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...

The act of slowing down gives us access to profound insights and leads to clarity and inner peace and even better physical health.

In our hectic, modern world it can feel like everything is spinning all the time. Our minds racing from one thought to the next. We jump and run from one task to the next and even when we sit down we are scrolling and clicking and being stimulated by a constant feed of information.

We don’t rest. We don’t have time to contemplate. Mindfulness is not a part of our culture.

I feel lucky I stumbled across these practices, and it is my honour to share them with others.

What does it mean to slow down?

Slowing down means ‘doing’ less. Dropping into ‘being’. Less ambition. No hurry.

Whether your eyes stay open or you close them, slowing down means you are connecting consciously to the moment. Slowing down allows us to observe what is happening both around us, and inside of us.

Why is this hard to do?

When we slow down, we begin to...

I am staying at a friends in Vancouver and got up early to do my meditation practice. The whole house still quiet. I first did a little Yoga to get into my body which always makes it a bit easier to sit. I closed my eyes and went inside.

It takes me some time to drop in. I allow myself to do a few sweeping body scans to see if I am comfortable. I make micro adjustments so my body is set up well to sit. I find a place to rest my hands and figure out where my head wants to rest. Once I am comfortable I let myself witness the breath.

I watch it come and go. I explore the journey it takes, the spaces inside myself and the movement it creates. My attention gets drawn into feeling sensations of the body, and at that point I begin a slow scan from the top of my skull to the tips of my toes.

I pass my attention part by part, and piece by pice witnessing these different experiences. Tingling. Or heat. Pinging or maybe cool. Itching or discomfort. Even pleasant sensations. I practice equanimity....