Happiness and a Home Yoga Practice

Photo by Nat Anfield

Happiness is a choice. Actually, everything is a choice, or at least how we respond is a choice.

But it isn’t always easy to shift emotions, especially if you’re feeling overwhelm, fear, frustration, or sadness. So what does yoga say about that?

Well, one of the best ways to move energy and shift the way you feel is to literally MOVE your body.

To that end, yoga is an amazing tool and companion. You can simply start your practice with a few breaths to calm and center, and have an intention that you come into a vibration of peace, happiness, and comfort during your practice.

If you’re already joyful and feeling great, then your practice can simply be a celebration of life! But if you’re feeling “off,” then yoga offers you a way to feel good again.

Having a home practice is an exceptional way to care for yourself and keep your body, heart and mind healthy and balanced.

Inspiration for your Home Yoga Practice

” Approach your practice with openness and curiosity, rather than self-judgment or competitiveness.” ~ Rodney Yee

“Start slow and discover your own inner teacher.” ~ Kreg Weiss

“I try to do something twice a day, sometimes it’s just a little bit. The place that my life happens to be will determine its intensity–anything from restorative to high intensity vinyasa. I try to be true to myself each day and see what I’m moved to do. I don’t have a mold or external blueprint that I follow, but in general I’m pulled toward vinyasa, heat-based movement, moving energy through my body. Rigid routines don’t really work well for me. I like fluid practice instead. My style is based on being safe and opening the body from a place that is protecting the joint system. I do a lot of creative sequencing, and I teach people my philosophy, “To thine own self be true.” You intuitively know what is right.” ~ Baron Baptiste

Photo by Toshi Kawano

Often I do a short home practice. Or I randomly break out into yoga wherever I am. Fun stuff!

Your yoga practice doesn’t need to be an hour or longer to make a great deal of difference. In fact, often 10 or 20 minutes does the trick, and even 5 minutes can leave you feeling infinitely better!

So if you feel inimidated or lack the motivation to roll out your mat at home, just tell yourself you’ll do 5 minutes of yoga. Get started, and if that’s all you do, fine, but you’ll likely discover that it feels so good you just keep moving, breathing, and realigning with your true nature of harmony.

Of course, yoga isn’t the only way to shift your attitude.

A deep breath and conscious decision can be enough, or a moment to appreciate nature, to feel grateful for all that you have in your life, or to simply surrender the feelings that aren’t what you want to hold, and open to those that feel good. Here’s a quote that you can say out loud to create more happiness:

“I’m going to be happy. I’m going to skip. I’m going to be glad. I’m going to smile a lot. I’m going to be easy. I’m going to count my blessings. I’m going to look for reasons to feel good. I’m going to dig up positive things from the past. I’m going to look for positive things where I stand. I’m going to look for positive things in the future. It is my natural state to be a happy person. It’s natural for me to love and to laugh. This is what is most natural for me. I am a happy person!”

—Abraham

Finding Healing and Wholeness with Yoga

Many traditions and modalities of healing have the approach that by healing, you are returning to your healed state.

This is something that already exists for you, this wholeness that is natural and inherant in all of us. It simply gets forgotten, scattered, twisted, cluttered, and otherwise messed with in ways that manifest as the variety of human pain and disease.

But there are ways to return to this healed state–to reaquaint yourself with the vibration of your true self.

One way I like to think of returning to the healed state of being is to let go of the vibrations that don’t feel good and focus on the ones that do.

Like when I’m in the peaceful presence of trees, I feel good. I naturally let go of stress and contraction, and return to my natural pulsation. That is a vibration of wholeness.

What about you, when and where do you naturally return to that pulsation of peace, joy, and pure being?

Yoga brings healing on many levels.

Celebrating Autumn Equinox AND Fall Yoga Series In Kamloops

Shine fearlessly as who you are. Truth is yours to experience and live.

Okay, Kamloops yoga enthusiasts, I have some WONDERFUL news for you!

But first…

Are you getting my yoga newsletter? If not, be sure to subscribe below so you’re up to date with class and event offerings in Kamloops!

Thursday Night Yoga and Celebrating the Equinox

Thursday Evening Class Starts This Week!

I’m excited to finally be offering an evening yoga class again, and in such a beautiful place! Please join me for the Grand Opening this Thursday night!

Thursday Anusara® Yoga with Katrina from 5:30-6:45pm at St. Andrews (159 Seymour St on the corner of 2nd and Seymour)

-Bring your own mat, blanket, and blocks if you need them
-Bring your friends! Beginners most welcome.

