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Creating a Sensory Friendly Home Yoga Environment

🧘‍♀️ How to Create a Sensory-Friendly Home Yoga Environment for Brain and Nervous System Health by Branches Teacher Alissa Firth-Eagland

Follow-up to Alissa’s post “Yoga for Your Brain” published on The Branches Blog October 2023.

For folks who may want to manage their symptoms by not reading on a screen but instead watching or listening to a video, click here for a 3 minute video version of this blog: Create a Sensory-Friendly Home Yoga Space | Brain + Nervous System Support

Whether you’re managing post-concussion symptoms, nervous system dysregulation, chronic pain, or everyday sensory overload, your home yoga space can be more than just a corner of the room—it can be a healing refuge.

In Yoga for Your Brain, we explored how yoga supports your brain’s plasticity and recovery. Today, let’s bring that insight home—literally. We’ll look at how to create a sensory-friendly home yoga environment that gently supports your body and brain.

🌿 Why Sensory-Friendly Matters at Home

Many people recovering from brain injuries or living with heightened stress are especially sensitive to sensory input: harsh lights, background noise, tight clothing, or cluttered spaces can be overwhelming.

In yoga, there can be many goals, including going outside your comfort zone and challenging yourself physically and mentally. This is not that type of practice. Think as cozy as possible! Aim to create conditions that calm you. A sensory-friendly environment helps regulate your nervous system, making it easier to breathe deeply, move mindfully, and truly rest.

🏡 Step-by-Step: Building a Home Practice Space That Soothes

You don’t need a dedicated yoga room. Just a little intention can transform any space into a supportive sanctuary.

✨ 1. Light: Soft and Dim

Choose a space with natural light, or use a soft, warm lamp (think salt lamp or dimmable bulb).
Avoid harsh overhead lighting and flickering bulbs. Personally I prefer incandescent bulbs to the newer styles because they seem to vibrate less to my eyes. Some concussion people find it hard to look at candlelight.
Try practicing with an eye mask or soft eye pillow during rest poses.

🔉 2. Sound: Gentle and Controlled

Reduce background noise with a white noise machine or fan.
You might enjoy practicing with no music, letting your breath be your rhythm.
If participating in a virtual class, pick instructors with instructions so clear, you can choose not to watch the video and only listen.

🧘 3. Touch: Comfort is Key

Wear soft, breathable, non-restrictive clothing. Bonus points if you wear PJs so you can roll into bed after practice!
Practice on a thick mat. Layer it with a blanket or towel for extra cushion.
Gather your props: bolsters, blocks, blankets, straps, or pillows can make poses more comfortable—especially restorative ones.

🧺 4. Declutter: Clear the Visual Field

A visually busy room can be overstimulating. Tidy the space before practice if possible. I learned this from my yoga teacher: taking the time to prepare and clean the space gets you in the right frame of mind for practice. It is a form of saucha. For me, sweeping and wiping down the floor before I place my mat is a fave ritual to get ready for yoga.
You don’t need perfection—just a calm corner with a bit of order. Sometimes it is better to practice amongst the dust bunnies than not at all.
A folded blanket, plant, or treasured object can signal “this is a space for care.”

🌀 Tips for Practicing at Home with Sensory Awareness

Slow it down. Reduce the pace and number of poses. The slower you move, the more time your brain has to process. Take the time to experience the shape or movement.
Avoid fast vinyasa styles that can spike blood pressure or cause disorientation.
Repeat familiar movements. Routine can reduce cognitive load and boost comfort.
When you are extra tired, use grounding poses like Child’s, Legs on the Chair, or Constructive Rest Pose (CRP). Liz Koch has a beautifully gentle spine practice in CRP you can do with or without a core ball.
Anchor to your breath by inhaling and exhaling through your nose. This sends the message to your brain that there is no immediate threat. Even a short breath practice can help calm your nervous system.

💻 Setting Up for Online Yoga Without the Overwhelm

If you’re using Branches On Demand or another virtual platform, here’s how to make your screen time supportive:

Lower screen brightness and sound to a comfortable level.
Headphones or external speakers might sound better than built-in laptop speakers, depending on your sound sensitivity.
Choose videos with slow pacing, fewer transitions, and simpler production.
Avoid rapidly changing visuals.

