Loving Yourself Can Change Your World...

A few weeks ago I got my braces off!! Finally! Man what a long road that was. It was only supposed to be 18-24 months but it ended up being 34 months.

All of that was totally worth it to have the smile I have now! I couldn't imagine how wonderful the results would be.

The braces never really bothered me. I still smiled and laughed with my usual grin. I always felt self conscious about having food in my teeth or having bad breath though. On a hygiene level they bothered my but in a confidence level; I seemed to have always felt fine. I made jokes that I looked like a dork but in reality I knew I was doing something great for my teeth and my smile. My smile will last me my life and is what invites people towards you.

Something I have noticed since I have had them taken off is a sense of confidence in my ability to smile whenever I wanted too. I feel more myself, more open. I don't have to worry about smiling anymore and having food in my teeth. I feel more comfortable in my own skin. For the last 2 years, I have been noticing myself receding a little bit and going into a shell in front of people I don't know that well and even people I do know. I didn't think the braces bothered me but maybe they did? Or maybe I was just always worried about offending people with food in my teeth? I felt people pulling back from me as I pulled back from them. I always had to worry about something with my smile so I felt like I couldn't open up and be the real me.

Welcome to the Journey...

"The Journey" seems to be all that my friend Rachel and I talk about lately...

Namaste to everyone's own path...may we all meet on our individual journey's.

Dirt is My Life...

I saw this on my way home from work last night and it just made me smile.  Another man's trash is another man's treasure! Love it!

Namaste xo.

The beauty...and humour of everyday life...

If you have been living under a rock for the past 72 hours you may not have noticed that Southern Ontario received a whopper of a snowstorm on Friday Feb 8th. Snowmegedon hit Toronto; a 'cowboy storm' coined by some of the weather nerds out there on local news stations!

I got the pleasure of an actual snow day.  No work! Even my workaholic boss didn't try to make the venture into work! That truly means it was a real snow storm.  Chris wasn't home so Aston and I

Connecting with a Friend...

What fun last Thursday's yoga training class was.  We got to bring a friend to class! The qualifications were that they had to have no yoga experience or were just starting on their yoga journey. Most of my friends, that would be free for the evening, are yogi's or have a good knowledge of yoga already. My  friend Wendy is just starting out on her yoga journey (which I am so proud of!!!) so I decided to pick her. Also, we haven't seen each other in ages so it was really great to see her again and reconnect!  It has almost been three years but it was like we picked up where we left off. I was a little nervous as it has been so long and it was like "Hey, hi, how are you? Good. Now let me stare at area's your body and physically touch you to manipulate you in awkward yoga poses"  It wasn't like that at all though, we just got back to our usual giggly, silly selves. You could say we had a hard time concentrating as we were having so much fun giggling with each other. All the wonderful

Observing: Part Two...

On Tuesday, I got to join Suzie at her community center class. I was really eager to watch Suzie teach. She is also an inspiration to me. As she used to dance, when she teaches Power Yoga classes, you feel like you are dancing! I can see her dance background in her classes. Her poses are SO well connected together you just feel like you are swaying through all these beautiful movements. I miss her classes but I can't afford two memberships right now.

Community center yoga is definitely a different scene than any studio or gym I have been too. The variety of students is great to watch as there are so many levels. I think it would be harder to teach as you have to gear your practice to be challenging to the experienced yogis and then make sure it’s not too advanced for the beginners that they feel left behind. Something Suzie did, which was great, was

Dreaming of Thailand....

Although Chris and I planned on watching Superbowl last night, we ended up booking our trip to Thailand instead.  We leave November 13th!! We are planning on going to Chiang Mai, Bangkok,