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Creating Space in the Spring

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Guys. It’s officially spring, and for many of us, the opportunity to purge our crowded, winter-dictated lives is exciting.

In the winter, we collect. We hunker down and surround ourselves with comfort, whether that be food, people, habits, or whatever. We often become fragile versions of ourselves and feel the need to look inward and reflect on the year’s events.

But now? Now, it’s spring, and spring is a time for new growth—and not just for newly budded plants or the arrival of animal babies. Spring is a time of blossoming for us, too, to purge what we’ve collected and organize our priorities.

We often shed a little bit of weight, we remove the dust that’s settled on the furniture for many dark months, and we begin to adjust our faces towards the increased sunshine that grants us permission to clean up and refine our lives.

Spring also affords us to opportunity to ask ourselves if we’re present in our ideal mental state. With extra vitamin D coming our way and being earthlings who crave all the elements of our planet, we smile more and ask ourselves if we’re okay. We assess the events of the past months and finetune to create increased happiness and subsequent health.

So let us ask you this: how are you feeling?

How do you want to roll out this beautiful year? Is your mental health an accurate reflection of your physical well-being and your daily habits? Of your intentions?

This is where we come in.

At Parallel Yoga, we strive to inspire connection; always connection. To connect with each other, and ourselves. To create space where everyone who walks through our studio doors in given the opportunity to ask themselves how they feel and then work on their desired outcome.

We want to promote tranquility and peace. Not just with those around us, but within ourselves. We’re here to help you spring clean your whole self, and in turn, the environment in which you choose to surround yourself in.

So again: how are you? Let’s connect.

Namaste.

Spring Cleaning for Body, Mind, and Soul

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It’s May (can you believe it?!), which means everyone’s thinking about spring cleaning their homes, lives, and bodies. We’re interested in the body part, which includes your mind and soul, as well.

Cleansing the body is all about elimination. Whether it be elimination of waste, stress, or unhealthy habits, it’s about losing what doesn’t serve you and creating better habits that do. Here’s how to get started:

Spring Cleaning with Fuel

The fuel you choose to put in your body is directly correlated with your health and wellness. We recommend plenty of whole and fresh foods, and tons of water. Specifically, limited fresh fruit, loads of vegetables (a variety!), beans, raw nuts, seeds, and lean, wild, organic meats.

Remember this: you don’t need to starve when cleansing; it’s not about drastically cutting calories or drinking lemon water with cayenne and honey. Just listen to your body, and place emphasis on hydration and nourishment.

That’s it. That’s the secret.

Spring Cleansing with Movement

Moving your body is always an integral part of any cleanse. The secret is to combine the following two forms of movement—gentle and vigorous—to take full advantage of the benefits:

Gentle: Gentle movement is always a good idea. The consistency of it is very cleansing and great for detoxifying the digestive system and bowels. Gentle movements such as yoga can also help to detoxify the liver, along with other vital organs.

Gentle exercises like walking, restorative or stretch yoga, and tai chi are also great for mental health and emotional detoxification.

Vigorous: Sweating is very important when it comes to cleansing, because it’s how our skin eliminates toxins and unwanted waste. Vigorous movements may include cardio workouts, weighted exercises, and sports.

If you want to practice yoga as your vigorous form of movement, try our Strong or Tone and Tame classes.

Spring Cleaning with Sleep Hygiene

When it comes to creating a great sleep schedule, there are two components: quality and quality.

Quality: Although people often focus on the number of hours they slept, the quality of that sleep is even more important. If you’re not going through your sleep cycles properly, you can wake up feeling groggy and tied, even though you had 8 hours.

Some things you can do to create great sleep hygiene for yourself if begin a healthy routine. This routine should include powering down visual devices well before bedtime, some stretching, a 5-minute meditation (more on that later), maybe a bath, and perhaps some lavender essential oil to contribute to the overall environment of calmness.

Quantity: Honestly? You should be sleeping 8 hours of quality a day. Various research may conclude differently, but 8 hours is the norm.

Spring Cleaning with Mental Health

Emotional cleansing is often overlooked in the process of cleaning up your wellness habits and placing better emphasis on ‘whole health’, but it’s vital to cleanse emotionally and spiritually, too.

There are several ways to consciously aid your body in emotional cleansing, including:

Therapy: Cognitive behavioral therapy has always been and still is a powerful tool when it comes to emotional cleansing and improving mental health. Although it’s unfortunate, there can sometimes be a stigma surrounding the use of a therapist—but that’s ridiculous.