🌱 Practice That Feels Like a Gift, Not a Task

Your home practice doesn’t need to be fancy—aim for feeling safe and supported. With a few thoughtful choices, you can create an environment that welcomes your body, calms your senses, and supports your brain in healing.

Start by adjusting just one element: lighting, clothing, background noise—whatever feels most pressing. Your nervous system will notice. Over time, those tiny changes can stack up into a powerful shift.

🧘‍♀️ Ready to Begin?

If you or someone you love are living with concussion or brain injury, I invite you to register for my Yoga for Concussions course with this 10% off Affiliate Code: AFFILIATE10. This course is designed to meet you right where you are—at home, with a tired body, a sensitive system, and a deep need for rest and recovery.

** If funds are low and the Affiliate price still doesn’t fit your budget, please reach out to alissa@gardenvariety.ca to hear other options. Concussion and head injury can profoundly impact survivors’ capacity to work. No one will be turned away due to a lack of funds. **

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The Ongoing Art of Imitation

Jen Helmuth (she/her) is a grad of our 2024 250-hour YTT program. She is a psychotherapist and yoga teacher currently teaching a yoga course for teen mental health with The Branches.

I’m sitting on the couch staring down my most recent piece of art. I’m not sure how I feel about it. This piece gradually came together over the course of my recent Yoga Teacher Training. The “canvas” is an old weathered piece of wood that had been used as a tailgate on a truck. I found it propped up on the side of the road. It has a long metal bar across the middle that divides it in half. I’ve worked in my signature embellishments using cut up beer cans and adding natural objects I find on my walks.

When I saw the tailgate, I loved the character of the wood and the metal bar through the middle. I knew I wanted to explore the theme of dualism: top and bottom, before and after, organic and inorganic, yin and yang. I wanted to play with the complementary forces we see and experience in life all around us. This theme shows up in yoga as the play between effort and ease, leading and following, doing and being.

I also wanted to play with the idea of art imitating nature, like many yoga poses do. I love how we get into shapes called downward dog, cat and cow, pigeon, fish and eagle, to name a few. I like to imagine early yoga practitioners mimicking the shapes and movements of what they observed in the world around them. I think about taking on the energy of these creatures as we embody their forms, like the confident roar in lion’s pose, complete with the funny face and forceful breath.

As I started creating my artwork on this tailgate, I followed the elements of the wood: the grain, the knotholes and other characteristics. Using the metal bar that divides the piece in half horizontally, I made the top half to represent the “source” such as nature, ideals, and teachers – the things that inspire us, the things we want to emulate. Below the metal bar would be the “imitation” and exploration of approximating what’s on top while still working with the character of the wood.

And now, as I sit here staring at it from across the room, I think: “It’s still not quite done”. This is the third time I’ve brought the piece out of my studio and placed it across from my couch so I can study it upright from a distance. Each time I bring it out of the studio I’m sure it’s done; and each time I look at it from the couch, it doesn’t look finished. This confounds me. With most of my art, I know when it’s done. And now I’m sitting here wanting to fix it again. I’m focussing my attention on the places where the bottom half is not fully representing the ideal of the top half. It really needs some more swooshes here, and a few over there – and also more honeycombs.

Do I really need to take it back to the studio again? I’ve done enough art to know that the process is as much of a teacher as the end result. As I stare at it, willing the art to reveal it’s message to me, I realize that I’m exclusively focussed on the “imitation” half. This is what I keep tweaking on every return to the studio. It’s not up to snuff. It doesn’t properly reflect the grandiosity of the “original” on top that it’s trying to mirror. And I’m not satisfied. I want to keep adjusting, improving, approximating. The imitation can do better. If it doesn’t look close enough to the original, then the theme of “imitation” will be lost.

That’s when it dawns on me, and a few lessons come hurtling at me across the room from this piece of art. The imitation will never look like the original – and that’s OK, in fact, that’s the point! You have to work with the character of the wood and the different materials and structure, so of course it won’t look the same. The point in imitation is the exploration of what it might feel like to embody a different shape, being, or energy for a brief time.

I also realize another lesson is that it is not helpful to focus on what’s wrong with the imitation. Where your focus goes your energy flows. This is a constant theme in my life: wanting to tinker until perfection is achieved. It’s why I’ve taken this piece back to my studio several times for a few more tweaks. This piece is trying to teach me with it’s refusal to look pleasingly finished to my eye. Can I let go of the effort of adjusting and find ease in allowing this lesson to seep into my being?

