Tag: meditation

Breaking Out Of Boxes To Be Who You Truly Are

Amber_Young

Welcome To Your Wednesday Wellness Reflection

Flowers don’t open and close according to who walks by. They embrace all of what they are and show it to the world around them. The peony doesn’t try to compete with the cherry blossom, and the cherry blossom doesn’t try to compete with the tulip – they own what they are and trust the timing of their true nature. You’re being called to do the same.

– Rebecca Campbell

Do you own the truth of who you are?

Or do you change depending on whose company you keep?

Regardless of past patterns, or how others sometimes like to put you in a box – it’s important at this stage of our lives to break out of any boxes.

In yogic anatomy we think about this being human in terms of having 10 bodies that comprise components of our unified self. We consider all these precious aspects; the good stuff and the stuff we often try to hide away, understanding that there are many elements to living a balanced life. On our practice mats we have the opportunity to remember that we are more than just a body, or just a mind, we have the opportunity to reconnect with all these amazing elements that make us whole.

In last week’s reflection, I mentioned taking just 3 minutes in your day – is it that hard to find for your self care.

Well it definitely can be, I understand. Being in another round of lockdown with my boys home, I am juggling the responsibilities of not only my own care, my professional responsibilities, but also the new territory of having us all home yet again, establishing a new rhythm with school, work and hmmmm self-care.

Finding 3 minutes is not always that simple, but it is essential to maintaining peace of mind and moving from a place of wholeness and truth, especially when we’re being challenged. Believe me, I understand.

If that window becomes blurry, be gentle with yourself as tomorrow is yet another opportunity to find at least those 3 minutes.

The place we’ve been finding most of our deep breaths together has been in our backyard forest classroom, where we’ve also been greeted by many friends whom we share this land with. A beautiful buck, many white tailed deer, our friend the wise owl, all the winged beings, the voles, and our constant companion and new friend the woodshed bat. Breathing in the healing that the forest offers us, I find my 10 bodies and all the aspects that come together within me, seem to easefully weave together as one.

From a yogic lens, what are your 10 bodies??

This is a very brief snapshot, simply intended if you’d like to keep reading, to give you a little more insight and a consideration in supporting these elements within yourself. Which might I add, spending time in nature is the best medicine to help you integrate all these beautiful aspects of yourself.  Perhaps this isn’t of interest, but I thought you would like the choice to read on or not.

I realize, this is a bit of a longer piece, some food for thought.

1) The Soul Body – your inner light and foundation, where you connect with feelings of safety. When strong and balanced you easefully live from your heart and there exists a gentle flow with the ups and downs of life. We accept easier, and we find comfort and stability in our inner guidedance. To support : Singing, dancing, heart opening postures and practices, truthfully anything that helps you feel alive and inner joy.

2) The Negative Mind – provides you with discernment and protection.  Important as it helps to warn you of danger, helping to keep you safe, strengthens your trust in your own intuition and personal judgement. To support: Commit to yourself care, no matter what –  commit and value that time for you. Quiet time in meditation is very supportive, practicing saying no when something doesn’t feel supportive.

3) The Positive Mind – allows you to see all possibilities and opportunities in front of you. The positive mind creates an expansive worldview within, it supports an inner framework of hope and trust. To support: Use positive affirmations, doing postures to strengthen and support your naval point, open around your heart centre, waking up the energy inside of your body every day.

4) The Neutral Mind – This aspect of yourself corresponds to your heart centre, allows you to weigh in the positive and the negative coming to a neutral and equanimous place. To support: adopt a daily silent meditation practice, working with breath practices where we allow a pause after our inhale and again after our exhale, tuning into your heart centre when making decisions. Increased awareness of breath patterns.

5) The Physical Body – This is your sacred body temple, it requires your consistent and dedicated care. When your physical body is at ease you’re able to more fully participate in life. This also represents our teacher aspect and gives us confidence when we feel strong physically. To support: move your body daily, nourish yourself with water and foods that support you, ensure a balance between exercise and healing rest.

