Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Sustaina-Yoga Adventure and a Trip to Saint John NB

I am a sucker for punishment. Seriously. 

I have a new goal for June. Yep- June 1st, I get a little tweet from Yogaglo asking me what my June challenge will be. Kinda like what happened with the Great Canadian Yoga Stretch, May 1st got an email asking if I'd like to participate. Since I'd already practiced in the park that day I thought 'why not?' (nope, not more planning than that...).

My 'June Yoga Adventure': yoga-hop different studios in the city and get there in a sustainable fashion. No exceptions. Guidelines:
  • At least one studio class a week (maybe two, but my budget might kibosh that).
  • New instructor or style is a must (this will help my yoga-growth)
  • I have to bike, walk or bus there. Carpooling does not count as sustainable.
  • Sustainable yoga also includes 'Yoga in the Park' on the weekends (oh my legs will be STEEL by the end of June!).


I'm hoping this will result in more opportunities to get used to biking to appointments or errand-type activities in the city. It should also help shift this reliance on using my little jelly bean (car). As the oil spill worsens to catastrophic proportions, the time has passed for us to pretend that our gas and oil lifestyles can be balanced by recycling. We need a new way of life.

This week I will be attending a Sivananda level 1 class at the Yoga Loft (Thursday). I'll walk there after work with another fellow yogini. I've never tried Sivananda before and am excited!


With regards to the GCYS challenge, I can proudly announce that I reached my goal with *one* exception... One day of 31 I had to curl up in a little ball as the monthly moon pains were so severe I barely made it through work. Otherwise, every other day was a minimum 30 minute if not 45-60min practice!


Thanks to all your kind support and generous donations we have raised 520$ for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind!!! This is the first time in my life I have ever done something like this, and I am so proud of myself and the giving Karma of my lovely readers. I am touched by your generosity and community. Many Blessings to all of you!


So who's with me on the Sustaina-Yoga Adventure? I know that Rachel, you bike to Yoga every day- any advice for myself and other Sustaina-Yogis? :)

Blessings!

And just for fun, lets all go on a vacation to Saint John, New Brunswick! To set the stage- Saint John is the oldest confederation city in Canada (1700's I think..).
A typical street in Saint John (the street where Andrew and I met four years ago!) Not grid-like, the streets twist and turn up and down hills. Although not an actual island, SJ is right on the Atlantic ocean. Which means that the temperature was 14 degrees celcius that day and a wall of fog surrounded the city... waiting for the sun to set (like The Mist...).


The fog at the end of Princess Street. A bridge was actually in that fog, a few hundred feet away...
Andrew's old apartment building (I lived in the 'carriage house' next door. Yep, it was SKETCHY. Thank goodness for great neighbours!)
A typical street in Saint John. Lots of brick!
My favourite part of New Brunswick- the bilingual stop signs! The only "officially" bilingual province in Canada, I love how all signage is in French and English. 
Can you pick out the imposter?? :)

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

17 comments:

  1. what a beautiful town! another place on my list to visit!

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  2. wow, this sounds like an awesome idea. I'm excited for one of my training projects- a "yoga safari". At least 6 classes of 3 different styles- although I'm going to try and make each class different!!

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  3. Congratulations on completing your May challenge with huge success! I can't wait to follow along on the next one, and it's a great challenge in many ways. Thanks also for sharing the fab photos!

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  4. First of all, I'm excited about your June yoga goals! Makes me want to start exploring - but sadly, I don't know of any free studios around here, and when money is tight, I feel like I can't justify $6 a week (or more) for classes when I could practice at home for free. (Not that it wouldn't be worth it - it would.)

    Anyway, I LOVE Sivananda! It's my favorite. It's so grounding and completely relaxing. I hope you enjoy it. I miss my old Siv. classes in Bend, but since we moved, the studio is 15 miles away. :(

    LOVE the pics of NB. Bilingual signs - too cool! Makes me want to visit Canada more than ever. So pretty.

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  5. Congrats on your May challenge!

    I've been averaging five or six yoga classes a week (gotta love the unlimited pass--the more classes I go to, the cheaper they are) and, this time of year, probably bike to all but one or two of them (though most that I drive to are on the way to or coming back from somewhere I can only get to by car)(also, the beauty of where I live is that I can get from home to yoga classes downtown mostly on bike paths and otherwise all but a block or two in residential neighborhoods). I've never been to a yoga in the park, though there are a bunch of them around here.

