I was watching the documentary “Heal” a few nights ago and was reminded, once again, of the potential impacts of stress on our health. Watching the various healing techniques in the film reinforced my belief that creating habits in our daily life that can help us reset, recharge and de-stress are as essential as any other daily hygiene habit. The stressors of our modern lifestyles are around us every day — managing screen time, long drives, weather, sitting, toxins etc simply are part of our days. We can work to manage the stressors but meanwhile, our daily challenge is to find ways that to stay healthy — to increase our aware and resilience toward negative stressors with practices that allow our bodies to rest and reset. Destressing is just a daily self-care task and we need practices that can work for us.
Starting on March 25 at Maine Audubon’s Gilsland Farm in Falmouth, Maine, I am teaching a series of weekly classes focused on three core practices that can fundamentally help generate a state of relaxation in which the body and mind can relax and reset. Practiced together or on their own, every day, meditation, gentle yoga movement and yoga nidra can help the body, mind and spirit recharge.
The Three Core Mindful Practices:
Meditation, even for as brief as seven minutes a day, can help cultivate our awareness of our own well-being, begin to train the mind to focus and center and help clear the “noise” from the day. Meditation clears the clutter and trains the mind to settle. During these Monday classes, we will meditate for 10 minutes.
Gentle Yoga Movement uses the body, breath and movement as an anchor for the mind to focus and cultivates meditation through movement. Building on the focus from our sitting practice, we introduce slow movement and breath and continue to practice keeping our minds focused. At the same time, we we bring fresh oxygen into the system, stimulate circulation, awaken the senses and relax the nervous system. During these Monday classes, we will move slowly through a series of yoga movements for all-level of practitioner.
Yoga Nidra is the dessert to the practice! Yoga Nidra is guided meditation, done while resting in Savasana and is a powerful antidote to today’s lifestyles. It systematically relaxes the body, breath and mind bringing the parasympathetic nervous system into dominance for restorative healing. Yoga Nidra is a powerful yet deceptively simple practice that cultivates the Mind-Body Healing connection. Each Monday class will end with a 15-20 minute Yoga Nidra Practice.
Please join me at Maine Audubon’s beautiful Gilsland Farm in Falmouth, Maine for one or two or the whole series of classes. Monday evenings, beginning March 15 from 5:15-6:30pm. Register HERE with Maine Audubon. Hope to see you there!
Deep Peace Practice 