Practicing Yoga Safely
The practice of yoga is only beneficial if it is practiced safely. How you practice the postures plays a key role in your physical, emotional and mental well-being. It's equally important that your yoga practice does not reinforce postural habits that have taken your body out of natural alignment over the years. Yoga practices that emphasize stretching over strengthening and that force the spine out of its natural alignment will eventually do more harm than good.
Lastly, it's important to choose a style of yoga that suits your physical, emotional and mental needs - recognizing that this can change daily, let alone over the course of a lifetime. Check out the class and workshop offerings here for a variety of options.
The practice of yoga is only beneficial if it is practiced safely. How you practice the postures plays a key role in your physical, emotional and mental well-being. It's equally important that your yoga practice does not reinforce postural habits that have taken your body out of natural alignment over the years. Yoga practices that emphasize stretching over strengthening and that force the spine out of its natural alignment will eventually do more harm than good.
Lastly, it's important to choose a style of yoga that suits your physical, emotional and mental needs - recognizing that this can change daily, let alone over the course of a lifetime. Check out the class and workshop offerings here for a variety of options.
About Michele Barnes (YT500+)
Michele turned to yoga for its healing benefits in 1999 after living with chronic joint pain and digestive issues. The practice was physically challenging but she felt emotionally and mentally better after every class. After practicing for two years, she felt inspired to share the practice with others and enrolled in the teacher training program at the previous Lotus Centre for Yoga and Health. Since she began teaching in 2003, Michele’s practice and teaching has undergone much transformation. Her inquisitive nature has inspired her to continuously research the history and benefits of yoga. While she has learned and experienced that many yoga poses can have far-reaching benefits, she has also learned through her own experience and continued education that 'how' they are practiced makes a big difference to whether they can be helpful or harmful.
After practicing regularly for 16 years and teaching many classes and workshops, Michele's back pain that brought her to yoga in the first place, became chronic and a daily experience. Reluctant to stop practicing yoga because of how peaceful it helped her to feel, Michele was intent on discovering why it was no longer relieving her physical pain. After reading William Broad's "The Science of Yoga" and studying with Michaelle Edwards, founder of YogAlign, Michele began to apply her developing understanding of human biomechanics to her practice of yoga. In less than one year, 30 years of chronic back pain was resolved.
The next terrain to explore was the nervous system and how to apply the practices of yoga to dissolve chronic anxiety. Funny thing about anxiety...you don't know it's chronic until you start to feel less anxious. After exploring the work of Stephen Porges and Stanley Rosenberg, Michele began to incorporate nervous system regulation in her personal practice and classes through the breathing, meditation and postural practices of yoga.
In Michele’s classes, you will be taught how to practice yoga in ways that acknowledge the biomechanics of the human body and honour the sacred design of the spine…while safely developing core strength and overall stability and mobility. You will also learn techniques that help to soothe the nervous system and bring it back to balance. Michele is passionate about guiding her students in practices that encourage loving reconnection between the three wells of wisdom: the Belly Mind, Heart Mind and Head Mind. Michele encourages her students to stay in the present moment, honour their experiences and challenge themselves to step outside of their comfort zones…all while ‘preserving the curves’ of the spine, nourishing the nervous system and honouring the wisdom pathway of the 'Three Minds'.
If you wish to contact Michele directly, you can email her at michelebar1965@gmail.com
Michele turned to yoga for its healing benefits in 1999 after living with chronic joint pain and digestive issues. The practice was physically challenging but she felt emotionally and mentally better after every class. After practicing for two years, she felt inspired to share the practice with others and enrolled in the teacher training program at the previous Lotus Centre for Yoga and Health. Since she began teaching in 2003, Michele’s practice and teaching has undergone much transformation. Her inquisitive nature has inspired her to continuously research the history and benefits of yoga. While she has learned and experienced that many yoga poses can have far-reaching benefits, she has also learned through her own experience and continued education that 'how' they are practiced makes a big difference to whether they can be helpful or harmful.
After practicing regularly for 16 years and teaching many classes and workshops, Michele's back pain that brought her to yoga in the first place, became chronic and a daily experience. Reluctant to stop practicing yoga because of how peaceful it helped her to feel, Michele was intent on discovering why it was no longer relieving her physical pain. After reading William Broad's "The Science of Yoga" and studying with Michaelle Edwards, founder of YogAlign, Michele began to apply her developing understanding of human biomechanics to her practice of yoga. In less than one year, 30 years of chronic back pain was resolved.
The next terrain to explore was the nervous system and how to apply the practices of yoga to dissolve chronic anxiety. Funny thing about anxiety...you don't know it's chronic until you start to feel less anxious. After exploring the work of Stephen Porges and Stanley Rosenberg, Michele began to incorporate nervous system regulation in her personal practice and classes through the breathing, meditation and postural practices of yoga.
In Michele’s classes, you will be taught how to practice yoga in ways that acknowledge the biomechanics of the human body and honour the sacred design of the spine…while safely developing core strength and overall stability and mobility. You will also learn techniques that help to soothe the nervous system and bring it back to balance. Michele is passionate about guiding her students in practices that encourage loving reconnection between the three wells of wisdom: the Belly Mind, Heart Mind and Head Mind. Michele encourages her students to stay in the present moment, honour their experiences and challenge themselves to step outside of their comfort zones…all while ‘preserving the curves’ of the spine, nourishing the nervous system and honouring the wisdom pathway of the 'Three Minds'.
If you wish to contact Michele directly, you can email her at michelebar1965@gmail.com