6) The Arcline –An aspect of your energy body. This gives you the ability to clearly project your truth out to the world, and supports you to feel stable and centered.  This corresponds physically with your heart center and your pituitary gland. To support: spend time in meditation with your eye focus at the point between your eyebrows, and explore movements that move the arms across the front of the body and over the head.

7) The Aura – The protective energy around your body. A strong aura supports you to attract what you need to thrive, and to repel anything that drains you or negatively affects your life force. Helps you to feel confident and secure. To support: hot and cold showers, dry brushing, practices that help you to clear negative energy and create healthy boundaries, meditation, singing, cleansing pranayama.

8) The Praanic Body: Life giving force, the flow of energy through you. Helps you to feel awake and alive, and often more trusting that you are exactly where you need to be and have clarity in steps you need to take to move forward in your life. To support: Any pranayama (breathwork) practices.

9) Subtle Body: Your sensitivity, your patience, and your calmness in whatever life hands you. Your ability to respond to your intuitive knowing. To support: Quiet listening meditation, and committing – with an open heart – to a spiritual practice for an extended amount of time.

10) The Radiant Body: This is your radiance, your courage, your personal power and presence. When this is strong you feel you are the flow of life, and attract what you need to do what you’re here to do in this lifetime. To support: daily exercise, pranayama, dancing and singing, surrounding yourself with people that uplift you, committing to your daily self-care.

Sending you love as you travel on your path, holding you in my heart

Till next week,
Amber
xo

If you want to practice with Amber on your own schedule, in the comfort of your own home, consider subscribing to her exlusive weekly wellness capsules and practice videos.  White Pine members also get unlimited access to online classes with their membership.  To find out more click here

Wednesday Wellness Reflections

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Welcome to our Wednesday Wellness Reflection, I’m so grateful you’re here.
Today  I offer you a little food for thought. 
I find this a powerful reminder to enjoy the journey, and all the paths along the way.
 
That we are where we need to be in this moment, not always “ideal” or comfortable – but the only place we can be at this precise moment in our lives.   I know this is especially hard right now.  
If we can release our attachment and clinging, to things being a certain way – or the way they used to be, we often find we can find peace and surrender into our life as it is now – Acceptance.  
It’s important to keep dreaming (especially right now), and to not ever give up on those dreams while you take steps forward, but also to feel deep gratitude for the life you’re living in this moment – sometimes messy, confusing, often hard, but part of the whole hidden picture.  
 The true gift of arriving in each and every breath.  
 I read this quote in class on Tuesday, written by Meggan Watterson, as I felt into today, it felt important to share again here. 

“The guru, the saint, the magi, the “perfected” ideal of yourself that can radiate beams of light like Princess Fiona after Shrek’s true love kiss, and remain that way, is an illusion.  This is often used as a way for us to feel inadequate.  To constantly compare ourselves.  To constantly suggest to ourselves that we’re not there yet.  We haven’t arrived.

The good news is we never arrive.  None of us.  Not even the holiest person you can think of in this moment…… We never get there.  That’s the whole point of being human.  The point is to constantly arrive.  For some of us with each breath.  We constantly return to love.  This is the good news; that we can.  That it’s set up that way.  That no matter who we are or how long we’ve been seperated from feeling the presence of love, it’s actually right here.

Within.” 

Take a few moments and simply notice what arises inside of you after reading these thoughts, perhaps take some time with your journal.

I wonder as you move through the next few weeks if you can offer yourself the invitation to arrive in every breath.  With all of your senses can you feel the complete cycle of each breath – inhale and exhale.

Can you be fully present in this moment – this one, right now, you will never be here again.

Can you give yourself permission to connect with the very beat of your heart.  Your center of compassion and kindness, bringing you back to that deep well of love – with every breath.

