Guest Blogger-The Living Kitchen Wellness

I am now a guest contributor to my good friend Tamara's Holistic Nutrition centre, The Living Kitchen Wellness.  Just had my first article posted on her blog about office yoga!

Check it out!

http://livingkitchenwellness.com/blog/2012/03/28/3090/

Teaching Schedule

Just wanted to let everyone know that I am available for private/group yoga sessions!

I am available evenings after 6:30pm and weekend mornings and afternoons to come to your home, office, etc. to teach individuals or small groups.  I specialize in Vinyasa and Hatha Flow but really focus on establishing a personal yoga practice for each individual that I work with.

I teach either 60 minute or 90 minute classes and encourage open communication between myself and all of my students.  Yoga is for everyone, whether beginner or advanced, and it is my aim to make each person comfortable and at ease in their own practice.

Please feel free to email me at hall.samantha23@gmail.com for any questions about rates or to book a session!

Donna Martin Graduates

Ahhh sweet relief.  Training is finally finitio, and it is official.  I am now a certified yoga instructor.  Which actually sounds incredibly weird to type...or even to say out loud. But I must admit, I like it.  Who would have thought that a year ago I would be saying that I am a yoga instructor! Weird.

My sentiments are rather bittersweet about completing my YTT program.  On one hand, it sure will be nice to have my weekends back.  To be able to stay awake past 11pm on a Friday night is something that most people take for granted, and admittedly, my life has been pretty boring the past several months.  On the other hand, however, I absolutely loved my program and it never really felt like an obligation to be waking up for it every Saturday and Sunday morning.  In fact, I actually liked the structure, and having something active and interesting to do during those cold, grey winter months surely prevented me from becoming a sloth (which I am prone to become).  I'm also a bit of a geek, and getting to be back in a "school" environment for the first time since I graduated under-grad, was pretty swell (yes I said swell).

The teachers I had the honour of studying with were all so incredibly inspiring in such unique ways, and the amount of wisdom that I received from each one was priceless.  My appreciation to all of them is insurmountable, and I'm not sure I could ever find the right words to thank them enough.  These women's words and guidance will forever be cemented in my mind and my spirit.

After leaving my final day of training last weekend, I was in complete denial. I held in my tears (kinda) and adamantly refused to say goodbye to any of my fellow trainees/new friends, but just pretended like I would see them all again the next weekend (which is actually rather likely since we all live at the studio).  Words cannot express how amazing it was to be part of such an amazing group of people.  To get to study and practice with such a diverse group of individuals, all from different backgrounds, but all together for a common goal, was something that not everyone gets to experience in their lifetime. And for that I am forever grateful.  We all learned so much from each other, and I know that we will all be connected in such a special way for the rest of our lives.

Everyone keeps asking me what I learned throughout my training, and if I feel "ready" to go off on my own and start teaching for real.  If there's one main thing I learned throughout my training....it's that I have SO much more to learn, and honestly dont believe there's such thing as being ready!  This initial 200 hour program was just breaking the ice, and I am so excited to explore this new yoga path that I am on, even more so than I already have.  With future opportunities of teaching, studying, practicing and advanced training programs awaiting me (I think I might be addicted), now is when the real learning begins.

Stay tuned!

7th Inning Stretch

Well, it's been a while.

Admittedly I've been slacking with the blog posts lately, but working a full time job, teaching Saturday mornings (update on that to come) and training all weekend long has been really keeping me occupied!

I decided to focus today's post on exactly this point: finding time in your hectic life to take 15 minutes for yourself.  Whether that be to write a blog post, cook yourself a meal, read a chapter of your book, or practice your yoga, everyone should allocate 15 mins (which really is nothing) of their day to do something that just feels good.

So today I decided that I was going to try to initiate a 15 minute yoga break at my office.  I work for a fairly large television production company, and while there are far too many employees (and not enough space) to do a full yoga class in the middle of the day, I decided to take a few of my upstairs neighbour coworkers into our kitchen to do a couple of mid-afternoon stretches.  I dont know about you, but at around 3pm every afternoon I start to lose it.  It's that time of the day where you've already eaten lunch, had one or two coffees, and are starting to check the clock at the corner of your computer screen.  There's no better time than this to take some time to re-energize and work out the kinks in your neck, shoulders and wrist...especially if you're someone like me who spends the majority of their day reading and writing.

This afternoon I opted to do some "chair yoga" stretches....really simple moves that you can do in your work clothes and will make you feel instantly better and give you that boost of energy you need for the last few hours of your afternoon.  You can do these at your desk, in the boardroom, in the kitchen, or even at home while you are waiting for your dinner to cook!

