Ayah Norris Holistic Healing, Toronto, ON (2025)

04/18/2023

Sometimes change is gradual, even imperceptible. Sometimes it comes in like a roll of thunder, abrupt and awakening. I am feeling it myself. A lot happening now, a lot coming on the horizon. It has at times felt overwhelming. And it has gifted me a perfect opportunity to lean on my practices.

To pause. Slow down. Notice. Breathe. Re-anchor. Trust.

Change is a constant. In some way, a new story is always being written. New paths are unfolding. Things fall away, and things come in. Our evolution is always in place.

Change can be hard. To our minds, safety is often what is familiar and known. We may try to force the external, to cling and grasp, to push and force, to hold things as they are or as we may want them to be, but that rarely brings us peace.

So where do we go when change feels challenging?

I shared more on finding safe places to land and be held within in my newsletter (sign up in bio 💌) The heart of my healing and embodiment work is helping you this find this wise, steady, knowing place within. We tap into the grounding of the body and the wisdom of the heart to help us open the doors to this place of peace and ease within.

When we are rooted in that place, we can go confidently and gently into the winds of change. We flow with the current, rather than against it. We graciously let go of the old, and courageously step into the new.

This week ushers in eclipse season, which often brings some wake-ups and shake-ups. Where possible, take it easy, stay grounded, and be gentle with you. If you’re in need of support, DM me to learn more about 1:1 healing and embodiment work ✨

For all that is here and all that is coming, may you trust in yourself. May you stay anchored to all that is within you, and may you move through the winds of change with courage and grace. Sending you all the love 😘

04/03/2023

Earlier this year, I brought a question I had been mulling over on and off for years to my therapist. This idea just kept coming back. She guided me inward, and there, my answer was clear as day: "you already know what to do." My tears of resonance flowed, and with that, a new evolution was set into motion.

I often say I feel like I’ve lived many lifetimes in this life already. There have been many iterations of my inner and outer worlds. They’ve all been beautiful in their own way. And every time I step into a new evolution, I feel like I’m getting closer to centre. Fog lifts and a new path clarifies, and yet it’s one that’s felt familiar to me all along. Puzzle pieces come together, everything builds on what was, and more and more, I find my way home.

We walk the path one step at a time, and every step leads us right where we are meant to go.

If you need it, here is your permission to shake loose from something that’s been binding you. Maybe it’s an old limiting belief or pattern. Maybe it’s an old way of being you’ve now outgrown. Maybe it’s some place or people or circumstances that no longer feel aligned.

Trust your instinct. Follow it. Have the courage to grow.

Think of how the seed has to let go of its shell to sprout. Think of how many iterations that seed has to go through to bloom into its potential. Think of how much it weathers as it allows its innate intelligence to unfold.

What innate intelligence is within you now, waiting to unfold?
 If you're in need of support, I'm always here through healing sessions and embodiment work, where we work 1:1 for a deeper dive into your healing, grounding and connection to your inner guidance.

Until then, may you embrace your ever-evolving evolution with open arms, shaking off the old and welcoming in the new. May your innate intelligence continue to guide your way to who and where you are meant to be.

Wrapping you in all the love for this season of renewal, blooming and blossoming (+ sharing some of my inspiration from this winter!) 😘

04/03/2023

Earlier this year, I brought a question I had been mulling over on and off for years to my therapist. This idea just kept coming back. She guided me inward, and there, my answer was clear as day: "you already know what to do." My tears of resonance flowed, and with that, a new evolution was set into motion.

I often say I feel like I’ve lived many lifetimes in this life already. There have been many iterations of my inner and outer worlds. They’ve all been beautiful in their own way. And every time I step into a new evolution, I feel like I’m getting closer to centre. Fog lifts and a new path clarifies, and yet it’s one that’s felt familiar to me all along. Puzzle pieces come together, everything builds on what was, and more and more, I find my way home.

We walk the path one step at a time, and every step leads us right where we are meant to go.

If you need it, here is your permission to shake loose from something that’s been binding you. Maybe it’s an old limiting belief or pattern. Maybe it’s an old way of being you’ve now outgrown. Maybe it’s some place or people or circumstances that no longer feel aligned.

Trust your instinct. Follow it. Have the courage to grow.