Special Grand Opening Discount for 10 Class Cards: $120 plus HST ($134.40 total, regularly $145.60. Cash or cheque only please.)

Autumn Equinox Celebration: Mantra and Meditation Night

This tree is massive! The trunk is about 8 feet wide.

Wow! Get ready for an incredible night in the truly magnificent acoustics of St. Andrews.

Yoga for your Health in Kamloops

aisan-face-cu-peaceful19305595Whether you’re interested in maintaining your overall health or you’re working with a health condition or injury, yoga can be an incredibly valuable and transformational healing tool. And if you live in Kamloops, I would love to personally assist you in achieving your health goals.

Why is yoga so great for your health?

Great question! The amount of ways yoga brings balance to the human body and psyche are numerous and well documented.

One of the things yoga does is lower stress and tension, which are contributing factors to nearly every health concern. Stress reduction alone can bring your body back into a balanced place where your immune system and self healing capacity can regain their natural strength and abilities.

If you look at studies done with yoga and meditation, they both are shown to lower blood pressure and bring well being on many levels.

Here’s a list of some of the many health benefits of yoga:

Physical Benefits:

Sports And Fitness In Kamloops: Improve Your Game With Yoga

39177379If you live in Kamloops and love sports, chances are you’re either playing a team or individual sport to have fun and stay in shape. That’s so great! Sports are an excellent way to enjoy taking care of your body, and so often you get the social bonus of camaraderie and feeling of belonging and participation.

One of the things that can make a huge difference in how much you enjoy your sport, and how well you play it, is knowing how to align, strengthen, and stretch your body in the most optimal way. You might already be stretching as part of your fitness routine (which is awesome), however there are ways to get more benefits out of lengthening your muscles.
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And there are some tips you can learn to avoid injury as well.

What am I talking about? Yoga.

Now, let’s clear up some misconceptions right off the bat.

  1. You do not have to be flexible to do yoga. If your hands don’t come remotely near your toes when you do a forward bend, don’t worry about it. You’ll still get enormous benefit from it, and you will gain flexibility as you go along.
  2. Yoga is not some wussy thing for girls.

Getting Over The Intimidation Factor (Day 2 of my Fitness Boot Camp Stories)

pinchaSomehow I woke up before my alarm. 4:27 am to be exact, though I could’ve stayed in bed another 13 minutes, I was awake and ready to go to my second day of New Orleans Boot Camp.

It was harder today. We did longer holds in squats, lots of running, crunches, knee lifts, jumping jacks, pushups and a nice extended hold in plank, among other things. There were several times where I had to draw from reserves rooted deep in my will power.

Plus it was wicked cold and windy. I did most of the workout with my toque on (that’s Canadian for winter hat, if y’all didn’t know.)

Yet, as the sky grew lighter the birds started serenading us. The oak trees looked down, maybe laughing a little in their leaves.

Jonas, our fearless leader a.k.a. commander in chief, would every so often remind us to center. Which goes pretty deep for me, like right into the core of my being and way down into the heart of the earth. I’m not sure that’s exactly what he’s getting at, but it sure works in my world. And each time I noticed the bigger picture in this way, it helped me connect with the strength I needed to keep going.

Really, it was great!

My First Day of Fitness Boot Camp: Get Ready, Kamloops

60512144It’s barely 5am, it’s dark out, foggy, and I’m wondering if I’m a little crazy as I drive through the dark streets of New Orleans to my first day of Fitness Boot Camp. I have another month or so here, and I’m determined to be in the best shape ever when I head back to Whistler in April, then on to Kamloops in May.

The program is called an “Adventure” New Orleans Boot Camp for Women, and I’m thinking that part of the adventure is the whole waking up at 4 something in the morning and actually getting your self there. I’m not alone, though. There’s at least another 50 women here with me.

But it’s fun! Sure, it’s really hard, but I like it!

My boyfriend’s friend, Jonas, runs the boot camp. It’s the most successful boot camp around, and it’s giving me ideas to run something similar in Kamloops – heavily influenced by yoga of course.

Jonas keeps telling us we’re just getting warmed up. Even when the class is more than half way over. It makes me smile.

He’s making us keep moving, giving orders, counting reps. His commanding voice projects through the small area of the park we’re in so that everyone can hear him. He’s making me work really hard. And then he stops by the woman next to me to check on her and his voice is so encouraging and caring. I grin wider.