michelle girouard

Things to keep in mind as you prepare:

- 3 cushions and a thick, rolled up blanket (or bolster) for props
- one cushion under your head, one under each knee
- intended to feel totally supported and cozy
- rest in this posture for 10 to 15 minutes
- dress in a cozy way, keeping warm with an extra blanket
- you can use or ignore the strap around your legs
- rest in a warm and quiet space

Special Notes:
When settling in, be sure to snuggle your hips comfortably on the ground. If, when you lie back over your bolster (rolled blanket) the curve in your low spine feels painful, simply scoot your hips inch by inch away from the bolster until the pain is gone. You might also want a little cushion to prop your head so that it is lifted slightly higher than your heart. Give yourself as much coziness as you need, making little adjustments (more or less cushioning) until you can really let down and relax. Remember to set up with a blanket for coverage so you don’t get a chill and consider enjoying soothing music as you rest. *Discontinue practicing it if you feel any pain.

Benefits:
- great for releasing the hips, low spine,
- supports freedom in the neck and jaw tension
- balancing hormones, easing menstrual pain and irregularities
- opens the heart center
- offers deep relaxation
- soothing before bedtime or useful in place of a nap during the day

Enjoy!
Namaste.

Your voice is the gateway between your inner life and your outer world, a channel that reveals who you are to everyone around you. Vocal coaching can help people of all ages and experience open up to their unique, powerful and natural voice. Vocal coaching seeks to make room for the natural voice to be revealled. Through breath work, sounding work and visualization work, vocal blocks can shift and clear while confidence is boosted.

Other benefits of vocal coaching:

- confidence when singing or speaking publically
- sustainability for the professional voice user
- easing vocal tiredness and tenderness
- personal empowerment through clear and grounded communication

Vocal coaching sessions are:
- uniquely structured coaching to meet each students needs
- one hour in length
- booked in bundles or one class at a time
- 45$ – 85$ per hour, sliding scale

Please contact:
michelle.girouard@gmail.com
613 888 6672
for more information or to
schedule a session

A one on one restorative yoga practice coupled with reiki (energy balancing) designed to cool, calm and renew the nervous system. Guided visualization, meditation and breath work are also applied to the practice as needed.

Love, Community and Listening

Resting in the light of this day, with the renewed warmth
of the sun on my cheeks. I am full and whole, Equinox
well-coming.

Awakening to the renewal of Spring: this season calls
each of our hearts into an opening, an opening, to upward
and to outward, into new and creative relationships, into an
active place within our communities, into an awareness of
our greater path upon this Earth.

Held within this time of change, our greater global community
calls for our embrace, our coming into our own, our emergence -
as our hearts burst with new blossoms, we must cultivate,
observe and listen to the secret wisdom inherent in each of
one: what is my calling, what is my purpose, what is my work,
where am I needed, how can I be of service?

Open and attune your listening to the quiet callings within your
own heart as fire and desire bursts forth from your eyes, when
you walk holding beauty in your gaze. Learn to nourish and nurture
yourself in sustainable ways this season, so that you might grow up,
up and out, wild like the red Japanese Maple, giving and mirroring
every relationship your cultivate, every community you grace and
every meditation that calls you to your greater knowings and greater
path.

May your daily practice be one of awakening. May your commitment
be to your awakening, and the awakening of our global community.
May you remember who you are with fierce honesty and pure intent.

All metta and blessings for the creations and journeys to come.

Namaste,

Michelle.

Welcome to the darkest season of the year, where the gleam of light within has the deepest opportunity to be witnessed, recognized, nurtured and revealed in all of it’s strength and power. The Winter months carve a nest into every heart, where the seeds of Spring will soon take root, glow and make moves to blossom.

The way of Winter is the way of the Warrior: the way of quiet and aligned power. Wherever you cultivate standing presence, listening communication, balanced discipline, loving responsibility, right action and clear boundaries, you lay a foundation for Wintertime in body, mind and heart.

Winter Yogic Events:
Invite yourself on a gentle journey to your inner power by exploring and 8 week Winter-Yin Yoga Series beginning on January 20th; stoke your inner fires with a weekly Vinyasa class, Vidvaya Zikhara, living your yoga practice while pulsing to live music beginning later in January. 2011; relax into blissful peace with a solo Yogic Touch Treatment, consisting of restorative yogic postures and energetic balancing (Reiki) in my private studio, downtown Kingston.

Welcome to the sweet and empowering possibilities of this darker time, welcome to the glow of your inner heart.

Follow it.

Metta,
Michelle -
michelle.girouard@gmail.com

Hello everyone,

As the season turns toward Autumn, there is a gentle drawing inward of light as the days shorten and the cool weather returns. The wisdom of Karma in this time of change and dimming light is a wisdom of trust, detachment and silence, calling on sitting meditations that will ground, center and calm the winds of change that scatter Fall seeds – calling on a trust that everything will fall into it’s perfect place in it’s own time. It is the way of right timing, right action and sitting wisdom.

Fall courses and events:
There will be a Fall pre-registered, gentle yoga course at Samatva Yoga beginning on Thursday, September 30th and running for 6 weeks. The course will explore and honor these Fall themes through a gentle and restorative practice that will be supported by soft, live chants to soothe and calm. Please visit Samatva Yoga’s website for more information: www.yogasamatva.com.

A monthly Kirtan will also be returning to dowtown Kingston on the third Tuesday evening of each month at Samatva Yoga, 8:30pm on a donation basis. The first Kirtan of the season will be held on September 21st.

There are still spots available for private yoga instruction to renew, restore, balance and release the stresses of the past season with a gentle yogic approach to movement, breath, visualization and meditation, coupled with conscious touch/reiki to support the process. These one-on-one sessions run for 75min and cost 60$.

The mantra for this month: I am open to all outcomes without being attached to outcome. I trust in the wisdom of allowance and stillness.

Namaste,

Michelle -

The Spring will reveal a whole series of new teachings and yogic initiatives here in Kingston.  Yoga Samatva downtown and Life Yoga on Gore Rd will be my new teaching homes where I will have the honor of teaching everything from gentle and yin oriented classes to creative hatha/flow classes to hot power/vinyasa classes. I’ve also enjoyed a Spring launch of weekly Yoga Dance classes at Path Yoga and a monthly Kirtan series that will see the growth of a new yogic/music community in Kingston.

A CD of gentle chants is in the works and scheduled for release in October 2010 with proceeds from the sales going to support a fundraising initiative that I’ll be partaking in 2011, The Seva Challenge: 2011/12. To learn more www.offthematintotheworld.org.

I hope this new season is sweeping in a wonder of possibilities and sparkly new things for you and your heart,

Metta,

Michelle -

April 2010 in Kingston…

Stay tuned for the announcement of a weekly Yoga Dance class at Path Yoga in Kingston, ON and a Spring Kirtan event after Easter…let the Spring awaken you!

Namaste,

Michelle -