Think of how the seed has to let go of its shell to sprout. Think of how many iterations that seed has to go through to bloom into its potential. Think of how much it weathers as it allows its innate intelligence to unfold.

What innate intelligence is within you now, waiting to unfold?
 If you're in need of support, I'm always here through healing sessions and embodiment work, where we work 1:1 for a deeper dive into your healing, grounding and connection to your inner guidance.

Until then, may you embrace your ever-evolving evolution with open arms, shaking off the old and welcoming in the new. May your innate intelligence continue to guide your way to who and where you are meant to be 🌱✨

Wrapping you in all the love (+ sharing some of my inspiration from this winter’s adventures!) 😘

02/03/2023

I’ve been supporting others in their healing and embodiment for many years now, and it never ceases to amaze me how clients find the guidance they need within themselves. How what arises is so deeply personal to and perfect for each individual. And how much can heal when they root into and embody that guidance from within.

And the first step is often to slow down and listen.

I believe wholeheartedly in a multi-faceted approach to healing. To healing from the outside in, and from the inside out. To not just look outside of us for solutions, to also go within. To not just focus on all we can do, to also make space to be. To not just focus on healing the body, but also the the mind, heart and spirit.

If you slow down and listen, you might just find there is so much wisdom and medicine already within you.

May this month bring you space to rest and renew, to slow down and listen, to find your own answers within & embody the guidance you receive 😘

From my Heart Wisdom newsletter - link in bio to sign up 💌

01/01/2023

New Year blessings, from some of the wisdom I gleaned last year:

✨
May you stay close to your centre, to all that grounds and guides you

May you gently, lovingly untether from all that is no longer for you

May you be discerning and courageous in moving towards all that calls you

May you stay present to the preciousness of each moment

May you come closer to your truth, knowing and embodying it within you

May you be confident and generous in the sharing of your gifts and blessings

May you remember the medicine of slow, safe, steady growth

May you find deep, true, easeful love, within and around you

May you keep an open mind and heart, and stay receptive to grace in all the wild, wonderful ways it may find you

May you find your way home to the grounded, peaceful, trusting place within you, and to all the people, places and spaces aligned with your highest growth

May you trust it's all coming, and you will find your way home
✨

May any of these that resonate serve as affirmations or inspiration for your continued growth and expansion this year 💫

If you want to dive deeper, join me on Monday, January 2 to ground and attune to your inner guidance with the New Year Visions meditation circle (or catch the recording!). Details in bio - can’t wait to share with you! Until then, sending all the love + blessings for the new year 😘

(+ a big thanks to for the 📸!)

12/30/2022

One of my favourite reflections to guide clients on at the end of the year is to envision themselves sitting with who they were at the start of this year. Take a few deep breaths, and ground. If you could sit with this past version of you, what would they see in you? And what guidance would you share with them, based on the wisdom you gleaned this year?

My intentions at the beginning of the year were to stay present and keep my heart open to grace. And of course, I had all my stories, ideas, and plans. There is a favorite Jewish saying of mine: “Man plans, and God laughs.”

I asked for grace, and received a whole lot of fierce grace at the start of the year. In many avenues of my life, things as I knew or envisioned them to be got rocky or fell apart. In some not so easy ways, I learned lessons in non-attachment, acceptance, letting go, surrender, and compassion. In a season of loss, I finally gave up expectations and attempts to control, and focused instead on staying present, navigating day by day, moment by moment. And in that place, I found a deep grounding and peace.

I didn’t know it at the time, but I can see now that the old stories and patterns needed to break to truly open my heart to grace. I settled back into Toronto after a chapter away, and as spring blossomed and summer bloomed, so did much within and around me. Like one of my favourite tales, I had to travel the world to find what I was seeking was right here at home after all.

If I could sit with me back in January, I’d like to think she’d see a version of herself more peaceful, at ease, trusting, and grounded. I don’t think I’d give it all away, but I’d tell her it’s all coming, and she’ll find her way home.

Thank you sweet Toronto and my beloved people for welcoming me back home with abundant blessings. I’m remembering one of my favourite quotes, from Ivy Baker Priest, that I first read when I left this city for travels seven years ago:  “The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning.”  To new beginnings, to home, and to finding deep, true, easeful love, within and around us.

