Fear is about loss. 

Fear is about the loss of familiar things.

We fear losing the jobs we don’t like and the people we don’t love.

This is what keeps us stuck in insanity.

We fear losing the comfort of a habit that gets in our way.

This is why we continue to numb ourselves.

We fear the loss of pleasures that we enjoy.

This is what causes us to lie, cheat or steal.

We fear losing our youth.

This is why we are deceitful about our age or try to stay forever young.

We fear losing our money or never having enough.

This is what causes us to ignore the people around us and to work an insane amount of hours.

We fear losing our status or recognition.

This is what causes us to pretend to be someone we’re not.

We fear death or losing our health.

This is what causes us to ignore and neglect the elderly population.

We fear losing our children.

This is why they can’t talk to strangers or play in the front yard.

We fear losing our sense of identity.

This is why we worship our degrees, titles and live in cubicle prison.

We fear losing our sense of safety.

This is why have stuff packed in storage units and supplies stockpiled for doomsday.

We fear feeling unlovable and being unloved.

This is why we become people-pleasers and lose our souls in the process.

Fear sucks.

The only way to get around this nonsense is to understand that we really don’t have any of these things to begin with. Every thing is subject to change and alteration. Safety is an illusion. 

The only thing that we can count on is the present moment. Notice that you are safe right now and get on with what you need to do!

Get rid of fear, love others and yourself, play, be authentic, take risks, show gratitude. You have today and this present moment. You are trading a piece of your time that you can never get back for this exact moment. Let that moment be something good.

“Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple”

– Charles Mingus

Since childhood, we’ve been encouraged to ask questions using the five basic W’s and H (who, what, where, when, why and how). These questions can be simple in nature, but become complicated when impatience, discouragement and embarrassment constantly overwhelm the mind.  Questions are tools for guidance not hindrance. Regardless of the question, the answer provided fosters a new learning experience. According to Amanda Lang in “The Power of Why,” curiosity inspires creativity. However, a creative blockage ensues when parameters and expectations cannot be questioned in a safe environment.  Creative outlets and development thrive on the ability of self-discovery, thereby underscoring the need to try, question, and listen.

Now how does this relate to creativity on the mat?

In a yoga practice, whether it be a heated or a non-heated class, the possibility to creatively deepen your practice begins by listening to your body.  Self-discovery in yoga coincides with body awareness. One aspect of body awareness considers the different muscle groups that are activated for different postures and sequences.

Curiosity plays an integral role in this particular aspect of body awareness.

How? For example, when the instructor says, “scissor your inner thighs together” in a lunging series, questioning and attempting the cue not only begins to create muscle memory, but acknowledges the muscle group. This can now be used in another posture. This acknowledgment enables the potential to ease into another unfamiliar or challenging posture in a safe learning environment that the mat can bring.

Here are some other suggestions to venture into creativity on the mat:

- try a yoga self-practice at home (this gives you the opportunity and time to explore the muscular engagement in different sequences, series and asanas)

- read some yoga articles and watch some yoga videos (inspiration can stem from new information and motivation by actions of others)

- Vlady Peychoff

Adapted from Victoria Kasunic:

Many of us have been there. It may be a spouse, an employer or employee, a trainer or mentor, or worse still, yourself. Sometimes it’s hard to know whether you are in good, mutually supportive relationships with your partner, friends and family. Some of these ring extremely true for me, and I am thankful that I have removed all of them, grown, learned, moved on, and flourished.

If you’re worried about what kind of relationship you’re in, here are 12 telltale signs it could be toxic:

Adapted from: Amanda Christian

“Waking up to who you are requires letting go of who you imagine yourself to be.”

-Alan Watts

Do you find that you walk into the yoga room and “expect” something from yourself? From your teacher? From a sequence or a pose? How often does a teacher remind you to, “listen to the cues” but you find yourself doing something habitually, instead of HEARING what is happening. Intstead of embracing change in your body and in your patterns. It can be difficult, but change can start anywhere. Why not on your mat? A lot of these expectations, you may find, are self-imposed…

The following are some tips and lessons you can use while making the transition from expectation overload to the lightness of exploration. 

