Emilie B Yoga & Fitness

I haven’t posted in a very long time.

But I came on to say please stop blaming individual people for their deaths and disabilities. I am seeing some of the most horrendous, fat phobic, ableist and racist sh*t coming out of some yoga teacher and wellness professionals mouths as a response to vaccines and COVID-19 in general.

I could not say everything I need to say in 10 slides. I didn’t even get into the fact that there’s a massive link between the wellness industry and QAnon.

I could write a book on the issue with healthism in our industry but I will settle on this for now and maybe an article in a few days.

Emilie B Yoga & Fitness updated their business hours.

| CLASS SCHEDULE |
First two weeks of classes through Emilie B Yoga are FREE via Instagram LIVE, then classes start via Zoom on October 5th!

—> swipe to see my whole class schedule for the Fall, including all the places where you can catch me all week!

You can register for the classes by sending me a DM :)

***ryoga ***rsandmisfits

| Full-Expression of the Pose |

There is no such thing as the full-expression of a yoga pose. There is only YOUR full-expression of your yoga pose on any given moment in time.

There is no such thing as “proper alignment.” Only alignment that is safe, sustainable and appropriate for you depending on your energy, boundaries, and ability in the exact moment you’re in.

There is no such thing as “yoga for weight loss.” Yoga is a deep spiritual practice - weight loss has nothing to do with it.

There is no such thing as the “advanced version” of a pose. There are no hierarchies to poses.

This image represents my Half-Moon Pose, on this day in time. I will never practice that pose in the same way again, because my body, my mind, my energy, and my intention changes everyday.

Using props doesn’t make a pose “the beginner version.”
Taking variations doesn’t make a pose “not the full expression.”
Adapting, changing, reviewing, modifying, varying our physical yoga practice doesn’t make it any less valid, relevant, advanced or important.
Our body is the least relevant part of our yoga practice, once we can understand that, we can leave the ego at the door and move deeper into a practice that was never about the physical body to begin with.

THANK A RIOT !
New Article —> Link in bio

| FORGOTTEN MUSCLES |

In our typical physical yoga practice, we barely utilize the posterior chain; especially the latissimus dorsi + the hamstrings. But we can’t ignore these muscles as they are a key component in core stability, so incorporating various movements to help build strength into these all-too-often forgotten muscles is important!

This week, we are wrapping up our three-part series on Core Strength + Stability.

We’ll explore the accessory muscles of the core - such as the glutes, adductors, lats, hamstrings + hip flexors!

Ask your questions below!
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New video will be out this weekend !!

Part 2 of our 3 part series on Core Stability ! Today we're exploring the movements of the trunk and exercises you can do to strengthen, stabilize and increase mobility within those movements !

Check it out below + then don't forget to hit subscribe !

How-To: Core Stability | Part Two: Movements of the Trunk In this week's How-To, we'll be looking at Part 2 of 3 of our Core Stability Series. Today, we're looking at how the spine moves, the muscles that support th...

| NON-ATTACHMENT |

Did you know that billionaires have increased their total net worth by $637,000,000,000 during the pandemic so far?
Jeff Bezos (the CEO of Amazon) alone increased his wealth by $48,000,000,000.
(I like to write all the zeros instead of “billion” so one can see the money that that actually is.)

The fifth Yama, Aparigraha, translates to mean “non-attachment,” “non-hoarding,” “non-grasping.”

In the obvious ways this means letting go of what no longer serves you or that which is excess or that which you do not need.

In more nuanced ways, Aparigraha (as it is a Yama; therefore a way we exist with the world not just with ourselves), means advocating for policies that allows for equal distribution of wealth + resources.

Increasing taxes for billionaires, implementing salary caps, and advocating for the sharing of resources.

Non-hoarding can also be in reference to space, energy + time. How much space do you take up? How do you use that space? If you hold privilege (we all hold different privileges), how do you use that privilege to advocate for those without?

What about attachment to grudges? How can you practice forgiveness? Taking that further, how can we practice reformative justice?

