I invite you to stop whatever you’re doing. Take a seat. Take a deep breath. Take a moment to absorb what you’re about to read. You deserve it. Relax the space between your eyebrows. Soften the little muscles around your eyes. Unclench your jaw. There you go….feel a bit better? I’m no expert in the art of letting go, but I’ve acquired some really simple and powerful tools for relaxation as a Yoga and Meditation Teacher and Student. These practices – which I’ll get into in a

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

Hockley Valley is paradise. It’s less than an hour away from Toronto, but I feel like I’m a million miles away in a magical mystery land when I come here. Sometimes, all it takes is a few kilometres between myself and the big city for me to feel detached from my busy life and connected to the beautiful, natural world. Judging by the smiles on their faces and the words they expressed, the retreaters felt just as at peace as I did– and I was leading the group! My goal for this

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:

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

When stress sets in breath is often the first thing to go. Racing thoughts keep your brain in anxiety mode, which tells your body to follow suit. When you trigger the fight or flight physiological response by reacting, instead of responding to stress, your body automatically becomes primed to either attack or run from a situation. As a result, you get a surge of hormones like cortisol and adrenaline and your respiratory rate increases, causing shallow breath. Breathing at a r

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

The winds of chaos can overthrow you Pushing you towards a place to renew You can choose to find peace here or stay in the drama One leads to stillness, the other to more trauma —– When the winds get rough and the ship starts to rock All you need to do is find the nearest dock Anchor your vessel, sit quiet and still It’s here you’ll find the answers and your free will —— When your mind creates the waves that push you off course You can come back to stillness, without any forc

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

“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.” – Thích Nhất Hạnh We live in an age where busyness is praised, multitasking is commended and working overtime is the standard. We’re handling more personal technological devices than ever before, which promote constant check-ins, updates and peer feedback. Here in the Western world, we have an individualistic culture. We’re trained to work towards personal achievement–at whatever cost–right from the get-go. Throughout sch