Not everyone can take a vacation every year. Nor does a Yoga or meditation retreat appeal to ALL people. Some of us have dependents, or our financial situation doesn't let us get away very often.

Yet, I challenge you:

At least once a year, take one day, weekend or week and plan time to be on your own.

Even if you live alone! The thing is to get away from daily routines.

Whether we are consistently surrounded by others, or on our own a lot of the time, it is good to get away from it all. A lot of us live a daily repeat of daily responsibilities. Things become boring. We lose interest. We take things for granted. And we build feelings of resentment (even though we have it pretty good, all things considered).

Making it a practice of getting away from routine gives us a chance to reset.

If we can find a way to pull away from our domestic responsibilities, even for 24 hours, it gives us a chance to renew our nervous system and gain fresh perspective. If you can take a whole weekend or a...

We all crave comfortable. But sometimes being comfortable is what is holding us back from growth. It is important to challenge ourselves. If we want to experience expansion in life, it is necessary to take some risks.

On my latest adventure, I travelled to this quaint, little village in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. The situation asked me to be open to new experiences. I was staying in a new place. I had to figure out how to get to the beach from a clifftop accommodation, as well as figure out the best way to get to town and the neighboring villages.

The first day, I decided I wanted to check out the beach. This meant a long stretch of stairs and then a dirt path surrounded by jungle on either side. My mind raced with thoughts of scorpions and other creatures I could hear moving around the jungle floor. It was a long way from anyone and I wondered also if there was a risk of being attacked by a stranger. But I made my way down anyways, on alert.

I noticed all kinds of fears arising....

As humans we alway seem to be craving the next thing or what we don’t have. We waste time in regret. We overthink what we could have done differently.  Our minds always taking us away from the moment.

Currently I am away from my family in a gorgeous, little beach town in Mexico. There are blue skies and soft sand. I am free to dip in the ocean and walk the beach at sunset. I wake to the soft colours of the sunrise and have time to drink my coffee and write.

I notice my mind drifting back home. I wonder how my children are. I am even craving the cool weather of the Pacific Northwest. I laugh to myself at what a challenge it is to be here now.

So I roll out my mat and do my practice. I feel my feet root down. I allow my breath to lift me up. I let my head rest on my spine and I settle into my body. I move through a series of postures and pay attention to what I feel and it grounds me into the here and now.

After my mindful movement I sit and watch my breath. In these quiet,...

As humans we naturally look for the threats around us. We still have this part of the brain that is looking for the tiger that might attack us. We are wired to search for what might harm us as a part of our survival mechanism.

However, we also have the power to train ourselves to look for the positive. If we choose to make gratitude a practice something very interesting starts to happen. We begin to see more of the good stuff. One of the coolest things about being human is we can consciously choose what to focus on. If we want, we can train our brains to see the beautiful things instead of the danger.

Don’t believe me? Give it a try. It is simple to develop a gratitude practice. There is more than one way to do this. The important thing is to make it a part of your daily routine. We know that it takes at least thirty days to form a habit.

Choose one of these ideas and practice it consistently:

Before Bed
Have a small journal by your bedside. Each night write down three things...

We are just about at the end of another year. Over the years I have got better at closing circles. Today, I want to share with you some tips for tying up loose ends. It is a powerful practice to complete projects. We increase our will power, or staying power, by meeting our goals.

Procrastination seems to be something we all struggle with. Everyone I know, including myself, puts things off. We are awesome at making  excuses why we can't do the thing we need to do. We spend more time and energy avoiding what we need to do, than the time it would take to do the thing!

Most of our goals require simple, consistent daily action. Often the thing we need to do takes fifteen minutes a day. Maybe up to an hour. But we spend weeks, months, years, sometimes decades putting it off.

In these last few days of the year, I invite you to sit down with a pen and paper and sketch out which circles in your life need closing. Which projects have you left open? What goals need tending to? Make a...

Winter solstice is a powerful time to reflect on personal growth. The days are short and we are called to go inside. It is a perfect time to recapitulate and decide what are you going to let go of and what new energy you want invite in.

