International Yoga Day 2023

Hello fellow yogis and friends.

Last week, I kicked off a short series of in-person pop-up yoga classes at my home studio, and it was a heartwarming experience to see long-time yoga friends reunite after three-and-a-half long years. Shouts of surprise, happiness, and warm embraces filled the air. I’m grateful to be able to offer this post-pandemic yoga practice to my community.

This week, it’s International Yoga Day on Wednesday, June 21st.

International Yoga Day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2014. The resolution was proposed by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. The UN unanimously adopted it, recognizing that yoga provides a holistic approach to health and wellbeing.

The Indian Prime Minister, Modi, chose June 21st for this annual event because it’s the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere (summer solstice) and has significance in many parts of the world. In Canada, for instance, we celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day on this date, recognizing and honouring the history, heritage, resilience, and diversity of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities.

The first International Yoga Day was celebrated on June 21st, 2015, and is observed annually across the globe.

In India, International Yoga Day is marked by large-scale events attended by thousands of people, including political leaders, celebrities, and yoga enthusiasts.

Locally, yoga organizations and studios offer various activities, such as classes, workshops, and retreats, to celebrate and promote the benefits of yoga.

Although I’m not offering any classes or workshops on International Yoga Day, I invite you to join me the following day—Thursday, June 22nd (and/or June 29) from 9:30-10:30 a.m.—for an energizing practice that ends with a profoundly relaxing savasana.

Each class costs $20, and a few spots are still available. This is an opportunity not to be missed. Click the button below to register.

And now, looking ahead, I’m excited to announce that I’m considering adding in-person classes to Studio 71 Yoga offerings on Monday evenings from 7-8 p.m. starting in Fall 2023 (more details to follow).

If you’re interested, join the waitlist today, as space is limited, and spots will be reserved on a first-come, first-served basis.

I wish you joy and gratitude as you celebrate International Yoga Day and National Indigenous Peoples Day.

Jeannine

Bringing Back In-Person Classes

Hello yogis, 

I’m excited to announce that Studio 71 Yoga is offering a short series of in-person pop-up yoga classes! 

Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, I’m bringing back in-person classes in this unique format.

Join me on Thursday, June 15, 22, and 29 from 9:30-10:30 a.m. for an energizing and relaxing yoga practice.

Each class costs $20, and you can register for any or all three. Please keep in mind that space is limited to six participants. Those who register for all three classes will be given preference, so consider joining me for the entire experience.

If you’d like to enhance your yoga skills and connect with an encouraging group, these in-person classes are just what you need.

Register today and take advantage of this opportunity to connect with me and your fellow yogis.

I look forward to seeing you on the mat in person!

With joy and gratitude,

Jeannine

Self-care for a Better World

Mother's Day—dedicated to mothers and mother figures in many countries worldwide—is a day of reflection and celebration, a day of love, gratitude, and appreciation for the person who brought us into this world, raised and nurtured us to make us who we are today.

On this particular day, many of us will take a moment to thank our mothers for all their hard work, dedication, sacrifices, and love.

It's not just about giving them flowers, gifts, or cards. It's also about giving them our time, attention, and care.

Sometimes, simple, heartfelt gestures mean everything.

This year, my husband and I are hosting a small gathering at our home. We're fortunate to spend time with my 86-year-old mother—a kind and caring “social” butterfly still living in her apartment, healthy and active. I’m grateful that my sister, two brothers, and their spouses will join us for this celebration.

For many of us, our relationship with our mother is often a defining aspect of our life, of who we are and how we see the world.

Whether your relationship has been positive or negative, smooth or rocky, close or distant, supportive or lacking, it's all part of the emotional journey that affects our day-to-day.

If you have a complicated relationship with your mother or have lost your mother, Mother's Day can be challenging and emotional. It may trigger feelings of sadness, anger, or ambivalence.