Less Expectation, More Exploration And Trust

When expectations rule our lives, we set ourselves up for disappointment. Then guess what? We judge ourselves harshly for it. The most important thing you may learn is to release your expectations about how you think your life should go, and approach life from a place of exploration.

This opens you up to experiencing things that are beyond your wildest dreams.

It’s okay to have goals, but make sure to leave room for something even greater to come along. Maybe the most peaceful and quickest way to achieve something is a way you haven’t thought of yet. Be willing to go with the flow. Explore through life knowing deep down that you are always guided to exactly where you need to be. Plus, doesn’t exploring sound like more fun than expecting?

Look Beyond Your Distractions

A lot of us want external things because of the way we think they will make us feel. We want a skinnier body because we thought it would make us feel happy and loved. I want a successful career because we think we would feel fulfilled. We want a relationship because we think it will relieve our loneliness.

These things can distract us from looking within ourselves for answers. When they fail to do what we want, we feel disappointed and angry. In order to release this cycle of disappointment, we need to release the belief that they will save us.

If you want to experience more love, start giving more love. If you don’t want to feel lonely, then start healing the belief that you are alone. If you want to feel like you’re worth something, start treating yourself like you are worth something, because you most definitely are. 

When you heal the beliefs that run wild in your mind, you can still enjoy the externals, but you’re no longer trying to get something from them. You know you’re already fulfilled, happy, and complete, so if your circumstances change, you can maintain your joy.

Relax More, Judge Yourself Less

I’ve learned that the loving voice within, also known as our inner guide, has a bigger plan for us than we have for ourselves. The only thing you need to do in order to follow the path of your inner guidance is listen to it by releasing your judgments about what you think is happening. You don’t have to have everything figured out right now.

Get quiet and listen for guidance about what to do in this moment. Any advice coming from love will be something you can do now. The thought of doing it will make you feel lighter and excited.

Change Your Thoughts

If you are feeling disappointed, it’s because of the thoughts you have about the situation. So if you don’t want to feel disappointed, change your thoughts. Step into your power. Everything happens for you, not to you.

You’ll be amazed at the shifts in perception that occur when you become willing to release fear and see love instead. When you focus on releasing the thoughts about how you imagined your life to be, your most loving, truthful self can come forward and guide you. There is nothing to figure out. Namaste.

There are four equally impactful, but uniquely different workshops you can attend:

Evolution by Involution: Easy. Accessible, Exquisite Journeys Inside 

Friday May 24th – 7PM-9:30PM  

This workshop is for all levels and no experience is required. This will be an exploration of meditation, mantra, and
pranayama that can be easily woven into everyday life. This is a lighter practice, with light asana, in preparation for sitting and meditation.

Notes from the Underworld

Saturday May 25th – 11AM-1:30PM 

For the intermediate/advanced student (students must be able to kick up into handstand, unassisted at the wall, as well as perform full backbend (wheel) with straight arms. Students should have no major injuries – This class will be inspired by the darker elements of Hindu mythology. A deep and dynamic practice, unearthing the more rare and often unexplored poses.

Goddess Rising: A Practice for Women

Saturday May 25th – 2:30PM-5:00PM

This is a full spectrum practice for all levels, that will include not only asana, but chanting, meditation, and pranayama. This practice will be guided by the symbolism and stories of Kali, Lakshmi, and Saraswati, and is supported by our fellow sisters, mothers, daughters, divas, and queens.

Embodies Teaching: A Teacher Development Session

Sunday May 26th – 11:00AM-1:30PM

This class will be geared towards class planning and sequencing strategies for classes that are MORE than classes – full-flavoured feasts of heart/mind, and body.

