All of our experiences come with opportunities, we just don’t always see them. That’s because our brains are too busy categorizing and defining these moments as either ‘good’ or  ‘bad,’ to be able to see the bigger picture. When we jump out of the present, we block our ability to see potential opportunities that can come from it all, especially the challenges we face. An awesome way to open ourselves up to possibility in times of upheaval is to remember that we’ve also been g

“I’ll never recover from this day,” a smiling stranger announced, with her jacket unzipped and arms outstretched on the boardwalk bench. As I passed her by with my dog leash in hand and a breathtaking scene of the lake in view, I thought to myself- how perfectly true. Normally, it’s below ze Life is made of up beautiful, unexplainable moments. Many that cause a stir in our souls because of their natural foundation. It’s moments like this, where the sun’s golden shimmery rays

Take time out to quiet your mind and listen in every single day. We come face to face with challenging situations that are out of our control quite regularly. A flight gets cancelled and your return date has to change. Temperatures drop drastically and your car won’t start. A friend passes away suddenly, leaving you shocked and devastated. However, with self-awareness we can shape and change the course of our lives, as we hone in on our ability to control what we can control:

My dad had this beautiful way of endlessly believing in me. I wanted to be an Astronaut for years growing up, and it wasn’t until I wrote a speech on these space superstars in Grade 4 that I realized I wasn’t cut out for it. Floating weightlessly in space became less appealing when I realized I’d have to leave Earth for weeks or months at a time, with the possibility of never returning home, due to some mechanical failure. My dad pushed all the space books and movies he’d bou

I feel like an old book, rife with dust, that hasn’t been cracked open in years. Stiff, stale and unused. I haven’t written for two weeks or been active on social media because my phone broke on my way up to Wemindji to visit my sister. It feels natural and freeing to get back to writing–one of my favourite forms of expression. The Cree Nation of Wemindji is on the east coast of James Bay, in northern Quebec. The major city nearest to the native reserve is Montreal. It took m

Try shifting your perspective up 🙂 Perspective gives us a road map of how to behave in and learn from certain situations. It urges us to look past immediate concerns and into future implications. Without perspective, life appears somewhat meaningless and harsh. With this larger view, however, life appears to make sense, have a flow and rhythm to it–meaning. There was a time I didn’t let perspective into my world view, or maybe I didn’t know how. Sometimes it seems we can’t s

It’s tempting to want to stay indoors, all cozy with the comforts of home, but the outdoors are calling and they have something good to offer: a major health and happiness boost. Researchers are now studying what’s being called “green therapy” or ecotherapy, which involves immersing people with depression outdoors to alleviating their symptoms. It’s been proven that being outside reduces depression. A study from the University of Essex found walking in nature reduced depressi

Happiness is a precious gift that we all strive to obtain, but it still eludes many of us. In the same way that I once muscled through school, work and tough situations, I used to work hard to find happiness. I used to think it was another challenge to overcome, another difficult life lesson. However, I’ve learned that happiness isn’t something to be found or laboured over, it’s actually something we already naturally contain inside ourselves. I just started Deepak Chopra and

Wheel Pose or Urdhva Dhanurasana opens my heart, and as it does I tell myself to let love in and sprinkle it everywhere I go. Our thoughts affect our bodies, whether we’d like to believe it or not. On a very basic level, our emotions and thoughts trigger physical reactions. We might just think about an upcoming evaluation at work or exam at school and notice that our stomach starts churning immediately. We pick up the rotten trash scattered across the lawn, thanks to a menaci

Start fresh with a quick morning meditation. I know what it’s like to get stuck in a rut–in fact, we all know what it’s like. An event takes place in our lives that we choose to view in a negative light–we lose a job, go through a breakup, become overwhelmed by debt, or obsessed with worrying about the future. During these testing times it can be easy to allow one rough day to roll into the next. We can go to bed worrying about a fight we had with a family member and wake up 

My awesome Color Me Rad partner, and former rock bandmate Kevin and I post-run. When I was a little kid I lived and breathed for recess at school. As soon as the teacher would let us break free, I’d run down the hall as fast as I could to get to the playground before my friends. I’d use my elbows, shoulders, knees or any painfully bony part of my little body to push kids out of the way so I could get to the swing set first. The goal? To claim my spot on the swinging tire so I

A quick snap of my two inspiring roommates and I, pre-yoga in Picton. I’m back! The 2 Week Intensive Power Yoga Canada Teacher Training Program was definitely one of the most challenging experiences of my life, but boy was it amazing. It’s hard to put into words what all went down there in beautiful Picton, Ontario so I’ll write a semi-brief synopsis–besides, I wouldn’t want to ruin it for anyone who’s considering taking the certification program through PYC one day. What I w