Sending you love today, from deep within,

Amber
xo
Just a reminder that tomorrow (Thursday, December 24th) is a live online Karma class for Interval House from 1:00 – 2:00 pm.  I’ll be leading you through a nourishing and restorative gentle practice, offering you a little nurturing self care before the holidays.  If you’d like to find out more click here
If you want to practice with Amber on your own schedule, in the comfort of your own home, consider subscribing to her exlusive weekly wellness capsules and practice videos.  To find out more click here

Welcome to Day 1 of Amber’s 30 days of yoga support – Riding the precious waves of gratitude

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Welcome to the beginning of our 30 day journey together.

Thank you for accepting my invitation – this is truly an invitation for you to become better acquainted with yourself and with the gifts of a practice infused with gratitude, as we explore our breath, movement, traditional and exploratory postures as well as some beautiful meditation practices.
Beginning on Thanksgiving Monday is no coincidence, as this 30 day challenge is anchored around the vibration of deep appreciation and the pure exchange of kindness in our experience of life.
We are living in wild times, but one thing that remains certain and can give us stability is our daily practice and the daily acknowledgement of gratitude.  
Gratitude can help us to understand the light at the center of the darkness – and to appreciate the darkness around the light.  Consciously exploring gratitude reminds us to celebrate the small miracles of our moment to moment life, and helps us to not take the gifts in our life for granted –  food, nourishment, friendship, family, a roof over our heads, the sun shining, a simple breath, the moonlight, the fire that warms your hearth – we have much to be thankful for, and it can be all to easy to forget.
For these next 30 days we’re going to cultivate and nurture an attitude of appreciation, remembering the importance of gratitude.  Often our biggest challenges can hold within them amazing gifts and growth.  The more we attune to what we feel gratitude towards, the easier it is to recognize these gifts, and the more it would seem we have to feel grateful for.   As we build on this practice, we attract more of what we need to feel supported in our heart of hearts, and we begin to notice we feel happier, more open to life,  and more connected to the people and the earth surrounding us.  
“Enough.  These few words are enough.  If not these words, this breath.  If not this breath, this sitting here.  This opening to the life we have refused again and again until now.  Until now.”
                                                                        David Whyte
Today we begin with setting intentions and connecting with our breath. I encourage you to grab a journal, take a few deep breaths, acknowledge and embrace the life in front of you – even if just one tiny element of your life, and let us begin.  Click here to view today’s practice video.  
If you want to follow along with the whole 30 day challenge, daily practices will be posted on my patreon page
(as above)
If you’d like to just check in throughout the 30 days; Day 1, Day 10, Day 15, Day 20 and Day 30 will be posted additionally here on our Surya Daya blog, as check in points.  Even if you just join me for today I AM SUPER GRATEFUL!
May these practices nourish you, bring you balance, and help you to feel more at home in yourself.
With so much love
Amber

Joy Filled Blessings for the Summer Solstice

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Summer Solstice is a time we celebrate all the light in the world, as we honour the tilting of the earth wrapping us in the longest day of sunlight of our calendar year.  We move through the cycles of seasons and witness our own  rhythms, being mindful of the ebb and flow of life.

2020, the year that was prophesied to be the year of clear vision, the year of clarity and truth.  I understand this is not what we expected this unfurling to look or feel like, but it is our reality and an uncovering of so much truth, so much for us to ponder.

Summer solstice is an invitation to lean into what works, and to release what no longer serves us.   It is a time to uncover what you know deep inside of you is waiting to be revealed.  We are sitting on the edge, a precipice of sorts, wondering what happens next.

For many there is an increased anxiety during this time, as people begin to venture out of the safety of isolation, exploring this concept of reemergence.   It’s important to be responsible and respectful to others, and also to lean into the practices that support you to rise above any fears that may be surfacing.

It’s okay to take your time with these next steps.  It’s okay to not follow the crowd and simply do whatever those around you are doing.  It’s important to follow the lead of your heart, now more than ever.

Silence to me means the calm quiet that comes when fear has lost its voice.

