Fall is upon us and the air is getting crisp – a great time to start transitioning your meals away from the expansive, raw summer foods to more warming, grounding foods. This lentil chili fits all the bills – it is hearty and nourishing, has spices to warm you up from the inside, and has a great mix of textures and colours. It does take an hour to make, but requires very little actual work, so throwing a pot on before you are hungry is the best idea. The best part is that chilis and stews like this taste better the next day after the flavours have had time to marry, so it makes a great office lunch!

Props can be an invaluable part of any yoga practice – from the beginner to the advanced practitioner. They can help make challenging poses more accessible, modify certain poses to support injuries, improve balance, flexibility, and range of motion. Using props can help your practice progress, as they allow you to stay longer in some poses, encouraging a deeper opening; they can help improve the quality of your practice in easing you into proper alignment and keeping you there. However, due to the nature of our mobile, come-to-you approach to yoga, we are not able to provide props to our corporate yoga clients. There are a number of ways you can make your own yoga props out of things you already have in your office or at home to support your yoga practice. Try these tips:

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Our last (gasp!) long weekend of the summer is fast approaching and many people are getting ready to send summer out in style. For our corporate clients, Labour Day is especially pertinent as it was initiated as an opportunity for workers to campaign for better working conditions and pay. Employee rights have come a long way, and today we use labour day as an excuse to have a long weekend, take a late summer trip, or rest up at home with friends and family – and although the majority of us are incredibly content with our work situation, an extra bit of free time goes a long way! In the name of taking your yoga off your mat and into your life, how can you bring an element of gratitude into this long weekend? Direct your focus towards those gifts you may otherwise take for granted – maybe a coworker who brightens your day, a supportive supervisor, the fact that we no longer have to fight for basic rights in the workplace. And in order to stay mindful rather than letting the weekend speed by in a blur, can you consciously connect to how you choose to use this extra time? As we transition from summer to fall, it is easy to get caught up in how quickly the time has gone, but bring the focus back to your breath and this moment. Smile lots, laugh lots, and enjoy!

….Can be pretty hard to come by. Especially in this expansive season, when the sun calls us out to play and keeps us both moving and awake. Getting to bed on time, and then getting to sleep in bed, are not as easy when the days are long and the weather is warm, but our body, mind and spirit still require that we get adequate rest in order to function properly.

Good sleep is restorative. It releases hormones not produced in our wakeful state that slow down the aging process, support a healthy immune system so you are less likely to get sick, and reverse some effects of chronic stress. Fortunately, there are a few easy changes you can make in your routine to encourage a more productive rest.

- Keep the bedroom sacred: Using the space in which we sleep for other purposes sends mixed signals to the brain. We start to associate the bedroom with work rather than rest, making it really hard for our mind and body to make the transition to sleep mode. Reserve your sleep space, especially your bed, for quiet and peaceful activities that encourage relaxed and restful feelings, so that when you crawl into bed at the end of a long day, your brain also knows its work is done.

-Unplug. As in everything: Make your bedroom dark, turn off all the lights and the T.V., and consider replacing or relocating bright digital clocks. Even look at cell phones, computers, or other electronic devices that are putting off any light and sending out signals. The pineal glad, which produces the sleep hormone melatonin, is incredibly sensitive to light and will stop production if you are exposed to light. If you use the washroom in the middle of the night, try to do so without turning lights on.

-Regulate your schedule: Keeping a regular bedtime and a regular time to wake up will help your body transition to a more natural regulation of sleep/wake cycles. Ideally go to bed at a time you feel tired so that you aren’t tossing and turning, but not so exhausted that you have made yourself overtired. Rather than sleeping late on days off, try an afternoon nap to pay back any sleep debt, but keep it to early or late afternoon so as to not disturb that night’s sleep.

The quality of our waking ours hinges so much on how we sleep at night, so help yourself feel more productive, alert, and energized throughout the day by focusing on rest. You may be amazed at how great you can feel!

Its easy to see and feel the benefits of yoga on the body, strengthening and lengthening muscles, and making everything generally work better. We have some often overlooked and regularly overused muscles that tend to get left out of our yoga practice: the eyes. This becomes particularly important to most of our corporate yoga clients, who may be dealing with poor office lighting or long hours looking at a computer screen. While the idea in a yoga class is generally to keep the eyes soft and refrain from straining, there are in fact yogic exercises that can be done to help maintain and even build better eyesight. And because, who wouldn’t want to learn yoga from Paul McCartney, we’re including this youtube video for you to watch and learn. This would be a great way to spend a few minutes each day, wether you start your day with the eye exercises, or do them throughout your workday. If you spend long hours on the computer, remember to also look off into the distance at least every 15-20 minutes for a minute to give your eyes the chance to refocus. Remember, whether you struggle with vision problems or not, the muscles in our eyes are fragile and important, so ensure you are caring for them appropriately!