Christine’s teaching reflects a deep embrace of the heart and a playful delight for the body. Her classes are an artful blend of strong, rhythmic adana and purposeful creative sequencing.

She is a proud mentor to a growing number of phenomenal teachers and is extremely excited and honoured to be teaching at Wanderlust Whistler 2013. Currently living in Vancouver with her husband and two little girls, she is known throughout the city and beyond as an empowering mentor and teacher’s teacher who keeps it relevant, reverent, and real.

If you want to know even more about Christine, you can check her out here.

Sessions are being individually offered for $45 in advance and $50 drop in. You can also purchase all four sessions for $150. You don’t want to miss this!

Loosely Adapted From www.marcandangel.com…

As always, there is some tough truth in here. Number two sure brings up some stuff for me personally. Living a fully authentic life can be a struggle. But number seven. Oh, number seven. How thankful I am to be lucky enough to have that. My wish for you all. – Brandon Jacobs

Because everything in life worth having is worth fighting for…

1.  Personal greatness.

Easy goals don’t exist.  A goal is a point of achievement that requires effort and sacrifice.  There are no esteemed ventures worth participating in that don’t require some level of effort and struggle.

Decades from now when you’re resting on your deathbed, you will not remember the days that were easy, you will cherish the moments when you rose above your difficulties and conquered goals of magnitude.  You will dream of the strength you found within yourself that allowed you to achieve what once seemed impossible. Don’t do what’s easy, do what you’re capable of. Astound yourself with your own greatness.

2.  Honesty and truth.

Personal transformation and growth can be remarkably rewarding, but only when the process of change is based on honesty and truth.  When you’re not being authentic somewhere in your life or with someone in your life, any attempt at transformation eventually leads to anger and frustration.  The truth always creeps back up on you; it does not cease to exist when you ignore it. Being fake about any aspect of your existence slowly digs a dark void in your soul.  Life will simply not work for you if you don’t show up as YOU.  The truth may not be easy to deal with, but it will always set you free in the end.

3.  A mind free of envy and jealously.

Envy and jealousy are costly diseases; you simply can’t be yourself within their confines.  When you give in to them, the price you pay is steep – a bad mood, an unproductive mind, an inferiority complex, and a chronic migraine headache. Being envious of what someone else has is like drinking poison and waiting for it to somehow improve your situation.  Likewise, tearing someone else down in your jealous mind only tears you down in real life.  Rather than devastating yourself with contemplations of things you don’t have or don’t want to happen, think for a second about what you do have, what you do want going forward, and what you can do right now to make progress with realities you face.

4.  Positive change.

The simple realization that you need to make a change can be a great source of motivation, but in order for this motivation to create positive change, you must apply it toward creating things of value.  Don’t fight against what you don’t want; create what you do want.  Don’t punish those who have caused you pain; let go and focus on something new that soothes your pain.  Don’t focus on what you are running away from; give your attention to the great things you want to create in your life.

5.   A willingness to learn from mistakes.

One mistake does not have to rule your entire life, and it can’t unless you let it.  This hour is a brand new hour with no faults in it yet.  Think about your mistakes and learn from them, but don’t attempt to carry their weight around with you. It’s ALWAYS a heavy load to carry. The road to success is littered with mistakes.  Avoiding them is impossible.  The thing that will ultimately define your success or failure will not be how many mistakes you make, but how you handle them.  The bottom line is that all mistakes die quickly, but you can’t live beyond what you know today if you aren’t willing to make mistakes and forgive yourself for them.  Read The Untethered Soul.

6.  Persistence and patience.

Before you give up, think about how unfortunate it would be if the results you have worked to achieve required just a tiny dose of additional effort.  How disheartening would it be if the train you’ve been waiting for arrived five minutes after you walked out of the station?  Not only does success require diligent effort, it requires persistence and patience. Rest when you are tired, but don’t quit.  You never know what’s just around the corner.  It could be everything you’ve been working for, or it might be just another mile marker on your journey.