Having an objective person in your life who will listen and encourage you is incredible. And that’s what a therapist does!

Meditation: Incorporating 5 minute meditations into your daily routine can help clear your mind and increase focus throughout the day. In fact, many top world leader swear by the effectiveness of meditation, and what the practice does for their entire body.

Conscious Breathing: Conscious breathing is exactly what it sounds like—breathing with awareness and intent. By doing so, you automatically slow your parasympathetic nervous system, which creates a more zen-like state of being.

Try this: slowly breathe in for a count of five, then hold your breath for three, then slowly exhale for a count of five. Repeat this action of conscious breath ten times.

Click HERE to read an article we collaborated with Alive Magazine on, about conscious breathing.

Creativity: Creativity is something we all posses, and it can be incredibly emotionally rewarding to practice it. This might mean writing, painting, colouring, making something, redecorating a room in your home, or even creating a new game to play with your kids or pets.

Bottom line? Unleashing your creativity can make you happy, so do it! Cheers to spring cleaning your body!

To view our spring class schedule, click HERE. Namaste.

 

Yoga for the Brain

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Any yogi out there knows that yoga works to tone muscles—all muscles—even muscles you didn’t know you had. (Am I right, or am I right?!) BUT: yoga is also a brain toner. Although today’s society places enormous value on being physically fit, a happy and healthy life is about achieving and maintaining a solid degree of mental health, too.

You might not see it, but our brains need fitness!

Yoga is amazing for working on the state of our mental health, and for many reasons. These include the following:

The very nature of yoga is mentally calming.

Think about it: yoga is a slow practice, with many poses held for a minute or longer. You are encouraged to breathe, clear your mind, and to focus on yourself. There is often calming, meditative music accompanying the class, and no one is forced to do anything that might be outside of what might be realistic for their own body.

If you come to class with your mind racing, you can pretty much bet money that it will not be when you leave, not that we’re encouraging gambling.

Yoga for the Brain

Yoga incorporates physical poses with mental strength and stability.

Often while being talked through a specific pose, the instructor will ask students to clear their minds, focus on the pose, breathe through it, and to acknowledge then send away outside thoughts not pertaining to the moment.

This builds mental strength.

When you can recognize a random thought, and mentally be capable of pushing it away for the purpose of maintaining a clear and positive mind, that’s amazing! By practicing yoga, we learn how to control negative thoughts and how to create and seek positive ones.

Honestly, it’s like free therapy with a side of stretch.

It forces you to breathe, and take a minute.

For those of us who are a little (or a lot) type-A, we sometimes need to be told to chill. We value lists and productivity and usually forget to take time to just be.

Yoga helps with that!

Think of savasana. Unless you want to be busted getting up and leaving in the last 5-10 minutes of your class, you have no choice but to lie down, get comfortable, and zone out. And? It’s considered just as valuable, if not more, than the rest of the class was.

Savasana

Many poses allow for increased blood circulation to the brain.

Poses such as forward fold, downward dog, wheel, and others inherently increase blood flow and therefore oxygen to the brain. By being in a position where your head is physically below your heart, your brain reaps the rewards of extra oxygen circulation.

I mean, if our brain was where our feet are, we’d probably all be geniuses and very mentally healthy. Yoga helps us switch it up every once in a while!

Here’s the bottom line: yoga is not just a physical practice—it’s a mental one, too. The more you attend yoga, the stronger you can become everywhere. We might be a little biased at Parallel Yoga, but we think yoga should be covered by our medical plans. Right?! (Maybe we should all lobby for this…)

Namaste. Go feed your brain some yoga!

3 Big Reasons You Should Take Care of Yourself First

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Even writing this title made me initially feel kind of selfish, because somewhere along the line, we’ve been taught to take care of others first, and ourselves second. But lately, I’ve been learning that this is a recipe for disaster. Because as much as you might want to make sure every little thing  is perfect for everyone else, the fact is, it will never be close to great if you’re exhausted, resentful, and unrealistic about how much you can take on.

It’s exactly like you hear in every single airplane spiel you’re forced to endure before taking off: in the case of an emergency, put the oxygen mask on yourself first; help others around you second. Here are 3 reasons why practicing self-care is not only necessary, it’s critical:

burn out

If You Don’t, You’ll Burn Out

Sure, you may attend every PAC meeting out there, make homemade scones for breakfast every morning, and throw the best dinner parties on your block. But have you meditated lately? Or just sat and consciously breathed for a few minutes? Or attended a yoga class?

