Find Your Fall Flow

4 Classes to Ease the September Scaries at Yoga Centre Winnipeg

There’s a crisp in the morning air and many of us are getting back to work, school, and autumn routines. While September can bring us cozy sweaters, it can also stir up stress as we transition into a new season. 

 

To help you bring calm into fall, Yoga Centre Winnipeg is back with our fall schedule and yoga workshops. 

 

Here are four ways to settle into the season!

 

1. Relax and Restore: Restorative Yoga

 

As the leaves change and our schedules adjust, our nervous system can use some support. YCW’s newly minted Relax and Restore class (formerly Relax Deeply) provides gentle restorative yoga, allowing students to replenish mind and body. 

props typically used in relax and restore

 

Suitable for yoga practitioners of all levels, including new students, those healing from injury or dealing with chronic pain, Relax and Restore brings calm to the nervous system. You can expect low lights, breath awareness, compassionate meditation, and supportive postures chosen to help you let go and relax. 

 

Think of your mat as a little calming oasis with its supporting actors all within arm’s reach – a chair, a bolster, blankets, blocks, and a belt can all be used to give your body what it needs. Through this class, you’ll tone the vagus nerve and offer restoration to body, mind, and spirit. 

 

Offered 3 times a week in our Winnipeg studio, online, and through rebroadcast, Relax and Restore can make moments of self-care a little easier. Check our full fall schedule to find the class that fits into your week.

 

2. Kaiut with a Kick Yoga Series

 

Like your yoga with a little attitude? Join Larry for Kaiut with a Kick beginning on September 8. In this 8-week series, expect to use a variety of props and settle into familiar poses in different ways. Kaiut Yoga is all about freedom of movement and improving quality of life.

 

This style of yoga is a great option for those who experience chronic pain, injuries and general aches. It’s also supportive for those with inflexible, hyper-flexible, or aging bodies. What sets it apart is its focus on the joints rather than the muscles. 

 

Hosted in studio on Monday nights, Larry will help you see your body’s opportunities for movement in a new light. Join this series (with a kick!) to experience how our bodies are whole interactive machines!  

 

3. Rise and Shine Morning Yoga Series

 

From Monday nights to early mornings, Darlene is helping us rise and shine with an  8 week early morning practice beginning on September 11. Grab your coffee, arrive in studio, and drink in all the benefits of yoga, like improved mental clarity and focus, before heading out for the rest of your day. 

 

Darlene brings her passion for movement as a fitness leader for over 20 years into the Winnipeg yoga community. She bridges the functional and the spiritual for a practice that will awaken your body and mind.

 

Suitable for students of all levels, including beginners, Darlene will blend different yoga methods to bring a mindful start to the day leaving you refreshed and invigorated. Thursday mornings have never felt so bright! 

 

Who knows, you might not even need that second coffee.

 

4. Monthly meditation series: Cultivating the Seeds of the Divine

 

Curious about meditation, but not sure where to start? 

 

The long-running YCW meditation program, Cultivating the Seeds of the Divine, begins its 8-month series in September. Suitable for those new to meditation and more seasoned practitioners, this program is offered in-person and online. 

 

Join Jan one Saturday a month for an in-depth series of meditation teachings, practice, and sharing in a group setting. In a supportive and community-oriented environment, Jan will guide you on a meditative path to discover your true nature. This series offers everyone a soft place to explore, observe, and grow.

 

Join us for the first class on Saturday, September 20. 

 

September Yoga at Yoga Centre Winnipeg

 

September can be a busy time, but Yoga Centre Winnipeg is adding some zen into Sept-zen-ber with classes and workshops for all students, whether you’re yoga-curious or already yoga-enthused. 

 

Want more? Stay tuned for what’s ahead like our Thanksgiving Remembered Wellness workshop in October and Yoga Nidra in November. 

By Jill Ritchot

Jill is a writer and yoga teacher who loves exploring the places where words and movement meet. She completed her 200-hour yoga teacher training at Yoga Centre Winnipeg in 2016 and became a Yoga Fitness Leader through the Manitoba Fitness Council in 2024. With her background in professional communications, she cares about creating spaces – on the page and on the mat – that are accessible, reflective, and infused with a sense of connection that extends into daily life. 

Look for regular posts by Jill on the Yoga Centre Winnipeg Blog coming Fall 2025

An Irish yoga adventure

 

Last month, I returned home from the Yoga Centre Winnipeg’s annual yoga trip. It’s my third with YCW and another adventure to a country with “land” in the name:  Iceland, Newfoundland, and now, Ireland. It turns out, that isn’t only a pattern in destination names, it’s also a theme that weaves these seemingly distant places and experiences together.

 

On each of these trips, reverence for the land and going off the beaten path have been a consistent undercurrent. It’s part of what I love most about these trips: a connection to the land we find ourselves on rather than just the sights and sounds upon them. And while the agendas are usually packed (there’s so much to see!), Shauna and Jan beautifully guide us in moments of pause, twice a day, so that we can breathe, move, and ground into the land we’re visiting. 

 

That gratefulness worked its way into the Irish morning and evening yoga practices and subsequently grew within me as a participant. I found myself wondering about how I could engage in this practice wherever I find myself. An enduring reminder that yoga extends far past the mat. 

 

Awe-struck

 

The feeling of the land in Ireland left me in a particular state of awe. I knew it would be stunning, but I didn’t expect its beauty to burst in from all corners. The multitude of greenery, the massive roses growing on vines around city doors, the ivy creeping up building after building, the blue bays strewn with trees and rocky posts. 

 

Had I travelled to Ireland on my own, I would have missed many of these small natural treasures. Like ferrying to Garnish Island to explore its incredible gardens featuring plants with leaves bigger than my hand. Or wandering through the stunning Bantry house and its wisteria-laden grounds. I feel grateful that I got to spend time breathing them all in.

It’s also the beauty within the group that makes these trips special. Everyone embraced everything we did from visiting the Kerry Woolen mills and the Clonakilty Black Pudding Museum to trekking down into Doolin Cave and hearing emotional local history on Whiddy Island. We were curious about the places we were headed next, fascinated by the 

place we had just been, and open-hearted to each other along the way. 

I felt like we made a little community of seeds blowing across Ireland’s lush land before going home to plant ourselves with the trip’s nectar and seeing what blooms.

How Ireland came home with me

 

For me, it’s wanting to cultivate more joy, warmed by the sunniness of laughing Irish folks overflowing from the seams of pubs onto bright streets. More pride and whimsy, fed by the stories of Ireland’s past and the fairy folk tales that still ripple into the present. And more love, rooted by the strong sense of community across the cities and towns we visited. 

 

These ideas are also weaving into my yoga practice. More silliness, more fun, and more openness. Slowing down with small movements to notice the details, experimenting with new transitions and laughing at the result, and remembering to pause and notice the land around me.

 

Thank you, Shauna and Jan, for another wonderful trip! Although I won’t make it to Croatia next year, I look forward to my next YCW adventure one day. Perhaps the next time “land” is in the destination!

Jill Richot