Run Yogi, Run!

I'll be honest, I'm not much of a runner, I prefer activities that I can do barefoot, like yoga, swimming and beach walking. There's something wearing running shoes that makes me feel claustrophobic (it's this same feeling that has me in flip flops all summer.) But every spring, once the snow melts away, and the parks and their paths suddenly reappear, I get the urge to lace up my Asics and run around.

With this incredibly warm spring we've been graced with, my desire to hit the pavement happened sooner than usual, and I celebrated the spring solstice with my first run of the year. In my first few strides, I discovered that my two neighbourhood running paths were closed for construction, and that I haven't updated my iPod with any upbeat playlists in eons. I was tempted to turn back, but instead I told myself that to make this excision worthwhile, I'd have to run at least a few blocks around my Fort Rouge neighbourhood.

In those first three blocks, I discovered a park I had never seen, with paths that wound through tall trees. At the end of the path, a playground. After a few windy loops, and a quick slide down the yellow swirl, I kept running, further from my house, excited to see what I could discover in this beautiful and unknown landscape. I ran until my playlist ended, 45 minutes had gone by without me even realizing.

Once I got home, I found out a sunny spot on my deck to lay out my yoga mat, take off my shoes, breathe and stretch. After a few sun salutations, I did these 10 yoga poses that are great post-run.

Intention for the day: discover something new, weather it be in your own backyard or within yourself. •♥•

New Beginnings

Prairie Yogi magazine had its official launch event on Saturday night at Peg City Yoga. The lovely Darlene Svenson, featured in PY's article on Hockey & Yoga, taught a beautiful class all about new beginnings.

To start, we were instructed to write a word or phrase that signified a new beginning on the piece of paper placed next to our mat. Everyone then shared their word, uniting us as a class and setting the tone for our practice.

I wrote the word sunrise.

Darlene talked about the creation of Prairie Yogi, something that was once upon a time just an idea, a single thought, that through passion and dedication has come to be. She asked us to use that inspiration to write down something that we would like to create the possibility for in our hearts and tuck it underneath our mats.

That one I will keep a secret ;).

The flow of the entire class was beautiful, with postures flowing seamlessly one into the next and in the practice I felt free. She spoke poetically through the class that breezed by. Through stretching, smiling, and giggling, I felt release that was followed by a lightness in my heart, bliss.

After the class, over tea and cupcakes, people grouped and caught up, the room was full of love and inspiration. I could not have asked for a better night to launch this new beginning, I only hope that the students in the class start their new beginnings and don't leave it tucked away under their mat for too much longer. •♥•

Music Meltdown

Nena at Moksha Yoga Winnipeg is one of my favourite teachers, she kicks my butt (in a peaceful way) and always plays killer music in her classes. Tonight, mid-way through class, an audio malfunction killed the music and left us in silence. Without the beats as my crutch, my thoughts immediately left the room.

Bringing my practice back to my mat was challenging. The trick I use is to count in my head during my inhale and exhale, and eventually, concentration becomes easy once again. :)

My good friend and fellow yogi, DJ Sammy SoSo, created this stellar yoga mix to share. Enjoy.

http://soundcloud.com/djsammysoso/yoga-mix

To breathe: To inspire

Now that I have found my little yogi haven here in Montréal, I have become a regular visitor...

Imagine my delight when I showed up to class and was asked, "in English or in French? We have 2 classes happening now." How wonderful! One of my goals for this trip is to perfect my français, so of course I opted to take the class in French, baffled by my response, she replied, "there are lots of spaces left in the English class," clearly, my accent isn't as good as I think it is.

The French class was held in a smaller studio across the hall, I of course took a spot near the window looking out onto McGill's campus, enjoying the beautiful view.

What I took away from the class was that in French to breathe in is inspirer. Lucky coincidence? Maybe, but I took it as my intention for the day: to find inspiration in something as simple as taking a breath and to look for inspiration in those breaths.

I invite you to take a deep breath and be inspired today.

Peace. Love. Namaste. •♥•

Life is full of setbacks.

I once read on a lululemon bag that: life is full of setbacks, success is determined by how you handle those setbacks.

For over two months now, I have been looking forward to today, January 4th. Today is the day I was to start my work placement with a hip ad agency in downtown Montréal: I woke up early, put on my outfit I had laid out the night before, and made sure I tied my scarf the "cool" way that my co-worker showed me. I got on the commuter bus from the suburbs (where I am staying with my aunt) into the city, beaming with anxiousness, nervousness and excitement....

Once in town, I received an email from the agency that due to unforeseen circumstances, that I won't be able to start working until Monday. This leaves me alone in an unknown city, with no friends and nothing to do.... A little bit of a heart-breaking setback.