Running around and making everyone else’s life easy and breezy may be fun, and you might enjoy the praise, but you will burn out. Make sure to take the time to get proper rest, eat nutritious meals, and do a little soul searching once in a while.

If you don’t, you’ll feel it sooner or later.

Good Mental Health is the Foundation of a Good Life

No one can improve this but you—you need to make a specific, conscious decision to be mentally and emotionally healthy. Everyone strives for physical health, but what about mental health? Mental health is more important, because if you do encounter a physical health problem down the road, good mental health allows you to maintain a positive attitude and make good decisions for yourself.

To make sure you stay on the path to good mental health, practice it daily. Write in a journal every night. Be thankful. Show others that you’re grateful for their love and support. Attend yoga classes regularly, and do other forms of exercise, too.

Working out definitely lends to increased physical health, but even more important, it helps to strengthen your mind.

Earthy background and design element depicting the words "We are

You Teach Your Children and Partner to Respect Themselves

When other people see you make the consistent and conscious decision to take care of yourself first, they will naturally want to do the same. Show your family that meditation is a worthy practice. Cook great, healthy food and eat it regularly. Teach your children how to close their eyes and breathe in deeply to help calm themselves, or even just to feel better.

It’s so important that we practice what we preach around our families; it’s the only way to ensure that good self-care habits are routinely part of our family life. The last thing we want to do is teach our kids how to be stressed out or grow up needing to be viewed as perfect. So don’t! Instead, show the people around you (the ones you actually love and care about) that you value self-care.

Namaste.

5 Ways to Create a Zen Space at Home

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We all need a space in our homes to dedicate solely to mental and physical health. Why? Because whether you lead a busy and stressful life or a simple and relatively drama-free one, having a space where you can find Zen, meditate, breathe, stretch, and commit to your yoga practice if only for 5 minutes a day is important, and should be prioritized.

You don’t need a large space for this. If you’re thinking that we’re suggesting you dedicate an entire room to this concept (although that would be awesome), we’re not. But we all need a quiet corner to seek peace and tranquility on a daily basis.

Here are 5 ways to carve out a calm space in your home, so that you can get your Zen on as often as you’d like:

Carve out a Corner

Simple spaces

Find a space in your house where you can be by yourself. If you’re a parent, this usually means the bedroom or another room that your kids don’t frequent often. (Because let’s face it—we love them, but they are the opposite of Zen-promoting.)

The space you choose should be one you love, and one that makes you feel good. Once you nail down a space, make it your own. Here’s how:

Let in the Natural Light

Open those blinds, crack the windows, and let the fresh air and light shine in. Light is proven to immediately affect mood. Think about it: are you generally happier on a dark, blustery day, or a sunny, light one?

Natural light plays a major role in regulating mood and even our hormones. Without the benefit of consistent natural light, we can suffer health consequences, such as depression, insomnia, and weight gain.

Go Green

go green

Keeping some greenery thoughtfully placed around your space may help you feel more Zen. We are naturally connected to the earth, and her creations can help us feel calm and in sync with nature.

Countless studies have found that benefits to keeping plants in indoors spaces include lower blood pressure, increased attentiveness, lessened anxiety, and increased environmental mindfulness. If you think your space is too small, check THIS out and get creative.

Keep it Simple

This is imperative. Think of any yoga studio you’ve ever been in: a resounding theme is one of wide, open spaces, simplistic décor, and flat, clean walls. Even the colours are similar: generally, light colours and simple/no textures.

When you live in a simple space, it gives your brain less external stimuli to work through, and more time to process other things. (It’s like your digestive system: give it a ton to work with, and all your energy is diverted to processing food. If you eat simply with the idea that less is more, your energy can be reserved for other bodily processes, and not just focused on digesting that huge meal.)

Tailor your Tunes

Any yogi would agree that music plays a massive part in the Zen-making experience. So making sure your tunes are in line with your intentions—to be calm, focused, and introspective—is an important part of cultivating a space where you can collect yourself and increase the Zen.

Because we all need to feel Zen every day, for at least a few minutes. Right? If you’ve read through this blog post and are unsure of what exactly ‘Zen’ is, then click HERE.

Namaste.