Support your body and mind to release the day and drift off into deep and restorative rest with this inspiring and relaxing guided meditation designed to help you fall asleep.
Whether you desire a sense of "balance" due to extreme weather, workload, worry or fatigue, the elements of this 60 minute practice are intended to help you feel more centered, grounded and present. Expect a breath technique and rhythmic, mellow movement to help "balance" energy, mind and body.
In June's Workshop I offer a selection of practices to prepare your body for rest. Explore them as part of this 90 minute ritual, or sample the various skills I offer as part of your nightly routine. Expect to receive reflections to help you release lingering thoughts from the day, movement and stretches to release tension, a specific breath technique, a meditation, a relaxing self-massage and a yoga nidra to help you drift off to restorative sleep.
Those of us with a more dominant fiery nature who have a hard time relaxing, or have a tendency not to stop until the point of exhaustion can become vulnerable to burnout as the weather heats up. Interestingly, many of us need stronger movement before we can truly relax. This is an example of a practice to help a busy mind and body finally take a break, cool down and replenish.
In the summer season, hot weather can aggravate our bodies and minds exposing us to challenges like burnout, irritation and rigidity. This moderate class invites you to move with fluidity, encouraging a mindful, moving meditation to cool and calm.
The underpinnings of yoga include the philosophy of the Yoga Sutras, an old text that continues to inspire modern yogis. One of the suggestions for creating inner contentment is the cultivation of "dharana" the Sanskrit word for concentration. Explore techniques to support this skill within a complete, full body hatha practice.
A complete hatha class with focus on therapeutics for the neck to strengthen the muscles that support our heads and retain optimal alignment, helping to avoid upper back and neck pain. Includes a calming skill utilizing sound felt in the throat and neck.
In this bonus workshop, Holistic Nutritionist Lisa Kilgour joined me to share some of her wisdom about learning what is truly nourishing for each of us as unique individuals. This class begins in a chair with practices to relax and prepare your body for nourishment. Then, Lisa K. peeled back some of the food industry deceptions and taught us how to reconnect to our bodies as our best friends and allies in our health. I closed the class with a deeply restoring guided meditation intended to offer another level of nourishment for your mind, heart and soul. Find out more about working with Lisa KIlgour and getting her wonderful book, Undieting.
When was the last time you allowed yourself to just be? There are so many benefits to letting ourselves do nothing every once in a while, and be with what is. Here's a practice that guides you to presence through your senses throughout a rhythmic, engaging and strengthening flow. Learn to discern how to feel a balance of effort and ease and experience 75 minutes of mindfulness in motion.
EFT, or "tapping" is an evidence-based technique that soothes obsessive thinking with a somatic interruption (the tapping of meridian points on the body) along with a cognitive skill to reframe worries and cultivate self-compassion. With continued use, you may experience more freedom from thoughts that create suffering.
The tapping protocol: Top of head, outer eyebrow, inner eyebrow, above the lip, the top of the chin, above the collarbones, sides of upper torso, below the breasts, wrists “karate chop”, tips of fingers and thumb.
One reason we may feel depleted is having to continue to take action to fulfill our responsibilities even when we may need rest. This necessary tendency can desensitize us to our energy levels and lead to burn out. The intention of this hatha flow is to re-sensitize yourself to how much energy you are expending by committing to work at 70-75 percent of your ability during the dynamic portion of this practice. The last third of this class is a series of restorative poses to further help us rebuild the energy we scatter through our lives every day.
We begin with three brief breath techniques intended to calm a distracted mind, invigorate and increase focus. The breath leads a rhythmic flow through a full body strengthen and stretch. Closes with more gentle concentration and overall ease for mind, body and heart
While this 60 minute hatha class is conditioning for the whole body, there is enhanced focus placed on therapeutics for the feet and knees. To keep the feet and knees healthy and happy, we need to keep them mobile and free while strengthening and stretching the big muscle groups around them like the glutes, quads and hamstrings. Throughout the experience, there is also an invitation to offer focused appreciation for these hard working parts of our anatomy! Low body love!
For those who wish to include meditation and movement in the morning routine but aren’t able to create a habit, here’s an efficient way to add short and simple practices that can make a big impact over time.
A practice that begins with a breath technique intended to restore depleted energy, followed by a fluid sequence of asana meant to be approached with effort and ease. The experience closes with guided imagery to continue to rebuild and nourish.
This practice invites you to question habitual stories you tell yourself with specific questions designed to soften self-loathing tendencies. It features a breath technique that symbolizes linking the heart to the mind and movements that strengthen the upper back, countering rounded shoulders, allowing us to feel more "open" at the chest and maybe even open at the heart.
This 30 minute yoga nidra (yogic sleep) is an experience of guided, deep relaxation. Throughout, your body will be invited to the restoring experience of sleep, while the mind rests, yet is still awake. You will be guided to notice areas of the body, the breath and various imagery to help you sink into a state of profound rest. Yoga nidra is known to support the healing of stress, anxiety, depression, sleep issues and hormonal imbalances.
Here are three more ideas for tiny, easy habits that you could connect to activities you already do each day. This week, I offer inspirations for shower time, the moments we spend waiting and a quick pre-meal ritual that can turn eating into a sacred moment of gratitude.
Small practices to help you let go of one activity before shifting into another are threaded through this 45 minute mellow practice intended to release the tension of the day and past events to arrive back in the present moment, refreshed and renewed.
Throughout the month of May, I will be offering simple, accessible ideas to add to your daily routine to help you stay connected to your wellness goals, even in tiny ways. Watch this resource page each Monday this month for a new short video inviting you to sample small habits that can add up to big results.