All of these + more are part of Aparigraha. How do you practice this Yama in your life?

| LET IT GO 🎶 |

Instead of a YouTube video this month, I’m releasing a new “Letting Go” meditation - available only to mailing list subscribers and people who subscribe in the next 24 hours!

If you’re not already on my mailing list, head over to my website and sign up.

This meditation has reflective questions to allow us to not just discard emotions but check in, take stock of our emotions and then work towards letting go of those that no longer serve us. This is part of the work of processing our experiences + the memories that come with them. Anger is important, but holding on to anger without processing it leads to deep-rooted resentment. Happy memories are important, but holding on to them too tightly could lead us out of the present moment and find us longing for the past.

Let’s process + breathe + then let go of those that we need to let go of.

Head to my website to get put on my mailing list + you’ll receive the meditation along with other fun things in my September newsletter going out Friday! Countdown starts now ⏰!

Photo by 📸: .halloul

| 4 YOGA POSTURES TO HELP COPE WITH ANXIETY |

Will doing these 4 yoga postures stop your anxiety? Maybe. Probably not. But what they will do is give you the time and space to absorb your emotions, reflect on them, feel them, comfort them and then work towards stilling the thoughts attached to them momentarily so you may leave this yoga practice feeling more in control of your anxiety.

Read the full article for reflective thought exercises to practice while in each posture as well as how to safely get in and out of the postures.

1. Reclined Supportive Twist: "Let this posture be a chance for you to tune into sensation along the spine. Let this posture be a chance to reflect on what is going on emotionally and mentally today."

2. Supported Fish Pose: "Allow your body to just feel what it is that you are feeling - the good, the bad and the ugly. Forget the story of how or why you feel that way, allow yourself to be vulnerable and just feel."

3. Supported Cross-Legged Forward Fold: "After bringing everything to the surface, take this posture as a chance to take care of yourself. Let this posture be your chance to remind yourself that you’re going to get through this, that you are loved, that this is hard but you will survive, that you are strong."

4. Legs up the Wall: "Now that you have processed your emotions, felt your emotions, and comforted your emotions. Let this posture be your chance to work towards quieting the mind. This is the hardest work of all. Anxiety often means that our minds never want to shut up, we’re so busy looking at what we’ve done, what we have to do, processing everything, overanalyzing everything, etc. But now that you’ve adequately given yourself the space + time to do that processing and feeling in a (somewhat) controlled environment, now is your chance to work towards emptying the mind."

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Check out the link in my bio for the full article!

What postures do you practice to help you soothe you on your most anxious days? Sometimes my favorite yoga pose for anxiety is "Sit with my head between my knees and cry Pose." What's yours?

@ Pointe-Claire, Quebec

| STABILITY IN MOVEMENT |

One of my favorite things to talk about is the spine + torso (so much so, that I actually have a tattoo of the skeleton of the spine, pelvis and rib cage on my thigh). They are the hub and centre of our bodies. The spine houses our spinal cord - the highway of our Nervous System sending messages in and out, that in short, allows our body to function, feel, breathe and exist.

When we talk about core-stability, we’re talking about setting ourselves up in a way to keep the spine safe, keep the torso safe, so that our bodies can continue to do all the work for us that is does without pain, injury or too much discomfort, while simultaneously allowing us to move better, breathe better and feel better.

For this week’s how-to video, we’ll be exploring the movements of the spine (flexion, or forward folding; extension, or back-bending; lateral flexion, or side-bending; and rotation, or twists) and how the core supports those movements. We’ll take a look at 4 different exercises to strengthen the spine within those movements.

Send me your questions + I’ll try to answer them in the video on Friday!

| WARRIOR-KINDNESS |
[Full Length Yoga Sequence —> link in bio!]

Yoga on the mat: In this week’s practice, we’ll be exploring the strength that our Warrior poses give us + approaching them with kindness for ourselves. Finding both strength in our postures but softness + emotional/physical check-ins.