Silence…is not an absence of sound, but it’s the end of the clamour, the racket the ego makes.  It’s the rest we can receive when all we are hearing is the sound of what the heart contains.

– Meggan Watterson

This summer solstice we are also blessed with a new moon, making it extra powerful.  A time to take steps to actualize our dreams.  We have been reminded through this time to not live with regrets, because wow, the unexpected can occur at any moment, our lives have the potential to change in the blink of an eye .

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Light a candle, and honour your connection to the light.  Honour the light inside of you, and the light you bring forth as you move through your life.  Honour the seeds of creation within you, reflecting on the life you lived, but also on the life yet to come.  Sat Dharam Kaur reminds us of a powerful practice, to consciously reflect and write out 27 visions of the life ahead of you.  Not as a means of wanting to be somewhere you’re not, but rather as a way to plant seeds for what’s to come.  Feel it in your breath and in your bones, see yourself in those moments of your life, remind yourself why this life is worth living.  It’s powerful to allow the pictures to run through your minds eye as you move your fingers along a mala, cycling through the visions 4 times to come to the full 108 beads.  I am so grateful for this practice. 

As part of a solstice ritual, it’s beautiful to set a clear intention honouring the energy of solstice and then  move through 108 sun salutations as the sun is rising.

I’m attaching a reminder of the sequence in a simplified sun salutation, the flow we often move through in our Saturday morning kundalini class.

To view the practice click here .

Last year we met at the park and moved through these in community, that morning is etched in my heart.  This year, honouring the circumstances of our present day reality, I will be moving through them, imagining you with me at my home – I invite you to  join me energetically.

When we move through our sun salutation flow, Surya namaskar, we are creating space inside of ourselves for our life force to move through us, giving reverence to the energy of the sun.  We give ourselves an invitation through the sequence to allow a deep inner awakening, as we honour our bodies, releasing stress and connecting with the dance between the flow of asana and our breath.  It’s a good idea to move through in 10 sequences of 10, and a final sequence of 8 repetitions – in the final 11th round I like to honour each chakra with each cycle of the flow.  Here is a variation of  beautiful affirmations to cycle through the chakras as an anchor.  I have adapted the affirmations for my own practice and I invite you to do the same,  this was originally shared with me by Mary, and it’s an honour to share with you here.  This is a powerful daily practice.

Root Chakra – Muladhara – Self Acceptance – May I be rooted, grounded, and secure.

Sacral Chakra – Svadhistana – Fearlessness, Creativity – May joy and creativity flow through me.

Abdominal Chakra – Manipura – Inner Strength – May I be a lighthouse, May I feel my strength and my power – grounded in kindness and truth, May I be committed to my self care.

Heart Chakra – Anahata – Compassion, Forgiveness, Service – May love and compassion flow through me.

Throat Chakra – Vishudda – Trust, Truth, Integrity – May I speak my truth fearlessly.

Third Eye Chakra – Ajna – Purpose – May I trust my intuition and strengthen my connection to my inner wisdom.  May I be guided by it.

Crown Chakra –  Sahasrara –  Highest Self – May I feel my connection with all of life, May I confidently align and step into my higher purpose.

Aura – Radiance, Vitality, Protection – May I honour my radiance and project out strongly to the world. May I remember my purpose and surround myself by who and what nourishes and strengthens me.

At the end of your physical practice, take some time to allow any movements to move through you, and when you’re ready come laying in shavasana for a at least 10 minutes, sense yourself, notice sensations, notice your breath, invite that flow of life force into all the space you created, notice the quality of your thoughts, acknowledge the healing that’s happening inside.

Coming back to a seated position, closing your eyes down and maybe inviting a little more depth into your breath.  Remind yourself of your intention and breath it right into your heart.  I am going to share a lovely little meditation with a  pranayama practice to help seal this sacred time on your mat.  The meditation is for a calm heart.

To join me in this practice click here.