The back-packer in me tried to make the most of it and take this time to discover this cultural and beautiful city. I got on the subway and, having no idea where to go, I went to Old Montréal, a place full of great childhood memories of mimes and horse-drawn carriages. I had figured I could sit in a quaint coffee shop and people watch. It was desolate, apparently tourists aren't interested in visiting in the dead of winter and being the coldest day of the year (minus 27 with the wind) there was no one walking around, no people watching. I couldn't find a café (actually) and had to settle on an all-things-maple shop. I was the only person in the place. And there, I started to cry. Tears ran down my cheeks and into my cup of maple tea.

I didn't know what to do. I felt discouraged, disappointed, and all alone. I don't know what happened to the strong warrior in me. The one who travelled the world solo, the one who mountain biked down the worlds' most dangerous road, the one who started a yoga magazine for Winnipeggers...

That is it! Yoga! Why hadn't I thought of it sooner?? I googled Moksha in Montréal and saw there was a class starting in 45 minutes: 2 blocks, 3 métro stops and 5 more blocks later (did I mention that it was -27 degrees outside, brrrrrr) I made it in the knick of time and was greeted by a warm, smiling face. She could obviously see my distress (or maybe it was just the mascara running down my face) and said: just get in there and enjoy!

The class released my stress, allowed me to catch my breath, and thaw out my frozen toes...

It's one of the many things I love about yoga: no matter where in the world you can find bliss and a community in a yoga class.

This is how I have decided to handle this setback: just breathe.

Arm balancing fun!

What I love about yoga (one of the many things, of course) is that you can never quite 'master' it, no matter how long or how often you practise, you will always have room to grow.

Today I went to the Yoga Centre Winnipeg, the city's original yoga studio has been around for over 25 years and offers a variety of different styles of yoga to suit anyone's taste. I went to Darlene's Intermediate Flow class. I have met Darlene through working at lululemon

(she is one of the very inspiring ambassadors for the Polo Park store.) I told her that I was coming to her class this week and she asked me if I had any requests. I answered, "arm balances."

Through my years of being a fan of vinyasa flow yoga, I have discovered a love for arm balances: the combined challenge of the postures with the payoff of taking flight. So great!

Side crow is definitely my favourite, but when she asked if I had any in specific, I made the mistake of saying, "whichever one you want!"

As the class went on, I couldn't help but notice the lack of arm balances: had Darlene forgotten about me? With all these postures like dolphin and sphinx, I wasn't sure where she was headed with this Sunday morning practice.

And then all it all made sense when she sprung Pincha on us. The class growned and Darlene told everyone that I specifically had requested the incredibly difficult, inverted forearm balancing posture. I felt foolish as I had indeed requested an arm balance, but Pincha isn't normally explored within the confines of the hot yoga rooms that I have grown my practice in, and I actually had never even tried it.

Just like the first time I tried side plank, crow, half moon or side crow... My first attempt at Pincha was an epic failure, but a good reminder of how much room there is in my practice still to grow and now I have a new yoga goal to strive towards...

I will be able to get into Pincha by January 1st, 2012. You saw it here first. Stay posted for photos!

The scariest place of all...

I have been practicing yoga for six years, having tried a variety of styles taught by a tons of different teachers, in different languages around the world. Today I took my practice to the scariest place yet: my living room.

I set my mat up in the middle of my living room. Abbey, our Golden Retriever gave me a puzzled look. With no teachers to guide me or encourage me to keep me going, I followed a simple vinyasa (flow) sequence from one of my favourite yoga books.

At first I tried to hold the postures and count to ensure I stayed in them as long as I was supposed to, but this felt unnatural. Sort of like running on a treadmill staring at the seconds, willing them to go faster. So rather than counting seconds, I started counting breaths.

Things started to flow... I found that I need not even refer to the sequence I had set out in front of me, somehow my body simply knew which posture came next.

The thing that I had been most afraid of, having no one there, was what turned this practice into something much more spiritual and internal. I felt as though it was a true moving-meditation, something I haven't felt in my practice for quite some time.

It was beautiful. I lay in final savasana feeling an incredible blissful energy from the top of my head right down to the tips of my toes. My savasana ended when Abbey licked my face and I started to giggle uncontrollably.

The best part? I was already home when my practise ended. Not only that, now I know that I can indeed practise in the comfort of my living room when I don't have the time to make it to a studio. This makes having a daily yoga practise more attainable in our busy lives.

If you are looking to start a home practise, here is a great website to get you started with some basic sequences you can work on.

Namaste.