And furthermore, the space on the bottom half that I think is incomplete might actually represent potential. Opportunity. It might suggest value in the yearning to keep imitating; to appreciate the sense that something is not yet finished. Maybe another lesson for me from this piece of art is to find the complementary force of “finished”. This art is “ongoing”. It leaves room for change, for evolution, for more to come. And by not feeling “complete” it lights a desire to keep imagining what could be.

Imitation is about the process of embodying the essence of something – whether it is an animal, an element, an idea or a shape the teacher is demonstrating. The point is not to shed your own self to become something else. In fact, the point might even be to notice things around you worth imitating and imagining inhabiting their shape or energy for a breath or two. The practice of imitating is how we learn to work with the materials we’ve got and to find new ways of expressing our unique qualities in ways we might not have imagined had it not been for watching our dog stretch in the morning. The imitation will be beautiful when we are respectfully working with the materials we have, rather than trying to hide those characteristics to become something else.

This is a big shift and learning for me during this yoga teacher training. The goal is not to practice until you can touch your toes or balance in crow pose or to precisely match the yoga textbook pictures. The value of practicing yoga is the yearning to feel on the inside what you are trying to approximate on the outside – over and over again. The gap between the original and the imitation is a space of potential, imagination and learning. And regardless of whether your pose is a perfectly finished imitation on the outside, the process has the opportunity to be rewarding and feel satisfactory on the inside. Just like this “ongoing” piece of art sitting across from me in my living room.

Krama for Sequencing: Why is it important?

Anne Michelle (she/her) is a grad of our 2024 250-Hour Yoga Teacher Training. And you can find her teaching at TBY on Wednesday evenings!

I tend to be a literal person, and have trouble interpreting instructions in any way that isn’t verbatim. For me, learning to find flexibility and improvisation within a structure involves understanding why that structure was created in the first place. When we learned about Krama, or the order for sequencing in a yoga asana class, I struggled to divert from it at all, even though we were encouraged to be flexible with this structure when it suited our sequence. The only way for me to move away from this rigidity is to learn more.

Let’s start with the basics. Krama can mean many things! To be more specific, we’re looking at Vinyasa Krama. Vinyasa means “separating (vi) putting down (nyasa)” and Krama means “steps” or “order”, and so all together Vinyasa Krama is a thoughtful sequence of actions; a way to structure a class progressively to allow students to find freedom and joy in their poses. Sounds solid. But how did this order become The Order? Why is there a handstand near the beginning, why abdominals before hip mobilizers? Where did it originate?

History:

Traditional Vinyasa has been around since ~300BC or earlier. The beginnings of the modern Vinyasa approach is credited to Krishnamacharya (1888-1989) who broadened from traditional asanas (Surya Namaskar), and focused on teaching “what was appropriate for the individual.” There is an emphasis on synchronizing movement with an inhalation or an exhalation, creating a seamless transition between poses, while embodying Parinamavada–the understanding that constant change is an inherent part of life. For this reason, Vinyasa Krama begins with initiation: centring, assessing where we are today, and setting intention. This is followed by sustained effort built from the breath and beginning with gentler poses building to the peak (to be prepared and avoid strain that could create an angry prana). Finally, winding down and ending with integration (savasana), as “it is not enough to climb a tree, you must also be able to get down.” Vinyasa mimics the flow of life, the flow of a day, even the flow of the seasons, as energy starts quiet and builds to a climax and winds down to the inevitable end.

Krishnamacharya’s sequencing was quick in pace and highly demanding. Despite the proclaimed goal of building gradually to a goal, he did not have patience for slowness or challenges, and was brutal in his treatment of students, hitting them with rods when they didn’t perform as he wanted. BKS Iyengar was one of those students, and ran away from his teacher and his abuse to later become a leading guru in the yoga world some time in the 1940s.

Iyengar brought about a less strict interpretation of vinyasa krama. Sequencing in Iyengar yoga is not set in stone, and varies according to many different factors, including: group of postures, aim of sequence, level of experience of the student, and state of mind when approaching a session. He learned from his own ageing, observing students in practice, and his own life experiences, including the injuries and strain from being forced into poses prematurely during his years with Krishnamacharya. This led him to sequence classes slower, with attention to anatomy and alignment, as well as the inclusion of props like blocks and blankets to create a more accessible yoga experience.