This practice helps to calm and soothe our nervous system, it can bring us back to our center.  It is also a powerful practice if you are being challenged, invite that challenge and all those involved, into your awareness, and try sending an invitation for peace and an easeful resolution.   Life is so  short to hold on to the experiences that cause us pain and suffering, this is a good time to give gratitude for the lessons learnt and release it’s hold on you.   This practice also teaches us patience on a subconscious level through the breath practice – patience with our process, and patience with the dance of life  and others we are in connection with – we are all doing our best in every given moment.

I too am learning, a lifelong student on this journey of life.  There is no urgency, life is unfolding in the only way it can.

Just in case you  missed our last newsletter, here is the link studio news

Wishing you so much love and light, as we celebrate this time of great change.  Know we are here holding you in our hearts, as we too evolve in ways that will only strengthen our community.

Much love Amber, and all of us at  Surya Daya.

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Ahimsa – Can we be kind to ourselves?

Amber_Young

Yogic greetings to YOU!

Sending you the biggest cyber hugs I can possibly manage today……

I wanted to share a little practice, a meditation for cultivating ahimsa – or nonviolence.

When we consider what violence is for us, we need to reflect on the potent power and effects of our body actions, our body language, how we listen (or not) to others and our selves, our words and the tone which we express them.  We need to consciously consider the foods we nourish – or not – our bodies with and the effects of these choices, the thoughts and the stories we tell ourselves, the people we surround ourselves by.  We also need to consider how patient and gentle we are with ourselves through changes in our lives and during times of uncertainty.  This is when we need to be extra gentle.

I invite you to bring mindful attention to this concept of nonharming, and understanding it’s thread in your own life.

During this time of change, I’ve been spending some time revisiting the ethics of yoga.  The foundation and roots of these amazing and ancient practices, which invite yoga to not only be a practice on your mat, but if it resonates for you, also a conscious way of living off your mat.   

To view the practice click here

This particular practice I found in a treasure called Mudras For Healing And Transformation, by Joseph and Lilian Le Page, this phenomenal book was introduced to me to by one of the  many incredible inspirations in my life, Kathleen Burr.  Kathleen is a phenomenal yogi, and a very dear friend.  She teaches us about resilience and trauma informed yoga, as well as powerful ways for us to remember to care for ourselves.  She  offered our teachers at Surya Daya a beautiful and nurturing afternoon of self care last year and it is our plans to have her back to hold a community offering when it is safe to do so.

I invite you to come into a comfortable seated position, and give yourself some time to explore this beautiful meditation practice.

Much love, Amber

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Day 10 Yoga Support with Amber

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“We who have lost our sense and our senses – our touch, our smell, our vision of who we are, we who frantically force and press all things, without rest for body or spirit, hurting our earth and injuring ourselves:  we call a halt.

We want to rest.  We need to rest and allow the earth to rest.  We need to reflect and to rediscover the mystery that lives in us that is the ground of every unique expression of life, the source of the fascination that calls all things to communion.  We declare a sabbath, a space for quiet:  for simply being and letting be; for recovering the great, forgotten truths; for learning to live again.” 

-United Nations Environmental Sabbath Program

 

Sat Naam and Namaste, welcome to Day 10 of Amber’s Yoga Support Challenge.

I was reflecting on that title this morning, and I think of this project rather as a 30 day yoga support during a challenging time, as a little daily check in infused with self care practices.  It is my intention as well that if any of the practices resonate for you, that you will revisit the video and practice as often as it would be supportive for you.

Today we’ll be sharing in a quiet reflective mindfulness based meditation.  We are inundated with so much stimulation in our present day world and as a culture often push past our limits regardless of how we feel, this is a time to reflect.

Our bodies start to break down, and we can suffer from mental and physical illness if we don’t give ourselves permission to integrate and process all the stimulation of our moment to moment life events.  The use of breathing exercises, meditation, prayer, visualization, positive affirmations and sensory awareness practices can help to create a safe space for integration and an internal invitation for healing so we can stay strong and vital.