Yoga off the mat: As we build fierceness, strength + resilience, we must check-in, be kind to ourselves + be kind to those in our community. In this context, kindness (ahimsa) is more than just “being nice.” It’s using our strength to stand up in the face of injustice + demanding change - using our power for goodness.

In the words of Uncle Ben, “With great power comes great responsibility.”
(Thanks Spider-Man for this epic quote!)

📸 Photo: .halloul

| RECONNECTION |
New Post: Thoughts on Yoga, Sobriety + Activism

Today I’ve been sober 3 years, 10 months and 14 days. I have managed to maintain my sobriety for two main reasons. The first reason being the supportive people in my life and the second being that no matter how much sobriety sucks, it will never suck more than the feeling of being totally disconnected to my body and mind.

Gabor Maté writes in his book, In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts;
“At the vote of every addiction is an emptiness based in abject fear. The addict dreads and abhors the present moment; she bends feverishly only toward the next time, the moment when her brain, infused with her drug of choice, will briefly experience itself as liberated from the burden of the past and the fear of the future - the two elements that make the present intolerable.”

In yoga, we learn to recognize disconnection and work towards connection. Work towards connecting to our body and mind and work towards connecting and then surrendering to the universe as a whole. But if you experience depression, shame, guilt, trauma, anxiety, fear, hurt, or pain, connection to the now is at Maté puts it, “intolerable.”

[Read my whole post about my thoughts around yoga, sobriety + activism by going to the link in my bio.]

| STABILITY |

Stability is a tricky concept in a pandemic. It feels like 2020 sort of crumbled underneath all of us and what stability we may have felt we had has become a new stability. What is stability in times of COVID? I think for many of us, both our financial + emotional stability in the past few months has drastically changed and we’ve had to navigate new forms of stability.

Much like emotionally + financially, stability in terms of the physical is a way to stay safe.

This Friday’s How-To, we’ll talk about finding core stability as a foundation for the rest of our yoga postures and how core stability can prevent injury + create more ease in the rest of the body + allow you to reconnect further to the breath.
We’ll explore the different movements of the spine, and look at ways in which we can build strength.

How has your stability been affected? What ways do you find stability?

📸: .halloul

| Anxiety + Mindfulness Tips from a Highly-Anxious Yoga Teacher |

—> NEW POST : Link in bio

| Breath + Movement |

In yoga flow classes we often see a transitional flow called a Vinyasa - while the Sanskrit term translates to mean “to place in a specific way” - this term is often referred to as the repetitious linking of BREATH and MOVEMENT. The most common vinyasa is a flow/connection of three postures: Exhaling into Four-Limbed Staff Pose, Inhaling into Upward-Facing Dog + Exhaling into Downward-Facing Dog. But there are many more variations of it! And while it can be an invigorating practice, continuous repetition of this sequence without being mindful of the shoulder joint + the lumbar spine could lead to injury. Not to mention it requires a whole lot of upper body strength + mobility that may not be suitable for all bodies.

Next Friday’s How-To, we’ll be exploring the pose featured in this photo; Chaturanga-Dandasana (Four-Limbed Staff Pose); as well as Urdhva Mukha Svanasana + the whole vinyasa sequence.

Additionally, because this sequence isn’t always available to a lot of bodies (and even less so if it requires continuously repeating it throughout a 90-minute long yoga class!), we’ll explore different alternatives + variations of the traditional vinyasa so you can mix it up + find what feels the most safe, sustainable + accessible for YOUR body. Our yoga practice is not one-size-fits-all! We’ll see ways to practice this flow on a chair, using blocks, creating more space for the belly, supporting the shoulders + more.

Do you have questions around vinyasas? Leave your questions in the comments below + I’ll try to answer them in Friday’s video !

| SATYA |

The second Yama in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras is SATYA - meaning truthfulness, honesty and trust.

But truth is not always straight-forward. While we can apply Satya to mean always telling the truth - sometimes the truth can be harmful.
Utilizing critical thinking, checking in with our boundaries and always starting with the intention to not cause harm allows us to make more informed decisions around truth.