It's important to acknowledge and honour your feelings. It's important to acknowledge and honour your feelings. If you need help, please seek support from a trusted friend, family member, or mental health professional. 

Alternatively, find other ways to celebrate and honour the women who have played a significant role in nurturing and supporting you.

Remember that everyone's experiences and feelings are valid, and it's essential to prioritize your mental and emotional health and wellbeing.

If you're a mother yourself, you know that we often overlook or disregard self-care; instead, we prioritize our work and responsibilities. And you also know that to look after others effectively and sustainably, you must first look after yourself.

Whether you're a mother or not, I invite you to approach your relationship with your mother in a new light this Mother's Day, perhaps by creating or leaning into a foundation of self-care.

From a yogic perspective, self-care is NOT selfish but a form of ahimsa, the Sanskrit word for non-harming.

Self-care is not just about taking a day off or indulging in a spa day. It's a holistic approach that encompasses all aspects of our being.

Self-care means taking care of ourselves in a way that does not harm our physical, emotional, intellectual, or spiritual selves and doing things that nourish our body, mind, and soul.

• It means taking care of our physical health by eating well, getting good-quality sleep, and engaging in physical activities such as yoga.

• It means managing our emotional health by reducing stress, practicing mindfulness, and cultivating positive relationships.

• It means taking care of our intellectual health by engaging in activities stimulating our minds, such as reading, learning, or solving puzzles.

Lastly, self-care involves caring for our spiritual health by connecting with our inner self—practicing gratitude, and engaging in activities that bring us joy and peace.

Self-care as ahimsa is a journey that requires consistent effort and commitment.

It's a journey toward the self, realizing our true nature, which involves cultivating self-awareness, self-love, and self-compassion.

As you travel on this journey, remember that self-care is not a luxury but a necessity. It's an integral part of our health, an act of service to ourselves and those around us. Self-care as ahimsa contributes to a more peaceful, loving, and compassionate world.

Best wishes to you and yours for a lovely Mother's Day.

With gratitude and joy,

Jeannine

Joy and The Smiling Heart

During iRest yoga nidra—guided meditation for deep relaxation and healing—we first set an intention for our practice, acknowledge a heartfelt desire, and establish an inner resource.

The sankalpa—our personal intention and heartfelt desire—positively guides our life. It’s believed that a sankalpa can influence our thoughts, actions, and behaviour and help us achieve our goals. It’s experienced as a positive feeling, guiding us toward inner peace, harmony, and fulfillment.

From there, we observe, welcome, and engage various aspects of our waking existence, starting with the grossest form—the physical body—and then moving on through more subtle layers of being:

• Body Sensing

• Breath Sensing

• Feelings/Emotions

• Thoughts/Beliefs

• Joy/Wellbeing

• Awareness

About joy…

Near the end of my Tuesday morning iRest meditation class last week, a participant expressed gratitude for practicing “joy” and “the smiling heart”, emphasizing that I should incorporate it into every meditation.

The other participants, including myself, wholeheartedly agreed.

Interestingly, no one recalled that I included the same words about joy and the heart smiling every week, so I offered to review my weekly guided meditation scripts and report back.

Sure enough, several weeks in a row, Step 8—The Sheath of Joy—of each meditation script includes the same exact words as I guide participants into deeper and deeper states of relaxation:

“Be attentive to sensations throughout your body of pleasure, happiness, JOY, or wellbeing, or perhaps recall a particular event from your life that invites feelings of pleasure, JOY, or wellbeing into your body right now... welcoming whatever emerges, just as it is. Perhaps experiencing the sensation of JOY as an inner smile that radiates from your heart—THE HEART SMILING—and this smile of sensation expanding throughout your entire body... flowing out into your torso, arms and hands... down into the pelvis, legs, and feet... flowing up into the head and face... mouth, lips, and eyes smiling... the entire body smiling... radiant and alive with the feeling of joy or wellbeing, or a sense of being okay just as you are.”