Traditionally, this time of year was honoured with meaningful rituals. It was a time to acknowledge and honour both the light and dark. Even though many of us have lost connection to these cultural practices, it is simple to create some rituals of our own.

One sweet exercise to do at this time of year is sit down and write out on a piece of paper all the things you want to let go of. Habits, grudges, limiting beliefs, relationships, patterns. Let yourself get honest about what is serving you and what isn't. One question to ask yourself is: 'What purpose does holding on to the old stuff serve?'

Light a fire and have a simple ceremony where you burn this piece of paper signifying a conscious letting go of all that is no longer serving you. Take a...

For some, the Christmas season brings joy and happiness. For others it can bring stress, pressure and even sadness.  Some people love the holiday season, and others dread it.

Wherever you land on the spectrum of loving or hating this time of year, here are some suggestions to stay more mindful and balanced as we enter the holiday season.

1- Learn to say no.

Don’t feel obligated to attend every gathering. Pick and choose what you agree to attend. It is not your responsibility to be present to every dinner or concert. You are allowed to decline an invitation. This does not equate to being rude. It means you are capable of recognizing when your plate is too full and smart enough to not add on more.

2- Let go of expectations.

Sometimes this time of year brings with it ideas of cheer and magic, but oftentimes what we experience is sadness or frustration. If we can allow things to unfold instead of creating ideas around what it has to be we can save ourselves a lot of...

Often when we talk about Yoga, we mean ‘doing' postures. However, Yoga is a vast science with many branches. You may or may not have heard of Karma Yoga before. One shining example of a Karma Yogi is Mahatma Ghandi. He worked selflessly for the wellbeing of the people of India.

Practicing Karma Yoga means doing your duty without attachment. Karma Yoga means we do our best. We give our gifts. We think of others. We offer up our service as devotion to something greater than ourselves.

Karma Yoga is SELFLESS SERVICE.

Perhaps Karma Yoga can be thought of like doing a good deed but it is deeper than that.

This practice is based in understanding who you truly are. 

Not everyone is a leader or activist.

The first step in selfless service is KNOWING yourself.

Who are you?
What are your gifts?
What are you called to do?
Where do you like to put your energy?

This is your DHARMA.  Dharma is your personal mission. Knowing your purpose is part of the process.

Once you have a sense...

Winter weather can take its toll: lack of sunshine, short days, cold temperatures, the damp, the emotional lows. This time of the year it becomes extra important to consider how we are boosting our immune system. 

There's been some talk in the news lately about how the immune system is not a muscle. Making allusion to it being something we can't strengthen or weaken. But I disagree. Just as a relationship is also not a muscle, we know that there are things we can do that will strengthen or weaken a relationship. Same with our immune system!

We CAN take simple steps to fortalize our immune system and avoid things that weaken it. Instead of heading into this season depleted, take time NOW to boost your immunity.

Take your cues from nature. Slow down; allow for quiet. Permit yourself to be less active. The leaves are showing us about letting go.

Eat what grows in the cold. Root vegetables. Warming foods baked in the oven. Fill your house with rich smells with warming spices.

Ginger...

The theme in our classes last week was acknowledging this deep healing work is not easy. Showing up to the mat consistently for mindful movement and breath awareness might sound relaxing, but when you give it a go you realize, nope- it’s hard work.

Yoga is not just laying around 'ooing' and 'awwing' about the feel good stretch. Yoga is a deep journey inside oneself. If we find the courage to dive inside and be with what we feel, we inevitably run into some icky, sticky stuff.

Everyone has stored difficult emotions, unprocessed feelings and repressed thoughts in their body. When we practice mindful movement coupled with breath awareness, we bring ourselves in touch with these subconscious and unconscious locked energies. Through Yoga practice, we bring these things to the surface.

This experience of pain resurfacing, feels like pain. Discomfort and dis-ease feels exactly the same way it did when we pushed it down. That’s where courage comes in.

If we can muster the...