Get Outside Yoga

05/06/2025

Once you know how to breathe mindfully, you can use the practice to help you navigate challenging times. Learn how.

02/04/2025

Yogalands: In Search of Practice on the Mat and in the World by Paul Bramadat will be published on April 8th!

Promoted as a way of healing people from wounds inflicted by the world, modern yoga offers an “anti-world” to which practitioners can escape. Yet yoga can never free itself entirely from the compromises and contradictions of the real world. Yogalands encourages practitioners and critics to be curious about the many meanings and impacts of yoga.

Pre-order now: https://buff.ly/ocfdfv7

30/06/2024

My grandma’s raspberry patch somehow yielded enough fruit for eight grandchildren to have fresh raspberries all summer long, & sometimes enough for the grown-ups too 😉

As many urban, & suburban areas make efforts to “green up,” there are lots of treats to be found for the foragers.

Every morning I pick maybe a cup of raspberries, & mulberries when I’m walking my dog in the park across the street, which is part of greater Montreal’s ‘Green Belt,’ a series of interconnected bike paths, & natural spaces.

Everything has become commercialized and it’s no secret that the big grocery chains in Canada (I’m looking at you, Galen Weston) are literally robbing average Canadians of their hard earned and hard to come by dollars.

This little haul might cost four or five dollars at Loblaws, & come in a plastic pannier. One way to fight this? Don’t give them your money. If you look close enough, there is a bounty of food & medicine in nature,

Namaste 🌸🙏🌸

08/06/2024

Our pool opens this wk!

I am an open water swimmer, which is incredibly easy to in our playground: southern Quebec, eastern Ontario, northern Vermont, & upstate New York … there’s lakes, & everywhere, ocean is 6 hrs drive 🧜‍♀️ but it’s also sweet having a pool across the street.

Yoga is the medicine that allows me to do my 3 favourite activities - swim, bike, snowboard - at peak level. The fountain of youth is to just.keep.moving.

What are you stay active plans this summer? ☀️

01/06/2024

Maybe I’m a little 😜 but these are the results of being a 51-yr-old action sports enthusiast so I’m also crazy proud.

Today’s ride was across the Champlain Bridge, up to NDG, then southeast to Parc Jean Drapeau, & an unexpected detour over the Jacques Cartier Bridge to St. Lambert, & west along the St. Lawrence back to Brossard.

I have no idea how many km, 30 maybe. A hybrid bike is advised, 😁 but I’m a mountain biker, & I like my bike (Norco Storm, maybe a decade old, bought used) for ‘short cuts.’

Biking is the absolute best cardio, & strength exercise as you get older, imo. You work all your muscles on the climbs, it trains balance, visual acuity, refexes, it’s easy on the joints (I have not so great knees, yay!). You can set your own pace, & the downhills are a rush, the views are pretty, & it’s also transportation.

Remember to wear flat shoes with good grip (Vans are perfect for biking, esp. 1/2 Cab or high tops to protect your ankles), light clothing,& a helmet! Gloves are also a good idea for long rides, & pack a few high protein snacks. Don’t forgot to hydrate!

🚴🏂 🏊‍♀️🏃🏽‍♀️🧘‍♀️ 🏔🤙💖

31/05/2024

04/04/2024

I haven’t updated this page in a long while. I’ve been devoting all my free time to snowventures. James Nestor’s Breath brought me back to yoga 🧘‍♀️

James Nestor’s Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art has been widely reviewed and praised for transforming lives. Released in 2019 on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic, Breath spent eighteen weeks on the New York Times bestseller and has been translated into over thirty-five languages. Nestor previ...

02/01/2024

Put your best face forward https://stylesatlife.com/articles/yoga-for-glowing-skin/ 🧘‍♀️

16/07/2023

Favourite all time athletes?

Here’s one of mine:

“Don’t ever forget that you play with your soul as well as your body.” -KAJ

10/06/2023

Diet has always been a big part of my approach to wellness, including growing our own food with varying levels of success. Right now I have chilis, oregano, squash, carrots, & chives growing on the balcony. We don’t follow a strictly plant based diet but I am leaning in that direction. This meal is just the contents of my fridge before going shopping … some tofu, button mushrooms, green beans, with lots of flavour from ginger, garlic, chili, and sun butter added for texture. 😋

04/06/2023

I spent last weekend at Holisitic Retreat, over 600 acres of property on Loughborough Lake outside Kingston, Ontario. The 1st ever yoga class I took was in Kingston in ‘98, so full circle. This was the 1st time that I’ve attended a retreat in all these yrs and it was the experience of a lifetime. In addition to yoga my friend Suzy Lamont, an unbelievably gifted artist, launched her photo exhibit ‘Speakeasy’ and gave 2 photography workshops. Resident yoga instructor Tanya Harrington is a highly knowledgeable, wildly skilled, & a beautiful soul, and my friends who live in the Kingston area and take regular classes with Tanya are very lucky indeed. Locally, Tanya is an instructor to the stars (think last name Ackroyd), and her reputation extends far beyond the Kingston region. This particular retreat, focusing on meditation, restorative yoga, and sound bathing attracted many instructors (including yrs on hiatus yours truly 👋😉😬).
I had an incredible time. We went on 2 early morning meditation walks throughout the property. I got in the lake a 1/2 dozen times, in between glorious sits in the sauna (I want one so bad). They have highland cows as pets, a brand new baby 2 days old when we were there. The vegetarian menu was farm to table, delicious, and wholesome. Bloom supports other local businesses, which are plentiful in this region. The sauna overlooks the lake, with a nearby dock to jump off, paddle boards available to guests, a gorgeous yoga studio with 180 degree lakefront view and top of the line equipment for yoga and sound bathing,
an extensive library, and meditation rooms throughout the facility. Rooms are spacious and airy, with the comfiest linens. It’s paradise, truly 🧘‍♀️💕🌸

09/04/2023

Its a holiday weekend here, the one in springtime where many of us are lucky to spend 4 extra days with our loved ones.

It’s a time for renewal, it’s a time to clean out the cobwebs of the winter, on many levels, and it’s a time for candy … 🍭😆🍬

We don’t indulge in sweets a helluva lot around here, but for Easter my daughters & me went to a wonderful 🇨🇦 institution called ‘Bulk Barn’ & bought, among our health food items, candy.

After waaaay too many sour peaches, & white chocolate wafers I felt like crap. When we woke up the next morning, after coffee & a stretch, we went snowboarding for a couple hrs and I felt so much better.

The human body is designed to move.

When we’re not active it can cog up our physical machinery. We can feel sluggish, sore, bloated,
& often emotionally and mentally drained as well. Blech. Seriously.

Spring is the perfect time not only for cleaning and refreshing our homes, it’s also a good time to get real about ourselves …

On that 🎵 , a spring cleaning routine that works for me:

- stuff to avoid in your diet: refined sugar, refined starches, increase water, fibre, vitamins, & - good - proteins

- HYDRATE, start every a.m. with a tall glass of filtered water

- apple cider vinegar, 1tbs, (yes, it works, I have no idea why, but it does)

- 10 min yoga while ☕️ is brewing, if you drink coffee (btw coffee is full of antioxidants, & you can use leftover grounds as an exfoliant in your skincare routine)

- light, high protein breakfast, … sun butter or hc egg or yogurt & honey … )

- light cardio, (in this house that’s either walking a very strong, rambunctious, tripawd pitbull foster puppy 🐶 or skateboarding, or snowboarding, weather depending)

Carry on with your beautiful self, & your beautiful day 🌸💕🌳☀️