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  6. Here's a little yoga sequence for cyclists.

    http://www.suburbanyogini.com/2010/02/10/yoga-for-cyclists/

    The only advice I can give is keep at it. After a couple of weeks it does get easier. I don't even think about getting to yoga (either class or teaching) or indeed anywhere by any means other than bike or feet these days.

    Once you've done a month, you'll not look back! :)

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  7. A slight correction: New Brunswick is the only constitutionally bilingual province in Canada. There are other provinces that do have a mixture of French and English speaking populations.

    I spent a lot of time in Saint John when I was a child. My great- aunt and uncle lived on Orange Street, and I spent many hours roaming the streets of that city. I remember a lot of things - the sound of the foghorn out in the harbour, the sight (and feel) of the fog rolling in (you could literally see it rolling up the street towards you), the smell of dulse at the Saint John market, the sunlight reflecting off the sugar factory (was it Crosby's?) that looked like the factory was on fire. One time a chimney sweep got stuck in the chimney at MacAvity's and had to be rescued by helicopter - half the city was out to witness this event....and also the Saint John hospital that my great-uncle always referred to as "the sore thumb" because of it's shape.

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  8. awesome for May's challenge and well wishes for June's!!

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  9. Wow, your diligence is really inspiring!

    BTW, have you tried red raspberry leaf tea for the monthly crampy situation? It's not a cure but it does take the edge off, especially if you have a nice warm rice/wheat bag on the tummy. You can get a huge bag of the looseleaf stuff for a fairly reasonable price at health food stores, or even collect your own if you're near any wild raspberry patches.

    Happy June!

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  10. Congratulations on meeting your goal, you are an inspiration!

    I hope this link works, it's a 25 minute video of yoga for your cycle, it's really soothing and helps with cramping and lack of energy. If the link doesn't work go to You Tube and search for "yoga today yoga for your cycle" it should be right at the top.
    http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=yoga+today+yoga+for+your+cycle&aq=f

    Namaste~

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  11. Love all the Saint John's pictures--so neat to see a new part of the continent! And you're newest June venture sounds great--will get ya movin in a different way... Looking forward to hearing how it goes!

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  12. have fun at your sivananda class today - that's actually where i did my original teacher training - well not in ns but with sivananda.

    it's a great traditional foundation and with the right teacher (i.e. not too rigid or pushy or inexperienced) it's a lovely soothing yet strong blend of everything - a little pranayama, a little chanting, a little vinyasa and a little specific posture work.

    despite my yogic path flowing in a whole different direction since my ashram days, i love that i can go anywhere in the world and walk into a sivananda class or satsang and feel like i've come home...

    like how home feels when you've grown up and moved out... you can't live there anymore for all kinds of very good reasons but it's still all warm and cosy... deeply soothing for the soul and grounding for the scattered little dragonfly mind :)

    very impressed with the cycling thing too! one day i will conquer my fear of pothole filled roads, manic drivers and sweltering humidity to ride more regularly. if you think winter is a deterrent, blazing hot sun is not really that much fun either... halifax summer is perfect though even if halifax hills might take some adjustment. good luck!

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  13. I'm in SJ as I type, for a visit. I love it more every time we're here!

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  14. out of curiosity-- why does carpooling not count?

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  15. Congratulations on your May challenge! Inspiring! And June sounds wonderful too! I've never done Sivananda. What was it like?

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  16. Normally I would not comment on the "extra" part of a post, but I love how in Canada, the stop signs say "Arret" and "Stop," while the Stop signs in France say Stop. I think it is one of my favorite quirks about Canada, and like you, I love the multilingual signs. Thanks for posting that and all your lovely adventures!

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  17. @Rebecca; haha yep France can be quite a bit more liberal with the 'cool' usage of English terms. I would have to say, though, that only New Brunswick (province) has the bilingual signage everywhere, the province of Québec (being unilingual French) only has 'Arrêt' and the rest of the provinces have 'stop'... :)

    I also love how in France it's alright to say 'le parking' and 'le shopping' instead of 'stationnement' or 'magasiner'

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