health

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Morning Routines

Posted on by DLeduc

This summer I aimed to cultivate a nurturing and nourishing morning routine to start my days. Before beginning I had a few ideas in mind, but also did some online searches and looked to people who inspire me.

Before I share what has become my morning routine I want add a couple words of encouragement.

When you see my routine you might think its a lot to add into a morning. I want to stress that I do not do all these things every day. Some mornings I do, some mornings I don’t. However, I have found that even adding two or three of these things greatly improves my mood, focus and wellbeing throughout the day.

I would also stress that the time allotted to each thing can vary greatly day by day. For example, some mornings might be a 15 minute meditation, while other mornings it might be a 1 minute meditation.

For me, the point of the morning routine is not to add more to my to-do list and beat myself up if I don’t check all the boxes. The point is to give myself a great start to my day with a little self-care before all the demands of life.

Finally, I will add that the order I do these things is a just rough framework. Some days I mix things up. Again, the important thing is to be kind and loving to myself, listening to what my needs each day

My Morning Routine

-Wake-up, my alarm is set to binaural beats

-Do a little body scan and breathwork

-Go to the kitchen for a tea, while waiting for tea step outside and greet the day (I often give my feathered friends a little food)

-Turn on essential oil diffuser with invigorating oils (for morning I particularly like citrus, mints, and rosemary)

-Go back to my bed for a meditation

-Mala beads with affirmation

-Cold Shower (see Wim Hoff’s website for more on this)

-Another tea, and some journalling

-Yoga or other movement

-Practice my French or Welsh

-Read poetry

-Move into my day

Now I know on paper this looks like a lot. Honestly, this morning routine can take 15 minutes or an hour. It really depends on what my day looks like, how many things I choose to do, and how long I choose to do each thing.

You might also notice that breakfast is not on this list. I am a big believer in the importance of breakfast. However, I am also a big believer in eating when you are actually hungry. As I tend to rise quite early I am just not hungry yet. The evening before I prep juice in my juicer, store it in a mason jar so it is ready for me in the morning, no work required. Usually when I start to move into my day I will grab this juice. Then, after working for a couple hours I will take a break for breakfast.

The point of this post is just one of reflection. I invite you to think about your morning routine. Is it nurturing? Is it nourishing? Does it give you a positive start to your day? Are there things you might like to do to tweak your mornings?

I encourage you to play with these ideas this month. I also invite you to like my Facebook page where over the next few weeks I will be posting some videos and going into a little more detail about the things that make up my morning routine https://www.facebook.com/LivingSkyYoga

Some Benefits of Meditation

Posted on by DLeduc

Meditation has been a strange journey for me. I always had a sense it was good for me, but also resisted doing it for so long.

That doesn’t really seem to make sense. Perhaps, for me the resistance was fear based. I worried too much if I was doing it right. Whenever I gave it a small try, I always felt I was doing it wrong.

Slowly, over time I allowed myself to let go. I allowed myself to try meditation with less judgement. I won’t pretend that it was easy. Meditation is a practice. Like with anything, the more you practice the more little successes you will have.

I continue my meditation practice. Some days are easy, some days are more challenging. Yet, I keep showing up. One reason that I continue is I have found a meditation practice to benefit my life. Below are some benefits I have experienced.

-Learning to experience and enjoy the moment (and isn’t that what life is? just a whole bunch of moments)

-Increased self-awareness

-Increased confidence

-More focus and discipline

-Greater feelings of calm

-Accessing imagination and creativity

-Being able to look at challenging situations with patience and compassion

-Deeper breathing into the body

-Better sleep

I often encourage people new to meditation start with just 1 minute. That is how I started. I would also encourage you to try to set aside a block of time, perhaps 2 weeks or 1 month. In this time, play with this a practice, see where it might take you, and what benefits you might enjoy.

#RealLife

Posted on by DLeduc

In the March newsletter I said I was going to launch some yoga courses the first day of spring.

I didn’t forget. As the first day of spring was approaching I knew I wasn’t going to do it yet. The yoga part of these courses is so much fun for me. However, the technology part of setting everything up stresses me out.

I imagine most of us have things that cause a bit of anxiety. Playing with new technology is one of my things. However, when I take a deep breath, sit down and just do it, I often find it’s not half as bad as what I envisioned. Once I get to it, I even find myself having fun. I love learning new things.

Maybe yoga is something you would like to learn more about. Perhaps, the idea of learning yoga even stresses you out a bit. That is actually part of my inspiration for these courses. I believe everyone deserves to have their own personal yoga journey. I want to share some tools to empower you for that journey.

Whether you are brand new to yoga, or want to deepen your knowledge in the practice, I invite you to check out the three courses I am currently offering, Foundations in Yoga Level 1, Foundations in Yoga Level 2, and Yoga with the Chair.  
https://livingskyyogafitness.ca/online-courses/

Registration is now open until April 4. Courses begin April  7.
In these courses you work through them at your own pace. They are yours to use again and again.

I invite you to join me
Warm Wishes
Denise

What is Yin?

Posted on by DLeduc

Yin is a yoga practice where we are applying healthy stress to connective tissue of the joints- tendons, ligaments, and fascia. We are not trying to stretch or strengthen the joints.

During a yin practice we hold poses longer than we do in other yoga classes. Generally, we will hold poses from 1-5 minutes.Because we are holding poses longer, slow, safe opening of the connective tissue is encouraged within the body.

Throughout a yin practice I will often remind you to round, release and relax. We want to work as far as we can go, but not further. We want to gain benefit, but not injure. As we move into a pose we want to find a place where we can stay.