Building trust within our communities is an integral part of satya. Not using truth as a manipulation tactic. Not using truth as a way to shame or harm someone. Not using truth as a way to out someone. But rather using honesty to communicate our boundaries, using honesty to confront our own prejudices and fears, using honesty to call members of our community into meaningful discussions around the harm their behaviour causes, establishing trust with q***r and trans people by not outing them without their consent, creating trust when asking for consent and then respecting it.

When we put minimizing overall community + societal harm as the basis for when we implement satya, we can build a lasting + healthy community experience that works to be safer for everyone.

How do you implement satya into your yoga communities and activism?

| Building into CROW |

Crow Pose was the first arm balance I learned. It was such an exhilarating feeling the first time I held it.

While our yoga practice is about way more than our yoga postures, the physical practice of yoga can challenge ourselves to play with our boundaries (in a safe setting) and allow us to grow into + explore new experiences.

I always emphasize COMFORT + FEELING GOOD in our physical yoga practice because I think we are, too often than not, influenced by toxic fitness + diet culture and capitalist ideas of success that we are frequently pushing our physical bodies to an unsafe limit for the sake of changing our bodies to fit into thin, patriarchal, white supremacist ideas of beauty + fitness...

BUT, I do believe that occasionally testing our emotional + mental boundaries through the physical practice can be important for our growth ! This process always requires constant checking-in + energy management (Brahmacharya), kindness (ahimsa) and being truthful (satya) to ourselves about our limits + boundaries.

So if you’d like to jump into a physical challenge this week...

Build upper body strength, increase lower body mobility and have fun in this week’s YouTube full-length sequence! This funky, challenging 50-minute flow is designed to build you into Crow Pose. We’ll explore three different variations on Crow Pose so you can find one that works best for your body !

What parts of your PHYSICAL yoga practice influence your yoga off your mat?

—> link in bio

| The first pride was a riot |

[NEW POST: 9 Ways to Make Your Yoga Spaces Accessible to Q***r + Trans Folks]

Pride Week in Montreal starts today... 🏳️‍🌈

Q***r + trans right have come very far in the past decade and I am grateful for the work of past generations. It is because of that work that coming out as q***r when I was 20 years old was difficult, but I knew it would not be a threat to my health and safety to do so. This is a luxury that not all q***r and trans people are afforded. With hate crimes against LGBTQ people on the rise again over the past three years, waving a pride flag and saying, “Love is love,” is nice, but it is not nearly enough.

Read my whole article —> link in bio

***ryoga

| DOWNWARD DOG + growing up |

Today is my 27th birthday. I have officially been practicing yoga for more than half of my life... 🌈

And despite having come into this pose (Adho Mukha Śvānāsana - Downward-Facing Dog) more times than I can count, I have never and will never master it.

Downward Dog is a continuous reminder in humility (well, all yoga postures are). Every time I move into this posture, I feel something different, I breathe differently, I exist differently. Yoga postures are fluid, ever-changing - what feels good one day, may feel terrible the next. Yoga keeps me humble. Reminding me that no matter how much I learn, and how much I practice, and how much I grow, I will never be done. I will always be learning, practicing and growing. The process is never done - and much like my life, while I am one year older today, what I have learned so far in my life is nothing compared to what I will have learned tomorrow, and the next day.

Yoga is a lesson in practice, a lesson in change and a lesson in growing.

So here’s a secret. If you think you have mastered a yoga pose, think again. Yoga postures cannot be mastered, just as life cannot be mastered. In any moment, things are changing, and all we can do is be humble, adapt, continue growing and continue changing.

At least that’s what I’ve learnt. But, hey, what do I know? I’ve only been here for 27 years. 🤷

[PS. This week’s how-to is on Downward-Facing Dog. Ask your questions below —> and I’ll cover them in Friday’s video. Remember that every How-To I create is based on my own understanding of this posture (continuous adaptations in mind) and is not the be-all-end-all of knowledge on this pose. As always, I encourage you to find what works best for you + your body.]