All the love + blessings for the new year 😘✨

11/04/2022

Finally re-grounding after a busy couple of months of travels, including a return to my teacher Amma‘s ashram in India. It was my first return back in over five years, and the time was everything I wanted, needed, and more. Abundant in love. Clarifying in connection. I left with a heart full of grace that is still held strong within.

I shared more insights from the ashram in my newsletter, and my experience of what Ram Dass so beautifully says, “The most exquisite paradox… as soon as you give it all up, you can have it all.”

November’s darkening days can feel tough for many, so if you’re feeling tender, rest, seek solitude and support as you need, turn to your practices like the refuges they are, and know just as the seasons, life is an inevitable cycle of letting in and letting go, turning inward and blooming outward, endings and beginnings, and so on, and so on.

We spend so much time chasing the manifestation of happiness, fulfillment and peace from things outside of us, when there’s an infinite source available within us, in our spiritual hearts. As hard as it can be, it’s often through letting go that we find this place within.

And when we’re truly connected to our spiritual hearts, the rest often falls into place like a beautiful symphony.

Wherever this month may find you, may you remember right where you are is a potent time for your awakening. May you find peace and ease within as you follow the tugs of your heart. And may you stay open to all that’s in your highest alignment find its way to you, in the wild and wonderful ways the great mystery of life can work.

Sending you all the love, and always here to support you in your healing, embodiment, and growth:
www.ayahnorris.com

07/29/2022

There is a line from the Sufi poet Hafez that guides much of my work: I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in darkness the inherent light of your own being.

While clients often think the healing they experience is from me, I always shift the power back to them. Yes, I tap into a lot of higher, deeper places of connection during healing sessions, but all of that is to help illuminate your own inherent ability to heal, your own inner wisdom, the inherent light of your own being.

More and more, I think of my work as holding a grounding, loving presence for you, which helps you hold a grounding, loving presence for yourself.

Recently, I guided a longstanding client into a deep, calm place within, and there she shared that she could see, feel, and know that in this place, there is nothing that can’t be healed. I had a new client, exhausted by hitting walls in her healing, well up in emotion in her first session, sharing that she finally believed healing was possible for her. I’ve had many clients share similar experiences, an ability to access their own insights and inherent ability to heal. Each time clients experience this, it brings tears to my eyes (this week alone brought many!). I’ve accessed this place too, and it is truly transformative.

Here, old, deep wounds and the imbalances that develop as a result can be seen, held, loved and released.

Here, the wisdom, peace, and love within yourself can be illuminated.

Here, in the myriad of ways available to us, we heal.

We aren’t meant to heal alone. The support of others helps us see what we can’t see in our often myopic views, feel what we have trouble feeling on our own, and guides us to new frontiers of empowerment within us. I couldn’t have done much of my own healing without the loving support of the practitioners and teachers I’ve worked with. And to all of you who have allowed me to guide you in your healing, I am deeply grateful. As says, we’re all walking each other home ♥️

If you’re called for support, I have a few weeks left this summer open for in-person + remote sessions before I’m off to India for a few weeks. Full details in my bio 😘

06/16/2022

Full expression of the heart full of joy I felt celebrating the love of and 🥰 Catie has been a force of joy, light and encouragement in my life from the start of our friendship turned sisterhood, and I couldn’t be happier she found the best partner in her soulmate Chris ( ). These two are full of kindness, fun and love, and their whole wedding weekend was pervaded with this energy.

My teacher Amma shares how if you visit an incense factory, you’ll inevitably leave with a sweet smell lingering on you. Catie and Chris’ wedding was full of love in so many ways, amplified by all the incredible humans they have in their life, and I have a feeling the love we all felt that weekend will linger with us for a long time to come.

I believe love is the most healing, transformative and precious power in the world. Stay open to all the ways love can find and surround you, hold dear all those who fill your heart, and find every reason you can to celebrate love in all its ways and forms. Catie and Chris, may your roots continue to entwine and grow, and may you be graced with the art and fortune of an ever-deepening love. Love you both forever 😘

01/26/2022

I have cried by this river. Laughed by this river. Prayed by this river. Asked it to help me release what was no longer for me. To call in what my heart was longing for. To surrender more deeply to all that is.