— Master Script: Richard Miller, Ph.D., and the iRest Institute

It might be nice for you also to explore the smiling heart. Here’s a brief iRest yoga nidra guided meditation I’ve recorded for your enjoyment.

By the way, you can practice yoga nidra lying comfortably on the floor or sitting on a chair with open or closed eyes.

You don’t need any previous experience to practice iRest because there’s no right or wrong way to do this. Remain at ease, and follow my voice while letting your experience be as it is.

Once you’ve experienced the meditation, I’d love it if you’d let me know about your experience of “the smiling heart”. Click here to send me a message.

With heartfelt joy and gratitude,

Jeannine

Overwhelm—And How to Cope

In today’s ultra-busy world of constant information and non-stop stimulation, the feeling of overwhelm is a shared experience.

Look for synonyms of overwhelm in any thesaurus, and they’re pretty awful—overpower, subdue, oppress, quash, engulf, swallow, submerge, bury, suffocate.

Heavy stuff.

Those words may be all too familiar to anyone who’s experienced overwhelm, and that’s plenty of us.

The pressure to keep up with the ever-increasing demands of work, family, and personal life can lead to a sense of being constantly pulled in multiple directions leaving us feeling helpless and unable to cope.

During times of overwhelm, everything feels too big. Everything is too much. And it’s not just everyday busyness and packed schedules.

When we’re overwhelmed, making dinner becomes a monumental effort.

Better eat out.

Bills, housework, yardwork?

Forget it.

For many of us, symptoms of overwhelm can manifest in the following ways:

• Physical (nail-biting, clumsiness, neck ache)

• Psychological (forgetful, rude, defensive)

• Social (poor hygiene, inadequate boundaries)

• Spiritual (loss of a sense of purpose, unsure of what’s important)

And tasks that used to take only 10 or 15 minutes now seem utterly impossible. There’s no time for anything.

Instead, we do nothing.

Worse, we have no faith that this, too, shall pass. We seem hopelessly mired in the quicksand of “too much”. We keep trying to will our way out of the quicksand with a will that wants to give up.

So how can we find a way to navigate overwhelm from a yogic perspective?

At its core, yoga helps us bring awareness to the present moment, connect to our breath and cultivate a sense of inner calm. Through this practice, we can start to detach from the constant noise and demands of the world around us and create a sense of inner stillness and peace.

In addition, we can turn to one of the essential teachings of yoga—santosha—which means contentment. Santosha reminds us to find satisfaction in what we have in the present moment instead of constantly striving for more. When we embrace the principle of santosha, we can release ourselves from the pressure of trying to do too much or the feeling of always needing to do more.

Another helpful tenet of yoga is the concept of ahimsa—non-harming. Practicing ahimsa means treating ourselves compassionately rather than pushing ourselves beyond our limits. When we overdo things, we harm ourselves physically and emotionally, causing a ripple effect of suffering throughout our lives and communities.

“We have finite time and energy, so we must make choices that align with our values, strengths, and goals.”

— Dr. Jenny Taitz, Assistant Clinical Professor in Psychiatry at UCLA

The quote above reminds us to prioritize and make conscious choices about how we spend our time and energy.

Undoubtedly, self-care—including yogic practices—is also essential when managing overwhelm.

“When we take time to recharge our batteries, we have the ability to show up in our lives more mindfully, calmly, purposely, and with greater peace, joy, and love.”

— Dr. Dara Bushman, Clinical Psychologist

Embracing the yogic principles of santosha and ahimsa—and prioritizing self-care—can help to find balance and inner peace amidst the chaos of daily life.

When we align with our values and needs, we find the inner resources and spaciousness needed to get on with life.

Ultimately, what matters is in your heart. Always connect with yourself first—your true self will find the way and can deal with whatever life throws at you.

With joy and gratitude,

Jeannine

Author’s content adapted and used under license, © Claire Communications