When asked what I do for a living, I reply “I teach Yoga.” Almost always the follow-up question is “What kind of yoga?” The times when I’m feeling more talkative I respond “Mindfulness Yoga”. The follow-up to that is a quizzical look.

As defined by my teachers of the Mindfulness Yoga and Meditation Training I completed at Spirit Rock, Mindfulness Yoga is an inter-disciplinary method that blends the insights and practices of yoga with the mindfulness and meditation of Buddhism. Although the act of blending Yoga and Mindfulness together is new, Mindfulness is not, dating back to the time of the Buddha. In laymen terms, Mindfulness is about being in the present moment – letting go of past memories or future thoughts; paying full attention to what you are doing, moment by moment. Mindfulness training involves learning how to be aware of your mind, body and emotions and is taught in yoga, meditation, tai chi, and other similar practices. Read the rest of this post»

In The Gazette on Monday, June 22 there was a snippet with a photo of this year’s Yoga Mala. It was in Susan Schwartz’s Applause section. There were some mistakes in the article and I apologize for them. The corrections are below:

- two teachers excluded from the teaching list were Rocio Mchorro (Yoga Sangha) and Anna Smutney (Moksha Yoga Montreal)
- two teachers mentioned but they were not able to co-teach at the event were Allison Ulan and Dina Tsouluhas

Otherwise, it was great! I’ve included the scan here for those of you who missed it.

I’ve been getting a lot of mass e-mails from yogi friends lately promoting the new documentary Home. From watching trailers I knew this was an “Inconvenient Truth”-style documentary. I was a little reluctant to watch it, not because I wanted to stay in an ignorant bliss, but because a lot of these movies try to convey the urgency of the matter by throwing a lot of hard-hitting facts at you. I do understand and completely believe the urgency, but having them bundled up together for dramatic effect sometimes overwhelms me, causing me to lose hope momentarily.

This is where my yoga and meditation practice really help. Knowing this is my pattern, I try to be aware of this reaction. I then try to sit in meditation for a few minutes exploring this feeling of hopelessness. I allow it to rise, even grow, but as all things do, it also disappears. Read the rest of this post»

Having been a yogi for a number of years now, it is only natural I get exposed to yoga’s syblings, for example meditation, pranayama, and shatkarmas to name a few. But more and more, a certain sister has been trying to win my attention – and I think it finally won: Ayurveda.

As quoted from an ezine article:
Read the rest of this post»

With over 170 photos to sift through, photographer Veruschka Boespflug thought it would be fitting to put up at least 108 photos… They are split up into two links. Take a look – I feel like she captured the energy of the day beautifully.

http://veruschka.org/yogamala/

and

http://veruschka.org/yogamala2/

What can I say? This year’s YOGA MALA was crazy (in a good way)! I didn’t expect such an enthusiastic response but there was one, from all levels of the Yoga community – studios, teachers, students and more. There were at least 10 studios who donated good stuff like passes and gift certificates or other goods to give away, 9 teachers who co-taught the event, 71 Yogis (!), all for one cause – Amnesty International: Stopping Violence Against Women.

The Gods were on our side, with the good weather only being forecast for the morning. As soon as we finished up (much later than originally planned mind you) the skies were no longer blue and clouds rolled in. We practiced for over 2 hours by Montreal’s waterfront. Although it was a little windy, it was a marvelously sunny day with a high of 20C. Read the rest of this post»

Hi everyone,

Thanks to be one of the first to see the launch of my new site. I’ve decided to make it more interactive and be able to share more than just basic info with all of you

It’s a Saturday night, 9:45 PM. About 12 hours left until the 3rd annual Yoga Mala. This year we’ll be doing 108 Sun Salutations for Amnesty International: Stopping Violence Against Women. What’s fun is 9 teachers from 9 different studios and traditions of yoga will be coming together to help co-teach this event. The past years we’ve had maybe 3-4 teachers at a time co-teaching. As a result, registration is up to 70 people! That’s more than double previous years’ registrations! Here’s hoping we raise lotso cash for our cause, no-one gets hurt, and everyone has fun.

Be sure that I’ll be back in the next few days to post my opinion on how the event unfolded.

Peace.

PS Big, big thank you to Phoun for helping to convince me to turn my site into a blog and then helping me make it multi-lingual.