I have traversed this river. Crossed its bridges. Rested on its islands. Moved beneath it and flown over it. I have met lovers and friends by its banks and on its bridges. It seems to know better than I have at the time who and what is supposed to stay, and who and what was meant to go.

I come to this river, and things feel clearer. I feel clearer. Its breeze blows away any heaviness that has crept up. Staring at its waves clarifies what I know deep within myself. The next message I need to hear. The next step I need to take.

Just as we develop relationships with people, I believe we develop relationships with place. I have made many offerings to this river, and it has offered much to me. It has seen me in many states, and through many transitions, and still it welcomes me. It remains my greatest refuge in this city, and in many ways, a great teacher.

Through its islands and its waters, this river has held and moved through a lot of darkness and pain. And still, it remains a source of beauty and healing. Knowing this makes me love it more, makes me better appreciate its steady, expansive, flowing love.

Every day this year, I’ve had the gift of waking to this river, sleeping at this river, and walking by its banks. I still can’t know for certain why this city keeps calling me. After a few months of living here, I’ve been better able to let go of needing to know. Releasing stories and expectations. Taking it moment-by-moment. Better enjoying dancing in the mystery, letting the magic unfold itself as I take the steps I’m called to take. Just as the river flows effortlessly towards its source, I’ve found myself better able to flow with the current I know is carrying me.

If we make the space to listen, there is so much power, wisdom and healing to be found in nature, even amongst the beautiful chaos of the city. Turn to it, and let it turn to you. May we continue to care for our sacred spaces, and may they continue to care for us ♥️

01/05/2022

Happy 2022! May you find yourself in a good luck spot this year ♥️

May love find you in expansive new ways, in spaces and places beyond what you have imagined.

May light illuminate what has been hidden in shadows, and may those parts be enveloped in expansive love too.

May you continue to attend to your healing, and may you come to know every part of you is deeply worthy of love and care.

May you give readily and freely when your cup is full, and may you allow yourself to rest and receive when your cup needs filling.

May you untether from old stories, and in doing so, make space for new visions to be created and carved.

May you stay closely connected to your truth, grounded in yourself, and receptive to the ever-shifting tides of life.

May you stay open to grace, however you may define it, and let it guide you as you dance towards all that is calling your heart.

I know many of us are starting this year on some weird and wonky footing, at a place in the pandemic I think we all wish we’d be over by now. However you’re feeling as we begin this new year, know that feeling is valid. Hold it all tenderly. The joy and the sorrow. The grief and the hope. There is space for it all. There is space for all of you.

Without a doubt, this year will stretch us and shape us. We will personally and collectively move through things we can’t yet anticipate. May we move through it all with courage, patience, and faith. This too shall pass. Brighter days will come. The sun always rises at dawn. Spring always blooms after winter. Nature moves in cycles and rhythms. So too do we.

Sending you all the love for the year ahead. May it bring you closer to all you're seeking, within and around you, to all the good luck spots to come 😘

11/01/2021

Happy Halloween from Mr. Security and I 👻 And a reminder as we move through the darkening days of fall to keep making room for the people, places, and spaces that bring you joy. There’s still a lot of light out there, and within you too. Sending you lots of love 😘

(thank you auntie for the photo shoot and the light ✨)

09/10/2021

Two summers ago, on a trip to NYC, I was inundated with butterflies. Not just the beautiful monarchs making their summer pilgrimage, but images of butterflies in the street, on windows, everywhere. It felt like a message of some sort, one of transformation and emergence.

Little did I know that early the next year, I, like most of us across the globe, would be quite literally held in a cocoon of transformation. I’ve spent the vast majority of the pandemic in my Toronto studio, healing. Healing myself, a lot of old, deep pains. Helping others heal, holding a flame of light and anchor of love for them as they moved through their own pain. Praying and contributing where I could to help the world heal in this time of great collective pain.

When the butterfly is held in the cocoon, I imagine it doesn’t fully know why it's there, or truly grasp the changes it goes through. The shifts are gradual, born in the darkness. I’m sure the growth feels uncomfortable at times, and I wonder if the butterfly questions this discomfort, or laments the pain. I know I did while held in my cocoon, but perhaps other creatures are better at surrender than us humans :)

The butterfly can’t rush the process of transformation in the cocoon. It is what it is destined to be, and to force out early would be catastrophic to its growth. There must be patience in the process and tolerance of the inevitable discomfort. And then, when it’s time, the emergence. The butterfly pierces out of the cocoon, and a new form emerges out of the darkness and takes flight.

