 16, 2015July 28, 2015 by Devinder Kaur2 Comments

You may have noticed your teacher wearing a necklace-like decoration with a tassel on the end, sometimes around their neck, or wrapped around their wrist. Called a mala (pronounced: mall-ah), why is it yogis wear it and what do they use it for? Malas, or mala beads, are a meditation device used by Hindus, Buddhists, yogis, and other eastern schools of philosophy - not unlike the prayer beads of the rosary used by some denominations of Christianity. Their purpose is to guide the user through japa (pronounced: jah-puh), the meditative practice of repeating a mantra. The user guides the number of repetitions by repeating their mantra for each bead they pass over. Hindu and yoga malas typically consist of 108 beads, though the number varies amidst other traditions. 108 is considered an auspicious number for many reasons, though one of our favourite reasons is that 1 represents the path, 0 the cyclical nature of life, and 8 the infinity loop. Malas are made from...

Happy Family Day – Monday, February 16

February 14, 2015April 20, 2021 by Devinder KaurNo Comments

Sometimes you need to yoga apart so to appreciate your togetherness that much more, and sometimes you want to yoga together as a healthy, heart-full way to bond. We are open this Monday for Family Day. Bring a family member and they practice FREE. On Monday, save the HST on our Family Yoga Package! 15 classes shared by up to 4 family members and valid for 1 year. Buy online with code YOGAFAMILY!...

40 Day Challenge

February 3, 2015December 6, 2021 by Devinder KaurNo Comments

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....

Vedantic Philosophy: The Snake and the Rope

January 16, 2015July 28, 2015 by Devinder Kaur2 Comments

Try and guess the source of this philosophical quip: “Your eyes can deceive you, don't trust them”. This is actually from Star Wars Jedi knight Obi Wan Kenobi, but it might as well have come from the Vedanta philosophy (the philosophy stemming from the Vedas, the Hindu scriptures). Let’s take a look! Is what we see real? How far can we trust our senses? How can Yoga help? We'll start with the simple expression, “my eyes were bigger than my stomach”. This is an expression many of us have heard and used, though what does it actually mean? Sight only happens with our eyes, yet we use to sight to judge the visceral taste experience – we think, “boy, that chocolate cake looks good” and “wow, that pizza looks delicious!” How do we know they really are good, and how do we know we’ll enjoy the experience of eating it as much as assume? Here is the illusion. Seeing the whole picture...