Last spring I took an online 12 week breast health intensive with Dr. Sat Dharam Kaur and she reminds us that we ideally need to take a break every 2 1/2 hours to offset the external stimuli, integrate our life experiences, and keep our reserves full so we can keep going.  When we lose sight of our self care, we fall apart.   In our society we often neglect our body and minds need for this 20 minute or so break, we often replace this potential window for self care with another coffee, TV, sugar, emails, work, alcohol, recreational drugs rather than taking a break with nourishing activities that are needed to fill us back up; such as a nap, a cup of herbal tea, a walk, journaling, breath work, gentle movement, meditation or any other activities that will nourish rather than deplete you.

I hope you enjoy today’s practice, and give yourself this window to reset.

To view the practice click here

Thank you for carving out this time just for you,

With so much love, until tomorrow

Amber

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Day 2 Yoga Challenge with Amber

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Good  morning!  Welcome to Day 2 of our yoga support challenge, I’m so grateful you’re here!  Please find our daily practice below

Day 2

May you be filled with loving kindness

May you be peaceful and at ease

May you be healthy, safe and protected

May you be happy

My wishes for you.

Much love to each of you,
Amber

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30 Day Yoga Support Challenge

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Sat Naam and Namaste!

Today we embark on 30 days of yoga together.  Amber has put together a 30 day yoga challenge starting today, April 1st, and running through the whole month.  The intention for these mini yoga videos is to help support you through this very challenging time.  We find ourselves in the midst of a pandemic, and I think from day to day our emotions are all over the place – this is normal and understandable given our current situation, please be gentle with yourself.  Globally, we are all affected and I think there are times we feel the collective levels of anxiety, fear, hurt, and sadness. We are living in a world, and a time, of so many unknowns where each of us have been affected in our day to day rhythms as we adapt to this new normal – a normal we have no way of knowing how long we’ll be in.

Embrace the moments where you do feel peace, where you feel steady and filled with hope for what is on the other side.

Yoga may not be something you are leaning into right now, and if this period in the history of your life is calling for a break from your practice than you need to honor that.  You also need to honor whatever it is that is helping to hold you and bring you back to your center.

If yoga is something that is helpful for you right now, please know there are so many resources to help to sustain you.  We are trying to keep our support available for you during this time, and getting creative in how we can best continue to serve you.  We will be posting extra practices, we have some free live zoom classes (please check our website schedule weekly to see which classes will be going live), some recorded classes and practices.

I decided to commit to 30 days of providing you with little 5 – 20 minute practices starting today, April 1st.  These will be accessible yoga, movement, focused postures, pranayama and meditations – each chosen to help to build your resilience, to help ground you, bring you back to your center, nurture your nervous system, and to support you to invite daily movement into your body.  This yoga challenge is also my way of extending my support out to you in your homes during this time of social distancing and self isolation.

Please join me this month, if you have little ones at home, these will be mini practices they too can join you on your mat for.

If you are having a hard time emotionally, don’t hesitate to reach out with a phone call or an email,  we’re here and we will get through this together.

At the end of the 30 day challenge,  if you showed up everyday from April 1st – April 30th to your mat, and if this practice helped you, please send us an email at info@suryadaya.ca with the subject line:  30 Day Challenge Reflection.  Deadline for submissions is May 12th.  In the body of the email we’d like you to write a brief paragraph letting us know you completed the challenge and how it has helped you during this time, or how yoga in general has affected your life.

On May 15th, once we’re received your reflections, you’re name will be entered into a draw.  The winner will receive their choice of one of:  either a 5 class yoga pass active once we can join together for in studio community classes or a private yoga and massage session with Amber.