I returned to NYC last month, synchronistically over the same week I was there two years ago. Here in one of my sacred places, I could truly see it - the work works. The cocoon did change me from the inside out. The process often isn't pretty, but on the other side of true healing a new form emerges, and you understand why the journey was as it was.

Wherever you are in your process of transformation, stick with it. Keep your courage. Hold your faith. Right here, right now, right where you are, this is an integral part of your becoming.

I shared more heart wisdom on transformation + emergence in my newsletter. Sign up in bio 😘

07/08/2021

In-person healings are back!!! While remote healings do and will always continue, I know many of you in Toronto have longed for the chance to get away from home and receive some grounding touch alongside the energy healing + guidance that comes through the remote sessions. I’m fully vaccinated, and so excited to safely welcome you back IRL 💆🏻‍♀️💆🏿💆🏽‍♂️

My healing sessions offer a blend of somatic healing, Reiki, compassionate listening and intuitive guidance to help you release mental, emotional and physical patterns that no longer serve your highest growth. You’ll move into a deep state of relaxation that will help jumpstart your body’s natural healing processes, and help you welcome in more calm, clarity and connection, as well as a deeper connection with your body, heart, and soul.

Through my years of practice in-person and remotely, I’ve helped clients ease stress, anxiety and depression, accelerate physical, mental and emotional healing, rebalance after trauma or loss, integrate and ground spiritual awakening and consciousness-exploring experiences, deepen their connection to intuition and inner guidance, and more. If you’re in need of any of the above, my doors are open :) Details in bio 😘

✨”I walked into my treatment feeling stressed out and anxious, basically on the brink of tears. From the moment I walked in, Ayah made me feel completely at ease, and within minutes of laying on the table I was calmed, focused and cleansed. I floated all the way home and enjoyed the best sleep I've had in weeks." – CD

✨”Since the minute you walk in to Ayah’s studio you can feel her open heart and loving energy. I always leave each session with the insight that my heart needs, feeling relaxed, cleansed and floating literally full of love. She is truly a blessing in my life and her healings are exactly what I need to get back to center.” - JM

✨ “Today was exactly what I needed. Your touch is truly so healing and I feel so light and balanced. I feel so present in my whole body- and just have to tell you again how grateful I am that our souls crossed paths and for you helping/guiding me on my soul journey.” - ADP

05/05/2021

These times. They are a lot. We have been pushing forward in the face of great uncertainty, fear, and stress for over a year now. There are glimmers of hope in some parts of the world, and utter devastation in others. I see it on a micro level too with clients, some days where hope shines through, and some where things feel bleak.

We are all navigating this time in different ways and waves. It is important we stay kind and compassionate to each other, and to ourselves.

This means not looking away from pain, another’s or our own. I know it is hard, in a year of so much suffering, to not get desensitized to it. But it remains important we don’t forget about the parts of ourselves that need support and healing, and our siblings around the globe who need it too.

To keep sharing and giving, it is important we take time as we’re able to rest and receive. When we do, we make space to hold more love within ourselves, and then that naturally overflows outward in our work, relationships, and community.

Maybe receiving looks like a night of takeout, or a visit to a community fridge. Maybe it looks like a therapy or healing session, or a supportive chat with a friend or family member. Maybe it looks like asking for a hug, or giving one to yourself. There are many ways to receive.

Maybe rest looks like an earlier bedtime, or a midday nap. Maybe it looks like a day off, or a couple minutes off to close your eyes and breathe. Maybe it looks like doing one less thing in an already tiring day, or adding in conscious rest through meditation, a bath, or reading uplifting words. There are many ways to rest.

Do not underestimate the toll the last year+ has taken on our systems. Navigating a global pandemic takes a lot of energy. Healing takes a lot of energy. Be gentle with yourself. Do what you can. When appreciated with a full presence, the small daily moments of rest and receiving can add up to so much. The small things count, they really do.