7.  True love.

There is no soul mate out there who will solve all your problems.  There is no love at first sight that lasts without work and commitment.  But there is someone out there worth fighting for.  Not because they’re perfect, but because they’re imperfect in all the ways that are right for you.  You compliment each other’s flaws in a way that allows your two spirits to unite and operate more efficiently as one. You will know when you meet this person, when through them you meet the very best in yourself.

8.  Goodwill.

There is no greatness or peace of mind where there is betrayal of your own goodwill.  Always aim at complete sincerity of your thoughts, words and deeds.  If it is wrong, don’t do it.  If it is untrue, don’t repeat it. Do what you do because you believe it’s the right thing to do.  Do the right thing even when nobody is looking.  Be one of the people who make a true difference in the world by leaving it a little better and more wholesome than you found it.

Session Passes: 
We are no longer offering a 5 or 50 class pass
The 10 Pass will stay the same at $140
NEW – 25 Session Pass for $275

Unlimited Passes:
We have eliminated the 1 and 3 month memberships.
The auto-renew will now be $79/month no commitment required (a credit card will still be needed on file to purchase this account, and we will charge a cancellation fee of $25 when/if you decide to cancel.)
For those of you who prefer to pay up front, we will be offering a 1 year up-front payment of $805 (15% off the monthly price). You can also add the plus package for $255 (also 15% off).

Plus Package (Mat & Towel Service):
$25 add on to any package or per month with the auto-renew

Again, please let us know if you do have any questions! Looking forward to seeing you in the studio and on the mat!

An excerpt from www.marcandangel.com. It’s worth the read!

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will.
–Vince Lombardi

Feeling down about your forward progress lately?  Do you feel like you’re running in place?  Need some motivation and tough love to help you reinvigorate your success rate?  Well, here you go – seven reasons you’re not the great success story you could be:

1.  You do a lot of thinking without acting.
Too often we think without acting.  We do nothing with our ideas.  Everyone who has ever taken a long, hot shower has had many great ideas.  I’m sure you can relate.  But you will only make a difference in this world if you get out of the shower, dry off and do something with them. The only way to conquer your dreams and doubts is with action.  Wondering about them will not get anything done.  Avoiding challenges will only make them grow bigger.  If you wait until all conditions are perfect, you will spend the rest of your life waiting.

Great achievements are made by starting from exactly where you are right now with exactly what you have right now.  Stop wondering and start doing.  Once you’ve made a little progress you’ll always know, without a doubt, that you can make even more progress if you try.  Read 1,000 Little Things.

2.  Your creative mind is completely unfocused.
Constraints nurture productive side of the creative mind.  At first it might seem as though complete freedom makes all creative ventures more attainable, but this isn’t the truth.  Complete freedom makes the possibilities endless, but keeps your efforts scattered and unfocused. Often, self-imposed constraints, or boundaries, force you to think differently about challenges, leading to more practical ideas and innovations.  Instead of thinking ‘outside the box’ and looking in every possible direction, get inside onebox – a specific problem that needs a resolution, a smaller space where big changes can be made, etc. – and focus your creative attention on making a difference. Over time, as you test these boundaries by pushing against them, you figure out which ones can be broken and expanded, and which ones need to remain fixed in place.

3.  You are focusing too much on fears and defeats.
Your problems are really your blessings if you use them to grow stronger.  Never quit just because you feel temporarily defeated.  You have not been beaten – this is not a competition.  Keep working to be the best you can be.  It doesn’t matter how slow you go so long as you don’t give up on yourself.

In the long run, it usually isn’t what you have or where you are or what you’ve been through that makes or breaks you; it’s how you think about it all and what you do next.  Focus your conscious mind on things you desire, not your fears and defeats.  Doing so brings dreams to life.  Read Awaken the Giant Within.

