Are you sowing various seeds to encompass your diverse interests and connections? Or are you opting for a "mono-crop," focusing solely on one narrow aspect of your life?

Enduring the cold becomes more manageable when there's sunshine, but this winter seems exceptionally long and challenging with its perpetual grey skies.

Here are a few ways I have found to help handle a murky, grey winter:

I have been practicing yoga for over 25 years (teaching for over 18 years) and I have seen the trends come and go. When I was in my early 20s, my first yoga class was in a loud and chilly community recreation centre. It wasn’t very zen-like, but something about the practice had me intrigued. I continued to deepen my knowledge of yoga in small yoga studios.

Japanese “forest bathing” is the science of nature to heal yourself, wherever you are.

Science and research have finally proven something that mankind has known innately for centuries, that trees and nature have healing powers.

We all know the importance of physical fitness and how it impacts our health. During the pandemic, most of us valued the importance of getting outside for simple walks and staying active. When we are physically fit, we enjoy the ability to live, move and play with a level of freedom and endurance that feeds both the body and the mind.

I usually greet each of the students as they log into our zoom classes in the morning with the familiar greeting, "How are you?". What has been interesting over the course of this past year, is that it seems we are becoming more honest or revealing with our answers to this common greeting. Most days, one of my students will reply "meh" to that question. Meaning, "I'm alright. I'm not great, but I am here, and for that I am fortunate."

Do you consider yourself a creative being?

Or do you believe that you don't have a creative bone in your body?

Regardless of how you answer the questions above, every one of us requires creativity to exist in our daily lives.

It's been a year since the initial lockdowns and much has changed in the world.  But optimism seems to be on the horizon!  Lately, I have been thinking about how will we all move on.

The squat is more than just a yoga pose or leg exercise. It is a functional movement that can help with daily living and overall strength. It is easily modified and there are so many variations to add intensity or create more ease.

Rest will look different for all of us. For some, rest is as basic as taking a nap. For others, it may mean reading a good book, sitting in stillness, or reconnecting with close friends.

Our bodies are made to move and squatting is one of the most basic movements we learn as young toddlers but risk losing as we age. At the most basic level, we need to squat to sit down in a chair, get into a car, and use the toilet.

When I prepare a squat class in advance, I never tell my students where the practice is heading. If I reveal a week in advance that we were going to have a squat class next week, chances are there would be a good percentage of my students would not show up for that particular class.

As we enter into the deep winter of 2021, health has been a topic of conversation that has dominated the newsreels and our daily conversations since March 2020.

At some point, we have all received the well-meaning advice to “stay positive”. To view the glass as “half full” sometimes can feel like wishful thinking or “Pollyannaish”. And it can be difficult to find the motivation to stay positive when life becomes challenging.

How does your practice change when you are experiencing a difficult period in your life? Does your practice disappear or do you lean in and become more intentional with when and how you practice?

Fall is in the air and with the change of season, we have the opportunity to begin again, change what we want to change and take care of our needs in a new way. Here are a few self-care ideas to add to your month ahead.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about getting ready for a second spike in Covid 19 cases. Our first experience in March was sudden and shocking. Since then we’ve had lots of time to get a handle on this strange new world. Our numbers of Covid 19 cases are still quite low as I write this in August, but if it does happen again this Fall, I want to be ready. If it happens, I’d like to be as “hygge” or cozy, as possible.

Summer is coming to a close this month, so now is the time to take the opportunity to feed yourself and your soul with all those things that you love about summer.  Living in Canada, we crave these summer months that are filled with sunshine, warmth, and longer days. 

We all know that a self-care practice is something that we should incorporate into our everyday living. But more often than not, our care comes at the expense of taking care of others. Often it just doesn’t occur to us to do something nice for ourselves or we simply don’t know what to do.