To keep things light as it *finally* heats up this summer, we suggest taking a peek at this website’s version of workplace yoga. You may not have experienced any of these poses in your regular corporate yoga classes, but we have always aknowledged that yoga has evolved over the years to fit different contexts. And, although I don’t recommend you actually try it in your office (or at home for that matter), my personal favorite is the Boreal Chickadee Chair position. Just one more indication that there is a form of yoga for every person and every situation!

If you find it hard to make it through your work day with enough energy, there might be a few simple adjustments you can make to bring more wellness to the workplace. To ensure a good balance between work and life, try these small tips:

Get Physical – Exercise not only helps you build muscle, lose weight and gain self-confidence, but it’s vital in maintaining a healthy heart. And, don’t think you need to spend hours at the gym to achieve a new physical you. From strength training and cardio workouts, to walking the dog or taking the stairs – anything that gets your heart pumping will benefit your health. Of course yoga counts as physical activity, and is a great compliment to any exercise program.

LOL, Laugh Out Loud – Build your immune system through laughter! Health-increasing hormones like endorphins are released into your body when you laugh. Additionally, laughter works your abdominal muscles.

Get Plenty of Zzzzzz’s – Between work, family and extra activities, it’s sometimes difficult to get the necessary 6 to 8 hours of sleep per night. Be sure to avoid caffeine or exercise right before bed. Instead, try reading a book or mediating.

The Right to Recreation – You schedule meetings and appointments each week, so why not schedule time for recreation? Be sure to set time each week for activities you enjoy. Whether it’s dinner with family and friends, or taking the phone off the hook and curling up with a good book, be sure to block out time on your calendar with activities that you enjoy and will rejuvenate you.

No matter how many times people ask me if they can lose weight doing yoga, the answer never gets easier. Yes it is a form of physical activity, but certainly not the vigorous cardiovascular training that we would associate with weight loss. Most of the poses are gentle openings that simply ask your body to let go, and the intention is usually to unite body mind and spirit rather than to get a rockin’ bikini bod. However, I feel that any reason that brings people to practice yoga is a good reason, because the myriad other benefits will inevitably creep into their experience, no matter why they initially started.

I recently came across this article that fully reflects my thoughts on loosing weight through yoga. Like the author, my body has also changed as my yoga practice has progressed, and maintaining my new, smaller frame has been relatively effortless. Her article is definitely worth a read to help understand that any weight loss obtained through yoga will be sustained if it comes from a place of balance. She discourages dogmatic or forced ways of eating, and rather encourages people to tune into and trust the subtle cues of their bodies. There is discussion of the importance of cooking, and she talks of cleansing not in a harsh or difficult to follow regime, but instead always ensuring channels of elimination in the body are open so that toxins may freely leave. My personal favorite is her suggestion to first drink water when feeling hungry, because often our physical hunger is in fact an indication of dehydration.

If you’ve asked yourself how your yoga practice can help you lose weight, her article is worth a read. You’ll find it is less about the poses you are doing with your body, and more about the qualities a yoga practice brings into your life. Know that, like most good things in life, changes will be gradual, but eventually they become a part of you and then there is no going back.

As soon as summer hits the city everyone and everything gets frenetic. Its all about do do do, and being social and outside as much as possible. After all, we have so much to cram into the fleeting sunlight that we have. Being around so much energy, though, can make it hard to turn off at the end of the day. Doing a little yoga, especially a slowed-down, supported practice, can ease the transition from the activity of the day to having a restful sleep. Yoga journal has a great sequence of poses here to help you get grounded. Pick a couple, or even go through the whole sequence – and if you don’t have props know that a rolled up blanket works just as well. I love how butterfly lets my thighs gently soften after a day of sitting, and there is nothing like a simple forward fold to slow the breath and quiet the mind. Make sure you don’t deny yourself your Savasana (even take it in bed) – although we might feel more energetic at this time of year, it becomes even more important to create space to slow down and rest so that we have the energy to do it all again the next day!

I really don’t mind eating the same thing two days in a row. Maybe thats because most of what I eat is so delicious I can’t wait to have it again, or maybe its just that convenient. I have recently found a new favorite to add to my repetoire because this fritata (aka quiche without the crust) tastes great hot at supper time and cold at lunch the next day. Her recipe uses zucchini, which are great at this time of year, but you can keep this one fresh with other combinations: spinach and feta, peppers and monterrey jack, asparagus and asiago – even a mixed vegetable or ham and cheese. It is a great way to clean out the last bits in your fridge, and pairs really nicely with soup or a side salad of mixed greens for a lighter meal. Eggs are wonderful, albeit often overlooked, at lunch – they are great source of protein that will help keep your energy up through the afternoon slump. Its fast, easy, varied and delightful. I hope you enjoy as much as I have been!