We would love to hear your feedback along the way, and we do hope you’ll join us on this journey.  To watch Day 1, please click the link below

View video here

Today also marks the 2 year anniversary of when I took over the studio, and became the guardian of our torch.  Thank you for being on this journey with me, I am excited to see how we evolve over time, and grow together as a community.   Tomorrow I will be sharing a loving kindness meditation with you, as my thank you for all of your support.

Yours in health and happiness, with so much love and gratitude,

Amber

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Yoga + Creativity Workshop

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Please note this workshop will be rescheduled to a later date once we’re able to safely practice together again.  Please stay tuned.  


Yoga and Creativity Workshop for girls 

 Join Jessica and Amber for an afternoon of movement, exploration, creativity and art journaling.

This workshop is suitable for girls ages 8 to 13.  We’ll start our journey together with a mindfulness based breath practice.   Amber will then guide you through an accessible flowing yoga practice with the intention to release stress and explore your body and emotions through movement.  When we give ourselves permission to move and feel better in our bodies, we also feel better in our minds and creativity starts to naturally flow through us.  We’ll spend some time focusing our intentions.  Jessica will facilitate the artistic exploration of our afternoon together.  She’ll share techniques and ideas for creating journal pages, explore creative ways of self-expression, support you to play with colour, shape, words, pictures and mixed materials.

Each participant will leave with their own art journal to take home.

No artistic ability is required, just an openness to free your own innate creative expression.

When:  TBA

Time:  1:00 – 3:00 pm

Where:  Our studio located at 14 Mill Street, in the Heritage Court

Cost:  $45 (HST inclusive)

Workshop includes:

All materials; including art journal to continue the process at home, connection, yoga instruction (we have mats and all the props needed) and healthy snacks.

*please let us know if you have any allergies or food sensitivities

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Meet your guides:

Amber Young

Amber Young is the owner of Surya Daya Yoga & Wellness and she is a passionate yoga guide who loves to witness the process of body movement and self exploration translating into the way we express ourselves authentically in the world.  She has been actively facilitating a teen fit club for 9  to 13 year old girls out of Heritage Fitness in Carleton Place for the past 3 years, she has co-taught yoga and art workshops for youth with other great local artists,  and does private yoga sessions for youth.  She has made it part of her mission to hold a safe space to support individuals, of all ages, to feel better in their body and their mind.  Amber lives in Almonte, where she also practices massage therapy.  She is the mother of 2 boys and loves being a part of this vibrant and community focused town.

 

Bio pictureJessica Hibberd is an Almonte based artist who has been creating art ever since she can remember. Originally from the West coast of Canada, she rekindled her passion for art in 2012 while travelling back to the Pacific Ocean. It was there that her abstract style found its beginnings on a floating fishing lodge off the coast of Vancouver Island, inspired by the whales and peacefulness of the sea. Jessica has received a BA in Psychology from Carleton University, taught high school in Southern Thailand, volunteered at the Ottawa Children’s Treatment Centre and has experience as a classroom assistant at an Ottawa based Montessori school. She currently works for the Government of Canada and lives in the artistic community of Almonte. Her most recent projects include hand-built pottery with carved designs inspired by nature and her travels. Art has always been a relaxing and joyful experience that she enjoys sharing with others!

Please give us a call or send us an email if you have any questions or would like to reserve a spot.  613-451-2891 / info@suryadaya.ca

Please note space is limited to help deepen the experience for the girls

 

 

 

Mandala Painting + Yoga For Kids

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We are soooooo excited to announce our Mandala Painting + Yoga for kids workshop.

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Local artist Lily Swain and Yoga teacher Amber Young are teaming up to offer this beautiful afternoon for kids and a caregiver.

Our afternoon will begin with a  yoga and breathwork practice designed to release stress and tension, get your energy moving and connect with your creativity.  Setting intentions  together for creating your own mandala painting.

In this child-led workshop the caregiver will work with their child to create a colourful, freehand mandala painting using mixed media materials (pencil, oil pastel & acrylic paints on canvas). This fun bonding activity requires no experience and strengthens connection through collaboration as creative equals.

Read more →