I am wrapping you in so much love, the energy I’ve found to be the greatest healing balm there is. I hope you can feel it. I hope you’re making space to rest and receive it. If you're in need of some support, I’m always here ♥️

03/26/2021

My medicine the last couple of weeks 🌊 A reminder the terrain will inevitably get rocky. And we can and will flow through. For the current is carrying us, and showing us our strength in the process. And on the other end, there will be space to soften. Space to calm, to find more ease.

Like water, inherent in us is everything we need to move through rocky terrain, internal and external.

Keep flowing.

The current is always carrying you forward. The rocky terrain is quickening your journey there.

Sending you lots of love ♥️

03/20/2021

My heart is still full, full, full from a blessed entry to another trip around the sun yesterday 💞

I have found that how I start my year often foreshadows the themes to come that year. As we marked the beginning of our first lockdown, I spent my last birthday alone, in deep inner reflection, navigating what felt like a whole new world, both inside and outside. And like many of us, last year was a very inward focused one. It was a year that took me deep into myself, into old wounds ready to be held and healed, into new guidance from my spirit ready to be seen and embodied, into new parts of my heart ready to be stretched opened and expanded. It was a year that rooted me into a new strength, in my body, mind, heart and soul, in my relationships, with clients, closest friends, and family, and in my faith and vision. Like life, it was a year of beauty and pain, joy and sorrow, letting go and letting in.

This year, I have been blessed to be back home in my birthplace, surrounded by my beloved family. My day was filled with calls and messages from so many loved ones, meditation and movement livestreams with beloved teachers, the gift of guiding others, time in nature, delicious food, warm memories of what was, deep gratitude for all that is, and an expansive hope and vision for what is to come.

Today marks spring equinox, a turn of the wheel of time, a new season and a new year for many. I have felt it the last couple of months, and I am seeing it and hearing it from many clients: a shift is here for many of us. New visions are being embodied. Revolutionary work continues. Seeds of hope are sprouting.

You know when you’re in love, and the world feels more brilliant and beautiful, expansive and bright, hopeful and good? I felt very much in that place yesterday, enveloped by a beautiful divine love, and the love from those I’ve had the gift of walking this wild ride of life with. I’ll be spending this next trip around the sun beaming out these waves of love through my actions, words, and prayers, and doing all I can to bring more healing, joy and peace to our world. Big waves of love + gratitude to you, and thank you for sharing this space with me 😘

03/03/2021

I think one of the great gifts of this time is how it has humbled us. It has shown us how little is actually in our control, how much we cannot know. It has forced us into a place of presence, a stage of surrender. We have learned we cannot hold tight to what was, nor can we know exactly what is coming. And in that place, we hold potential for so much growth, inwardly and outwardly.

In excess, needing to know and control restricts us, limits us, and holds us back from the vast potential of the unseen, the vast potential of ourselves. We can get too fixated on the end destination, and miss the beautiful journey to get there. Or we can get bound to an old conception, form or story, and miss something even greater within us or on our path. Imagine if a caterpillar held so tight to its form, and missed the chance to grow its wings and fly. Or if a seed held too tight to its form, and missed the opportunity to spout towards the light and into the great vastness latent in it.

So, if you need the reminder: it’s ok not to know.

If you’re on the precipice of new beginnings, it’s ok to not know how it’s going to turn out. Let your becoming unfold its magic for you.

If you’re in a stage of endings, it’s ok to not know why it’s happening or what’s coming next. Trust the process is clearing you out for what is coming.

And if you’re in a period of the ‘in between,’ the void, the bardo, it’s ok to not know the meaning of it all. Know that you are no longer the old you, and not quite the new you, and whether you can see it or not yet, a great process of transformation is occurring within this chrysalis.

Let the journey unfold. Let each day carry you forward. It is in the humility of “I don’t know” that we become unencumbered by that which bound us, that which kept us small. It is in the humility of “I don’t know” that we remain open to the highest of truths. It is in the humility of “I don’t know” that we are truly free.

As always, here to support through healing sessions + embodiment work (details in bio). May this month take you into a deeper state of surrender and trust, and may you stay open for all that is beyond what you may now know. It will be worth the wait ♥️

Ayah Norris Holistic Healing

04/18/2023

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11/01/2021

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