Category: Blog

Ditch New Year’s Resolutions and Join the “Become Your Own Rescuer” Challenge

I often get asked if January is my busiest time at Urbanfitt and gladly answer, NO. New Year’s Resolutions often feed the cycle of shame that is core to addictive or compulsive behaviours. In fact, periods of deprivation or hyper controlled behaviours fuel (and unconsciously justify) periods of compulsive/addictive cycles. Instead of a New Year’s Resolution, resolve to know your heart and soul better and put your self-care at the top of your to do list in 2016 in my: Small daily practices can change your mind, body and soul in a much more holistic and lasting way. Follow me on Instagram now to join the challenge. There’s a big prize at the end (apart from feeling more empowered and embodied)! Instead of waiting for something to happen to make our lives better or for someone to do something for us we could have been doing for ourselves, we become our…

ELDOA and myofascial stretching – a new way to heal back pain

Years ago, I had a trainer come working for me who introduced me to ELDOA (Longitudinal Osteoarticular Decoaptation Stretches, is taken from the French Etirements Longitudinaux avec Decoaptation Osteo-Articulaire). He offered an ELDOA workshop at Urbanfitt years ago. Since then, I’ve been including myofascial stretching in my training and added to my knowledge of myofascial stretching in the Fascial Stretch Therapy I became certified in. Then the next time I heard about ELDOA again was last week when a trainer I share space with had learned some stretches from his Osteopath. Then I also heard about an ELDOA class a friend signed up for at Sphinx Pilates on College Street offered by a very skilled instructor, Petra. I thought it was time to write a bit about it since it seems to be taking off as a new more mainstream trend in back health. ELDOA was developed by a french…

Eustress vs. distress – stress isn’t the enemy

I find it sort of funny when I hear about stress reduction programs and approaches out there that are focused on reducing stress in our lives.  It’s sort of impossible to get rid of stress or even reduce the potential for outside events to bring stress into our lives.  We just don’t have control over so much.  The only thing we have control over is our reactions to stressful events. So instead of thinking of stress reduction and vilifying this big ubiquitous thing we call stress we can shift our paradigm to a stress reactivity approach.  We can sort of try to make friends with stress, invite it into our consciousness, listen to what it’s telling us about ourselves and our struggles and then work on building the internal and external muscles that allow us to react to stress in a more adaptive way instead of maladapative.  This approach has…

The Body Braid, Somatic Healing and Body Armoring

I’ve been exploring the potential benefits of the Body Braid soon after I first tried it on during Tensegrity Touch and Movement Therapy training with Diane Bruni at 80 Gladstone over a year ago. What is the Body Braid? The Body Braid is a soft, elastic body wrap that traces over the fascial spiral lines and provides gentle cues to help you move in healthy ways. Invented by a Canadian doctor who wanted to help people feel better in their bodies, Body Braid provides support where you need it and freedom of movement everywhere else. Some use Body Braid to enhance body awareness during yoga and movement practices. (taken from Anatomy Trains) I’ve been using the Body Braid at Urbanfitt for movement and for the somatic healing work I do with the many clients I see who are interested in going in through the body as a way to heal past…

Why sitting makes us more anxious

It is true.  Sitting for long periods of the day makes people more anxious.  Sort of a no brainer.  Some people might tie it into simple things like over work, under exercise or stress from work etc etc.  But there’s something much more specific going on that ties into the nervous system regulation and trauma research I’ve been gobbling up. Recent research has yet again confirmed what we all know to be true. “With the growing number of people spending long periods of their day on computers, in front of the TV and on their smartphones, it’s important that we determine whether sitting time does, in fact, lead to increased risk of anxiety,” Teychenne said. The review, published online June 19 in the journal BMC Public Health, looked at nine international studies. Some focused on adults, some on children; some assessed people for full-blown clinical anxiety, while others asked people how…