All posts filed under: Yoga/Meditation

Food for Thought- A New Kind of New Year’s Resolution

I had trouble deciding on a New Year’s resolution this year. I couldn’t really come up with anything that felt right. After a year of very clean living throughout my pregnancy and into the first couple of months of motherhood, I didn’t have any major vices to give up. More generic resolutions like “be kinder” didn’t feel proactive enough. After racking my brain I decided to stop thinking about it and trust that the right idea would eventually reveal itself. Finally on New Year’s Eve my yoga teacher casually threw out a little gem at the end of class, somewhere between “drink lots of water today” and “namaste”. I knew right then I had found an ideal mantra for the new year… What I love about it is rather than thinking of giving something up or framing things in the context of deprivation, this message encourages us to place value on the things that feed our growth, health and well-being. Let’s face it, sometimes we get attached to things that aren’t necessarily the best for …

Everything I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in Yoga- Part 1

Yoga is such a big part of my daily life, but I’ve never written about it beyond the odd Instagram post. I’m currently in Vancouver on business away from my kitchen so it’s given me time to sit and reflect on the incredible breadth of the lessons I’ve learned since I started my practice 15 years ago.  Since it seems like too much to cover in one post, I thought I’d share one lesson to begin with. After all, one is always the best place to start… 1.When in Doubt- Just Breathe. As a beginner when things get challenging in yoga class one of the first things to go is calm, steadying breathing. That can lead to a racing heart, a shaky, unsteady feeling and a face the color of an almost ripe strawberry. With practice you learn to notice when you’re holding your breath, or when it tightens up and gets jagged. With that awareness you gain the ability to bring your breath under your control again, to deepen it and slow it down. Sometimes, …