Strength
Being strong in your body helps to protect your body from potential injuries. Yoga works to strengthen the body
physically by challenging the boundaries of your own strength and fitness but also the mind. By holding poses for
long periods of time and repetitive movements yoga helps to build strong, lean, and lengthened muscles.
Flexibility
Flexibility for most of us does not come naturally or easily. It is something that you have to work at continuously.
Just as yoga works to strengthen the body by challenging its boundaries it does the same with stretching the muscles
and opening areas of the body that have become chronically tight from postures and activities in our daily lives.
Stretching helps to allow energy or "prana" to move freely through the body less restricted. Maintaining a healthy
range of motion in your joints becomes very important as you age to stay mobile and be able to complete daily tasks.
Balance
Most yoga practices include balancing postures. Balancing postures are important for finding the body's center of
gravity, improving coordination, and strengthening the core and stabilizer muscles. Yoga also works to balance out
the right and left sides of the body and become more aware of the possible imbalances with the body. As you age the
risk of falls becomes greater so improving balance acts as a preventative measure later in life.
Mindfulness
Yoga is a great practice for focusing on the breath. Being aware of your breath is one of the first steps to learning
to be mindful. Yoga connects movement with breath and thus helps cultivates a mind-body connection. As you move through
difficult and challenging postures you focus on your breath. As you lay in stillness or stretch you focus on your breath.
This helps draw the mind into the present and not focus on the past or future thoughts.
Yoga translated from Sanskrit means 'to yoke', some translate this meaning to 'union'. In the Western world most people
know Yoga as a form of exercise where you work to stretch, strengthen, and tone the muscles while cultivating awareness
in the mind and body. Practicing this 'union' of awareness in the mind and body helps develop mindfulness. The poses
"asanas" were essentially created to help us sit more comfortably and meditate longer. Buddhist monks were some of
the first to practice the asanas to help them sit for long periods and copy the vedic scriptures (ancient ayurvedic
text). Ayurveda is an ancient medicine system, which gave birth to yoga. Yoga is a great form of exercise for all ages,
bodies and abilities. There are so many different styles of yoga available to us today that there is something out there
for everyone.
Emma began her yoga teacher training in 2012 at the Byron Yoga Centre in Byron Bay, Australia. She completed a Yoga
Alliance recognized 200-hour teacher training (RYT-200) and began teaching in her hometown Winnipeg shortly thereafter.
Emma has since taught at many different studios and has continued her journey learning and growing as a teacher. She
attended a Yin Yoga teacher training led by Joe Barnett at the PranaShanti Yoga Centre (Ottawa, ON) as well as a Trauma
Sensitive Yoga teacher training at Wavelengths Yoga Studio (Norwood, ON). Emma has had the pleasure to partner and work
with Brendon Abram teaching yoga for PTSD classes. These classes were in collaboration with Queens University sponsored
by CIMVHR (Canadian Institute for military Veterans Health Research) to assess the effects that yoga may have as a
complementary treatment for PTSD using "Yoga for Mindful Resilience Manual" which was developed by the Veterans Yoga
Project. Emma completed the 8 week online Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Training by Jon Kabat-Zinn and has used
the tools from this training in her teaching and her everyday life. Emma has also co-taught a monthly partner yoga
class for the Military Family Resource Centre (MFRC) for medically releasing members and their spouses. Teaching outside
of a studio setting and introducing yoga to new yogis is something that Emma believes is important to continue to
make yoga accessible to everyone. She has also had the pleasure of teaching and organizing a weekend yoga retreat in
2015 and hopes to participate and teach at more retreats in the future!
Emma is available to teach single, regular or session based classes at your place of work, gym or special event.
Private and group rates are available. She teaches classes in any of the following styles; vinyasa flow, yin,
restorative, hatha and partner yoga. Or create a class to tailor suit your needs!