SET UP:

-Grab a chair, preferably one that doesnt have wheels (or else comedy will ensue), and sit at the very edge of the chair. Remove the flesh from your buttocks so that you are sitting directly on your sitz bones. Feet are hip-bone-width apart, shoulders are back, and hands are resting on your thighs.

NECK:
-With your right hand planted down on the chair next to your hip, draw your left hand over the right side of your head, and gently guide your neck to the left.  After a few breaths, switch sides.

WRIST:
-With your left elbow bent, and palm facing your face, gently grasp onto your left wrist with your right hand.  As you lightly pull down with your right hand, pull up with your left hand at the same time for counteraction.  Wiggle your fingers a few times, and then switch sides.

SPINE (CAT/COW STRETCH)
-With your palms resting on your thighs, inhale and arch your back and look up towards the ceiling, neck and head coming up last.
-Exhale and round your spine like a halloween cat and let your head drop, gaze towards belly.
-Repeat 5 times to your own breath

SHOULDER (EAGLE VARIATION)
-Inhale your arms out to shoulder level, and on the exhale cross your right arm over your left, bending your arms to cross at the elbows, palms coming together.  If your shoulders are tight (as many people's are) and you are unable to meet palms, simply hold on to opposite shoulders.  Take 5 breathes, unwind, and switch sides

SPINAL TWIST
-Bring your right hand to your left thigh, and your left hand planted on the chair next to your left hip.
-Inhale get length in your spine, and exhale gently twist over to the left.
-Make sure that you are twisting first from your belly, then from your middle back, then upper back, then neck and head last.  This is a twist for your thoracic (middle) spine.
-Hold the twist for 5 breaths, and after your last exhale slowly unwind and switch sides.

HIP OPENER (PIGEON VARIATION)
-Cross your right ankle over your left thigh, flexing your right toes and activating your foot (this will protect your knee)
-Take a breath in, and on the exhale, gently push your right knee down with your right hand.  You should be feeling this stretch in the outer right hip (Piriformis)
-Hold for 5 breaths, and switch sides.

BACK BEND AND FORWARD FOLD
-Clasp your hands behind your lower back, and gently roll your shoulders back and down
(make sure you are sitting right at the edge of your chair so you have room)
-Inhale draw your lower ribs in and open your heart to the ceiling, keeping shoulders back and down, and neck in neutral (be mindful of not letting your neck drop backwards) in this slight backbend
-Exhale lead with your arms and fold foward over your hips so your chest is resting on your thighs
-Repeat 5 times

After you are finished simply sit, close your eyes, and breath in and out five times to close your mini-practice. 

Bring your hands to prayer at heart centre, bow your head slightly, and namaste.

Popped My Cherry

So it’s official, I’m a yoga teacher!  Ok, fine, I may not technically be certified just yet, and I still have a month and a half of training to get through…but I did teach my first ever class this morning! I am still in complete disbelief

All of the teacher trainees get an opportunity to teach community classes once a week for a two month period…and I was fortunate enough (or unfortunate depending on the day you ask me) to be put in the very first group.  I found out I was going to be teaching in this first group over a month ago, so I had plenty of time to mentally prepare myself…and by prepare myself, I really mean shove the idea to the back of my head and forget about until 2 weeks before when it actually hit me that I should probably practice a wee bit.

So, for the past two weeks I over compensated with my denial and instead have been extremely over-preparing, as most first time yoga teachers probably do. I perfected a playlist on my iPod (which admittedly was one of the most exciting parts), wrote out my sequence multiple times, and got some guinea pigs to practice on.  I was super nervous for the entire week spanning up to my class, and literally felt as if I was about to walk into a final university exam, studying my notes over and over again. A million what if’s ran into my head and I would literally dream Vinyasa. In one such dream I threw up on a student. Ok, I was a tad stressed? So what?

The truth is, that nothing can prepare you for teaching a yoga class until you actually do it. No matter how well you know your sequence, or how well timed your class is, the true learning only happens once you finally get into that room.  I was so incredibly lucky to have some amazing friends and family members willing to get up early on a Saturday morning to surrender their bodies to me, and I am so very thankful for all of their support.  With 7 close friends facing me on their mats, I immediately got into my element and guided them through their practice with ease.  There was even one man that came into the class that I didn’t even know, and I was so excited that he showed up, because I didn’t want to be too too comfortable with the fact that I knew everyone in my room.  Focusing on him and his reactions to my cues and demonstrations was one of the most enjoyable parts of my first time, because as amazing as my friends are, having a complete stranger to teach is much more significant.