Most poses in yin are done from a kneeling, seated or lying position. Many of the poses are similar to those we do in other classes. However, our focus is different as we hold these poses longer. Moving into the poses we want to come to an appropriate edge where the body naturally stops. We will then allow the body to find stillness. Throughout a pose we may check in with the body. As the body begins to open we may find we can naturally release a little deeper into a pose. Sometimes though, we might notice that we need to back off a little. Learning to listen to your own body and respect its needs is an important goal in any yoga practice.

While holding a pose we’ll try to be conscious of our attention. I will encourage you to note what is going on in the body. I will invite you to notice what you might be feeling. We will also focus on being aware of the breath. We’ll also try to notice if the mind wanders. If it does, no judgement, just gently bringing the attention back to body or breath.

When ready to come out of a pose I will cue you to gently return to a neutral position. Of course, one is always encouraged to come out of the pose earlier if needed.

Yin is very different from many other yoga practices. Though slower than some other practices it can be more challenging to some people. I had no interest in practicing yin for many years. My thought was that if I was going to be doing yoga that I wanted to be working hard, having challenge and working up a sweat. For me the idea of being so still for minutes at a time sounded horrible. However, when I eventually tried yin I found myself enjoying it. Additionally, I found my body benefitting it.

When in my studio I often offer yin as the last class of the evening. With the lights off and the flicker of candlelight it is a fabulous way to end the day. We use several props in this practice including bolsters, blocks and pillows. Many people bring blankets or eye masks to use throughout our practice and in final Savasana. I am often told that people sleep very well after some evening yin. I invite you to try a yin class soon and see if it might just be something you also enjoy.

Finding My Way to Meditation

Posted on by DLeduc

I just can’t meditate” is something I used to say. Since becoming a yoga teacher it seems that is not an uncommon belief amongst the beginners or those unfamiliar with the practice of meditation that I encounter.

For many years the closest I could come to what seemed to be a meditative state was hiking through the woods along the Bruce Trail on the Niagara escarpment. But was that meditation?

I have come to believe that yes, that is absolutely meditation. As humans we sometimes have a tendency to like to complicate things more than they need to be.

Quick-after you read this sentence take a full deep breath in, hold for a pause then slowly exhale completely.

Congratulations! You just meditated.

Maybe not for long, but so what-you did do it. As you practice you can learn to focus your awareness even longer.

What I have learned about meditation

-It is a practice. You wouldn’t put on a pair of skates for the first time and expect to excel as a hockey player. Meditation is the same. The more you do it, the better you become. However, it does take practice.

-To me, meditation means quieting the mind, coming into an awareness of the here and now. It means stopping the thoughts about the past and the future and just being present.  Perhaps we are focusing on our breath. Perhaps we are focusing on something such as gratitude or love. Perhaps we are using a mantra to help focus our attention. Perhaps we are completely immersed in the present moment and the sights, sounds, smells around us.

It is for this reason I would say that my days hiking in the woods aware only of the birdsong, the smell of damp earth, the way the sunlight filtered through the canopy of trees was absolutely a type of meditation. My mind was completely focused on that distinct moment in time. I wasn’t worried about what I would be cooking for dinner later, or an argument I may have had with someone earlier.

How I learned to meditate

Through my yoga teacher training we worked on meditation modules. This helped me separate fact from fiction on what meditation really is. No, you don’t need to sit in complete silence for over an hour to be meditating. (Good thing-as that is not me)

Perhaps the weekend in mid October focused completely on meditation during the teacher training was the seed that was planted for me. Seeds however need care-they need water and sunlight to grow.

Despite enjoying all I had learned I suspect I still made excuses in my head in the days and weeks following the training “I get it in theory-but I’m not really sure where to begin” “I don’t have time” “I’m too busy to sit still”

That summer I had purchased my first fitness tracker, a Bellabeat. One of the features that made me choose this option was it came with a variety of guided meditations. Eventually, scanning through the meditations available on the Bellabeat I was thrilled to see there was one that was 1 minute in length. It’s easy to tell ourselves we don’t have 10 minutes to meditate, but come on-we just can’t tell ourselves that we don’t have 1 minute.

So I started. One minute was pretty easy. I bet I could do 3 or even 5. Soon 10 minutes was no problem. I enjoyed scrolling through the different topics offered and picked one that suited my mood for the day. Eventually though, I wanted something more.

Exploring through a variety of meditation apps I finally found Insight Timer 

While there is lots of great apps out there and everybody has their favourite there are several things I like about Insight Timer

  1. It is a free app to download and most of it’s content is free
  2. There is over 14,000 free guided meditations, talks, courses and music tracks
  3. You can search to find a meditation on a certain topic or theme (for example-anxiety, motivation, kid’s sleep)
  4. You can also search based on the length of time you want for your meditation from 0-5 minutes to 30+ minutes
  5. The app has an option to track your progress and gives you little ‘rewards’ as you reach milestones (it may be silly but this is a motivator for me)
  6. There is a timer app for those who prefer a silent meditation with bells to signal timing
  7. You can choose to engage with some of the other almost 6 million people who use the app. You can join groups such as Beginner’s Mind, Daily Gratitude or Poetry and Meditation. Depending on your privacy settings you can get messages from others such as ‘thank you for meditating with me today’ you can also send these message to others. It’s a little thing, but I like seeing these messages come in from around the globe. I also like sending out a little message of kindness to others.

Slowly my meditation practice has developed and grown. I still get distracted during meditations. I still sometimes make excuses and may find a week or two has passed since I last took the time to meditate. I will never be perfect in my meditation. However, I have found that when I do take a little time each day for some meditation I truly feel healthier-body, mind and spirit. I find greater contentment as I move through my days when meditation is a tiny part of the routine.

Perhaps you will give a minute or two of meditation a try. Remember to be gentle with yourself, be kind to yourself and that it is a journey.

Namaste

Photo by Fabian Reitmeier from Pexels