Hi Everyone, 

How are you? We are awesome and we are looking forward to taking on this new week! We like to look at everyMonday as a sort of mini new beginning, a chance to embark on a whole new week of adventure and exploration.  And that has never been more true than the past few weeks, as Mindfulness Matters founder, Samara has moved to Budapest and is building a whole new life there.  Thus, our theme for this week's #MindfulnessMonday is new beginnings. 

Speaking from our personal experience, new beginnings can be scary and nerve-wracking, but they are also so exciting! For Samara this new beginning has meant having the opportunity to discover a new city and its cafes, markets and outdoor spaces, live in Europe and take weekend trips to neighbouring European countries, live in a new apartment with her love and of course to immerse herself in a whole new yoga community! 

Getting to know a new community of yogis is always positive, but change can also be challenging, just because it's so new and different. Do they like to practice with music? Do they prefer more hands-on instruction? Do they like the sound of my voice!? New beginnings always require a bit of a "getting to know you" period and that's all part of it.  So, we choose to embrace all the facets of these new experiences and take them as they come. 

And, we are very excited to inform you that in Budapest, Samara will be teaching at a new studio at the Israeli Cultural Institute.  All classes are Power Flow Vinyasa and available Monday to Friday.  For the full schedule and address, please see: http://www.mindfulnessmatters.ca/schedule.html 

We hope you begin your week with optimism and enthusiasm. 

​Namaste.

Hi Everyone, 

Good Monday morning and happy #MindfulnessMonday to you all.  How was your weekend? Was it busy? Was it relaxing? Did you get to go for brunch? Did you run around doing a million and one errands that you never have time for during the week? Did you stay in and watch a movie on the couch? Whatever you did, we hope you enjoyed it, and even if you may have not enjoyed it, we hope you are grateful for the time you had to do what you had to do.  So, here is today's theme - gratitude. 

It is often easy to focus on all the things that may be challenging us in our lives and as a result we forget to be grateful for all the positive things we have going on.  When going through stressful times, be it your busy time at work, a family crisis, or just a bad day, it can seem like everything sucks! It is in those moments that we have to step back and take a breath and remind ourselves that yes, while it (insert life-sucking issue) may not as we hoped, we have so much to be grateful for in our lives. 

So, here is a tip that we like to use to keep ourselves from falling down that rabbit hole of "everything sucks": take a step back, take a breath and list 3 things that we are grateful for.  It can be little things like being grateful to have a trusted friend to call to cheer us up, or bigger things like the ability to walk or having a roof over our heads." 

By listing just 3 things that we are grateful for, our perspective shifts and we realize that it's all relative, that the good often outweighs the bad and we will get through it.  So, if you can, practice gratitude for all the positives you have in your life, especially when all you can see is the negative.  

Have a great week, Namaste.

Hi Everyone, 

Happy #MindfulnessMonday! How was your weekend? We hope it was wonderful and that you are ready to take on this week.  There is a line in a song from the play Next to Normal that has always stuck with us because it's a truthbomb.  The line goes, “the price of love is loss, but we still pay, we love anyway.” 

When our lives are full of love, they are also full of loss and loss hurts, it really hurts.  We lose people to death, to growth, to distance, or to change.  But just because loss hurts, doesn’t mean we stop loving.  In fact, it is often in times of loss that we love more because we know how important it is. 

So, today we just want to remind you to keep paying, keep loving even in the face of loss.  Because, well, it’s worth it. 

Have a good week everyone, Namaste.