What is your Mantra?

We all have them!  Often though, they aren't positive! and that is sad.

Mantra's are like the power of suggestion, if repeated enough times it will simply become a manifestation, a way of being.

In yoga we use mantra's constantly, even OM is a mantra.  But what does OM mean. Well simply, nothing.  But it is also everything.  We don't need to understand what a mantra means for its positive effects to take hold.  It is the vibration that the mantras create, the vibration within your own body as well the vibrations that you send out into the world as you chant.

The simplest Mantra that I know for anyone to start chanting is one that you can do silently and with your eyes closed.

Sit in Easy Pose with your palms facing down resting on your knees. Looking inwardly, begin focusing on your breath noticing each inhale and exhale. Once you feel yourself settling into your natural breath, on the following inhale silently chant SAT and on the exhale, NAM.

SAT NAM, translates to Truth is my identity, or as I prefer, I AM - THAT. I love this meditation when I need grounding and to reestablish my personal mantras. Some of my mantras are:  I am: a teacher, I am: a wife, I am: a friend, I am: honest, I am: beautiful, and so on.

To me each inhale, as I chant SAT or I AM, I am grounding myself and going inside to my core and discovering what I am, and then as I exhale and I chant NAM or THAT, I am telling the world what I found.

I don't always finish my mantra, I more often leave it open since I am so very much and it leaves room for so many possibilities.

Now I ask again, What is your Mantra?

Don't Panic

Let's Welcome February into our Lives!

Here we are at the end of the first month of the year and entering into what most provinces know as the most difficult month to survive due to the harshest and coldest weather that typically visits this month.


This past week for me was a hard one, in fact only these last 3 days were really all that tiresome, and why is that? Well my usual excuse is due to the crappy grey weather that Vancouver treats us to, but really because I hadn't practiced yoga for the three days prior to that.  When I keep up my practice I always feel fresher and more vibrant, I feel like I can handle what the day throws at me, even if that day is grey, rainy, and cold.


So join me as I celebrate some of the great things of February.

• As of February 1st we will have already gained a full hour of daylight since Christmas!
• At the end of February our days will be just a minute short of 11 hours!
• Valentine's Day.  I know this might seem weird, but Valentine's isn't just for those with a partner, it is the day of love, or as I prefer, connections.  I like to celebrate all of my friends and my family, each and every loved one that I might cross paths with. And to be clear I don't necessarily mean chocolates and flowers and commercial stuff, I mean acknowledging their worth in my life.
• In Vancouver with longer days usually means a little less rain and best of all...
• Blossoms! In fact I have heard rumours about some cherry blossoms already downtown.

It's official!

I am officially not only a certified yoga instructor, but I am now a registered with the Yoga Alliance. Get that registered! really what does that mean, after reading blogs and deciding if I would register with yoga alliance or the BC Yoga Alliance, which is a very active alliance with a lot of involvement with its members. So why didn't I choose them? Well I figured it made more sense to register with an alliance that no matter where my life takes me I can keep that same registration with me. If I eventually can afford to register with both or feel a need to register with both maybe we will go down that road, but for now I'm going to keep it simple, maybe even try to provide some help with the alliance to make them better and keep them accountable. But for now I need to take care of me and those around me. What's next? the insurance, one step at a time, right?

Update: Insure is had I have my registration number all that's left is some more paying yoga classes.

Aging with Grace and Beauty

There have been so many responses and rebuttals to the New York Times publishing of the Yoga can Wreck your Body excerpt.  I still stand by what I wrote while also respecting and considering others opinions.
Although the article completely missed the whole point of practicing yoga as well the beauty it can provide if practiced properly and wholesomely. I suppose that only means that we all just need to read the book once it's published and get the entire picture of what the exact message this author is trying to send.

I have been itching to find something, an article or a video that shows the complete other side of the story. And I got it! The below video is a woman who although doesn't practice yoga per say, she has practiced that yogic lifestyle and movements her entire life and it's beautiful to watch.  This is what the whole envelope of "Yoga" can do for you when you listen to everything it has to teach.

Make it simple... and enjoy!

My friend Maia from julia warr on Vimeo.

My Resume