I did of course mess up a couple times with directing my rights and lefts (mirroring is so hard!), and I had to improvise and throw in some extra poses at the end because as it turns out, I went a bit too fast.  But all in all it was a true success, and actually so much fun. After just one class I know that I am truly meant to do this, and I cannot wait to teach more and more.  It was so very rewarding to see the smiles on my friends’ faces after the class and to see them all so relaxed, and I was literally buzzing with positive energy for the rest of the day.  So I guess I did something right! 

For whoever is reading this and wants to test me out, I’ll be teaching every Saturday at 10am at Yoga Space for the months of January and February.

Half Way Point

I've made it! I've officially completed the first half of my YTT training. 8 long weeks filled with smiles, laughs, tears, stress, sweat, and even blood (i had a toe nail incident from doing too many jump-throughs one day...i dont want to talk about it) have now come to an end, and I have a short two weeks to digest everything I have learned before I embark on the second half of the training.

As I'm sure that you can tell based on my postings, I have certainly had my ups and downs with the training.  Generally speaking, this was the best thing I ever decided to do, but it definitely came with its challenges.  Never have I been pushed so hard before beyond my limits and faced as many emotional, physical, and spiritual challenges.....and being quite the spiritual and religious skeptic, this certainly was a challenge.  With every challenge and experience, along the way there comes one of those things we call lessons..and of course I have learned many.  But one of the most important ones that I think has made a huge impact on me at this half way point of mine, is really knowing when to tell myself to stop and slow down. Many people will push themselves so incredibly hard and place so much pressure on getting to a certain goal, but will end up experiencing a lot of injuries, whether they be physical or emotional.  And having experienced both types so far in my practice and training, I finally reached a point where I knew that I needed to take it easy.

I started practicing yoga solely to get to the goal.  I wanted to be able to perfect every single pose, and balance on my arms, or stand on my head just like I was witnessing others do in my classes. I would not only become incredibly frustrated for not being able to reach a certain level in a pose, but there were several occasions where I really hurt myself because I wasn't physically ready yet!  As cliche as this is about to sound, but it really truly isn't about getting to a certain pose in a certain time, but rather it is all about HOW you get there (some may say the journey, but I wouldn't want to make you cringe from the cheese).  Since I had an exceptional impatience, and admittedly still do quite often, I ended up pushing myself way past my limits, and as a result, causing a great disservice to both myself and to my yoga practice.

You need to learn to tell yourself to slow down, to pause, or to even stop what you are doing sometimes, because there is absolutely no benefit in rushing to get something done....because even if you do get there that way, it certainly wont be the right way.  Be patient with your body, because sometimes your mind jumps ahead of it. Know that practice REALLY is perfect, and know that with time you will get there.  And really....just hold your damn horses!

My Hips Don't Lie

It never ceases to amaze me how yoga can truly and completely heal. I had a meh day, which turned into a pretty awful evening, and I ended my day feeling completely drained, emotional, and anxious.  But I ended up walking towards my studio, and despite the tears streaming down my face, and the shortness of my breath, I found myself entering the studio, laying down on my mat, and completely succumbing to the overwhelming emotions that were filling up in my body.

My practice began quite roughly. I had short shallow breaths, I was crying (probably freaking out the girl next to me) and I literally couldn’t just be.  During the first few poses I felt impatient and my inability to focus was tremendous.  But even if I was crawling out of my skin and wanting to curl up in a ball in my bed, I knew that this was better than sitting in my room wallowing in my sadness, and I knew it was better than going for that glass of wine and ice cream that I much would have rather indulged in.  Feeling vulnerable on my mat just resulted in me going deeper and becoming more introspective in my practice.

As fate would have it, I realized quickly that my teacher decided to choose this day, this particular class that I reluctantly walked into, to focus on hip opening positions.  I’m sure most people have heard this before, but typically hips are the center of a lot of emotions.  Most yoga teachers I have practiced with, or any articles I have read on the subject, all agree that we hold our stress and negative emotions – fear, guilt, sadness – in our pelvis and hips. While I certainly do feel frustration in hip openers, and know that this is a very tight part of my body, I had never had a particular emotional experience in any hip opening poses (like in pigeon for instance). Um…lets just say that I feel quite differently after tonight and now I get what all the fuss is about.

This was exactly what I needed.  And while I certainly had an emotional practice that began quite panicky and sad, slowly throughout the class I started to relax, my breathing deepened, and my focus completely centered.  Isn’t that so amazing? Walking out of the studio I almost couldn’t believe how a short 90 minutes completely readjusted my attitude and simply made me feel just so much better.

I strongly encourage anyone who is having a shitty, sad, angry, or stressful day to go to a yoga class, release your pent up energy and emotions, refocus your mind, and I guarantee you will leave feeling completely released and free.

And then AFTERWARDS you can go indulge in that ice cream and wine