4.  Your expectations are crushing you.
Drop the needless expectations.  Appreciate what is.  It doesn’t matter if your glass is half empty or half full.  Just be thankful that you have a glass and that there’s something in it.  Choosing to be positive and having an appreciative attitude influences everything you do.  The magnitude of your happiness and success will be directly proportional to the magnitude of your thoughts and how you choose to think about things.

Nothing ever works out exactly the way you want it to.  Hope for the best, but expect less.  Appreciate reality, don’t fight it.  Don’t let what you expected to happen blind you from all the goodness happening around. Even if it doesn’t work out at all, it’s still worth it if it made you feel something new, and if it taught you something new.

5.  You have become distracted from your core goals.
People might tell you it’s impossible, but it’s not.  Though the challenges may be great, you can make things happen.  The odds may not seem to be in your favor right now, but you can change the odds.  When something difficult you want to achieve connects deeply with your purpose, it becomes possible.  When you are driven and committed and persistent, you will get yourself there step by step.

So look within yourself and unearth the values and goals that you most earnestly feel a deep connection with.  In the end, it’s the things that are genuinely important to you that will power your greatest achievements.  Read The 52-Week Life Passion Project.

6.  You are playing it too safe.
Pain is a pesky part of being human but it’s vitally important.  It strengthens the mind, heart and body.  You can’t grow strong, brave, or successful in this world if you’ve only had good things happen to you within the safe boundaries of your own little comfort bubble.  You need real life experiences, and nothing ever becomes real until you experience it firsthand. No matter how long you train yourself to be strong, brave, or proficient at something, you never know if you are or not until something real happens to you.  So get real, experience life and let it teach you what you need to know to conquer your wildest dreams.

7.  You have been resisting forgiveness.
Alexander Pope once said, “To err is human, to forgive, divine.”  Nothing could be closer to the truth.  Your willingness to forgive yourself and others is the greatest sign of your emotional and spiritual maturity.  It’s a process of acceptance and understanding that allows you to let go of a situation that’s over so you can move on with your life. The key is to be thankful for every experience – positive or negative.  It’s taking a step back and saying, “Thank you for the lesson.”

Take a moment and imagine if every person (including yourself) who owed you an apology apologized today, and imagine if you accepted these apologies.  What a weight lifted.  Now imagine if everyone, everywhere did this.  How many problems in the world would evaporate?

Namaste.

Salt Spring Island Retreat 2013

The video and images below were all captured by an amazing attendee of our latest retreat to Salt Spring Island, Sarah Taylor. If this doesn’t make you want to come on one of our amazing retreats, we don’t know what will! To everyone who came out and made our retreat so special and fun, we send a huge thank-you. To our fabulous hosts, the always lovely Melissa Perret, and the super fun Michelle Chung, who helped organize fun events and outings, while keeping every day fresh with some Yoga we send so much gratitude for taking our students on an amazing retreat.

“Adventure is worthwhile in itself”

- Amelia Earhart

Salt Spring Island was a great getaway from the snow in Edmonton. We enjoyed the best lacto-vegeterian food and explored the farmer’s market in Ganges, where I happened to stumble upon plum thai chilli vinegar. The greatest part about the trip was getting to know everyone- sharing many laughs, stories, as well as space for asana practice.

-Vlady Peychoff

Join us Saturday, April 27th from 2:30-5:30 for a Vinyasa/Acro Yoga Experience!

Learn to move smoothly through postures and challenges with guided breath. Within this workshop, you

will develop integral strength for each individual and we will expand your individual practice into

a shared group practice.

Cole Williston has been instructing for seven years, and is home to Edmonton. His training is in Chakra

Yoga and his style of guidance reflects aspects of Iyengar, Hatha, Vinyasa, and Pranayama. Cole is

passionate about building community and creating evolutionary group experiences. He organizes yoga

adventures through his company PLANit Adventure.

To learn more about Cole, you can check out his blog.

Or you can look at his full bio here.