Yoga is My Medicine

As life throws us curveballs we are left feeling overworked, stressed about what we can’t control and left with feelings of anxiousness and worry. Our mind suffers, our body suffers and everyday seems like a struggle.   

I suffered over 20 years of chronic pain from 3 herniated discs, then anxiety and depression from all the pain.  

I then found yoga and meditation.

It was a process but I didn’t realize where it would take me.  I came to Yoga Centre Winnipeg for my first class and haven’t stopped in 5 yrs. 

I found the instructors to have such compassion and understanding. They guided me gently through restorative yoga for months which allowed me to feel safe and release some long time built-up tension. 

My knowledge and interest grew and I began some meditation. I felt the positive change. My anxieties diminished, my thoughts felt calm and no longer overwhelming and my body felt no pain.  I could move in ways I never thought was possible again for me.  

I knew so many people that were suffering and felt I could set an example by becoming a yoga instructor to inspire others that they too can get past the pain, regain flexibility, strength and confidence to do what they love in life.   

Yoga is for anyone…learning to listen to your body, calm your mind with breath and find yourself once again is an experience like no other.  

The Yoga Centre Teacher training program was as much an inspiration and it is a well developed and thorough program.  My future is brighter, I am healthier and stronger than ever. And I now ride the wave of life instead of resisting it!!   

Yoga is my medicine…thanks to Yoga Centre Winnipeg!

Audrey D.

Savasana

Over the past strange and unsettling year, I’ve felt that my yoga practice is teaching me: love what is dying.

 

Love this warming earth home, in her broken-hearted changing.

Love her in the inevitability of her decline.

Love her even as she hurts you in her hurting.

Love her tender, powerful vibrating hereness. 

Love the assuredness of her presence, even as she lets go of who she has been.

Love this ever-loving moment of creation.

Love the fleeting nothingness of this life,

the expansive allness of what it rests in.

 

When we dig deep within, there is a strength: we have done this before. As our bodies unfold into pose after pose, we rediscover the familiar, and remember that there is no story untold. My dust-body knows what this love is; they have seen, heard and know the way birds sing bravely into the rising, warming sun, here for it.

Always here for it. 

 

Are living and dying the same, then?

Savasana: the yes, the let go, the love for the ending, uncertain unknown? 

I’ve learned not to love something unless/until it is assured, but that cannot be life. This past year has shown me that nothing is assured, and yoga has reminded me that nothing ever was.

 

I’ve begun to wonder if faith is not believing in what we cannot see, but the courage to believe in what we can. The courage to believe in the reality of a virus, and still take deep, long breaths. To believe the science on climate change, and still wake up the next morning. 

Which are ways of saying: yes to the end, yes to a life of letting go.

 

Yes, I love – even when told I cannot. If love is productive, merely a way of ensuring linear growth and clinging to the myth of legacy, then love says no to endings. No the possibility that production and preservation are not what we’re here for.

 

This is the song of my body: yes to this moment. Yes to this isolated, frustrated, terrifying moment.

This reckless love isn’t chaos. It just is.

 

Savasana is a way of bringing this love into my body, of yessing the way death is interwoven into my life. Savasana asks me to let go of creating myself.

There, I say yes to vibrations. The bottom of my feet shimmer, my lower intestines groan, my pectoralis minor muscles spin through the cycle of tension and release. It is good here, where nothing comes of anything.

 

Here, on a shattering planet, amongst immense collective trauma, yoga is teaching me: healing is not about getting further from death, for we cannot get further from death without getting further from life. Healing is not about becoming productive, or preserving ourselves, extending our clinging.

Healing is learning to live in the yes to what is,

beginning to see that endings are just an exhale,

remembering that dying is not a chaos that must be contained.

May we fight for livability because it’s what we know to do,

and may the fight not contradict what the trees already know:

that being,

exactly what these vibrating cells can never not do,

has always been enough. 

 

 

 Kayla Drudge 

 

How Yoga Teacher Training Changed my Life

Yoga teacher training has been on my bucket list for many years. When I enrolled in the course, I was looking to expand my yoga knowledge and continue my yoga journey. I decided to join the Yoga Centre WinnipegTeacher Training (YCWTT) program because it has an excellent reputation as a Yoga teacher training centre, it is locally owned and operated and the course fits into my busy schedule.

The YCWTT exceeded my expectations. My top 5 takeaways...

1. Slow down, enjoy the journey.

The power of the breath to calm the body and still the mind. I learned a variety of mediations and breathwork techniques that allow me to better handle the obstacles and increased stress of the Pandemic. Breathe - just breathe

2. Perfectly imperfect is perfect

Many people strive to do everything right or perfectly. That’s a lot of pressure we are putting on ourselves. Obviously there are instances where we need perfection, surgery for example. But in our day to day life, I learned to recogize what tasks require a little more attention and what I can let go. Reducing this constant pressure placed upon myself, allows me to enjoy more moments and to be more present in my life.

3. Use props!

Somewhere I picked up the notion that using props during yoga wasn’t really doing yoga. You weren’t doing it correctly. As I gained skills in using props and the importance of props, I just can’t imagine doing yoga without them. With a long term hip restriction injury, using props allowed my body to access the yoga poses and provide support to my body.

4. What do you notice? What do you feel? A part of the YCTT requirement is to observe and take notes of senior teachers/classes at the Yoga Centre. Not only did we have the opportunity to learn a variety of sequencing, observe cueing techniques/phrases but more interestingly, we were able to see how seasoned instructors communicate and engage their students to go inward and feel how the yoga asanas feel in their body. Yoga isn’t just the asanas, it’s noticing how the asanas make your body feel.

5. Sense of Community

There are many online yoga courses or weekend/ one day workshops to learn yoga. However, for me, this sense of community was the game changer. I really appreciated the nudging and encouragement of a yoga teacher to take me through the entire yoga 200 learning journey. In a busy world it is nice to be seen. It’s nice to know that someone cares about you and your yoga experience. Shauna has this unique gift to serve each of us and provide us with the support we need to succeed. Lasting friendships. A group of all ages, of all abilities, of varying backgrounds, coming together to learn and grow. Finally, a special thank you to the Yoga Centre staff for allowing the teacher trainees to observe, participate and learn from them and their classes.

This was a particularly challenging time to complete a Yoga 200hr due to Pandemic restrictions and the flip to online learning. But that’s the beauty of yoga. Yoga builds our physical and internal strength to carry forward in difficult circumstances. Yoga gives us tools to overcome anxiety and fears. Yoga helps us to find calm with the breath so we can continue our journey in this world.

Whether you plan to share yoga with others or just expand your personal practice, teacher training at the Yoga Centre could be your next step on your yoga path.

Kerri Swanson