The Components of Krama:

Let’s take that historical context, how it was built over time, and think about what this order provides for the body, how it creates an effective and accessible practice.

The opening (Centring > Warm-ups/preps = activations > Downward Dog > Sun Salutations) is fairly obvious in its intention: connect with yourself and your breath, and provide some warming, well-rounded movement to prepare you for the rest of the practice. The one that threw me off was Handstand/Forearm Balance being next, it seemed surprising! It’s important to understand that this placement is for an experienced yogi with an existing handstand practice, not for learning how to do it. There’s a few reasons for this placement. One is the energizing quality; it sharpens your awareness and wakes you up for the rest of the practice. It also gives you a new perspective, both literally and metaphorically. Finally, you aren’t too exhausted to execute one safely.

Handstands are followed by Standing Poses > Standing Balancing Poses. This feels logical. We are most comfortable on our feet and adding balance is increasing the difficulty, it’s just progressive. But what about hand balancing poses, the next in line? This one I couldn’t find reasoning for, except maybe that it is a further progression of balancing.

The next part of the sequencing–Core > Hip Mobilizers > Backbends–is interesting, and requires thinking more anatomically. An activated core provides support for both hip mobilizing and backbends. Getting your core online allows you to isolate and support hip movement more effectively (rather than compensating with your spine). This continues along the chain coming to backbends. When doing a backbend, there is one point in your back (T12 vertebra) that wants to do all the back bending work. This can have some pretty negative wear and tear on your T12 and neighbouring vertebrae, as well as missing the full benefits for the rest of your back. The primary goal is to find an even and supported bend through your back, not just fold in half in one spot, and to find extension in the hips. To achieve that, you need an active and supportive core, and you need to access the mobility in your hips. This can take extra work if you have a hyper-mobile low back especially, but will provide better alignment for joint health and spaciousness in the pose.

After the energizing nature of backbends, the sequence begins to wind down. Shoulder Stands or legs up the wall provide some cooling, calming, and quieting of the nervous system, as well as a counter pose to the previous backbend. Forward bend & twists and supine poses continue that quieting momentum, bringing you closer to the ground and folding inward and setting you up for some stillness in restorative poses, meditation & pranayama, and finally savasana. “It is not enough to climb a tree, you must also be able to get down.”

I found it fascinating to learn about all the smaller moving parts hidden inside how the Krama for sequencing is laid out. I don’t know if anyone else needs to know the ‘why’ as much as I do, but I find it freeing so I can understand how to effectively use this tool to suit my own sequence designs, so if I deviate I can do so intelligently.

Your yoga teacher has problems too

Levi Larivee (he/they) is a grad of our 2023-2024 YTT program. Levi is Community Inclusion & Outreach Worker and a yoga teacher currently living in B.C.

When I first started practicing, I would stare at the person at the front of the room who seemed to be moving so peacefully and seamlessly through poses I couldn’t figure out. I would do them backwards and respond in silly ways to cueing- then look up to the front of the room and be so embarrassed that I wasn’t doing what everyone else was. My face would get red, then I would stumble even more, lose my breathe, and just sit down on my mat because I couldn’t catch up. After class I would joke and make light of how embarrassed and hurt I was so no one could tell how ashamed I was that I couldn’t keep up in a yoga class. Everyone who could move through the poses, keep their breathe, not be sweating incessantly, I felt lesser than. Watching them move so gracefully, I just knew that they had made it to the otherside. The side of life where tough things stop touching you, stop hurting you. The side where no one has unhealthy coping mechanisms and never eats deep-fried food. Everyone loves them, they never have any problems because they’re so “zen” that nothing can penetrate their meditative bubble.

I truly believed that my yoga teachers lived like that. I would have done anything to be on the other side. Well imagine my surprise when I found out that my yoga teachers were human beings, too. They weren’t Gods. They eat “too much” cake sometimes (if that’s even possible), cry when days don’t turn out how they expected, get a little bit too mad some days. They have problems too. Now I am a yoga teacher, and I still eat fast food, get grumpy when I haven’t slept, and have some bad habits that I cant seem to kick. Sometimes I’m even too stressed to meditate, imagine that!

All of this to say, yoga teachers are just people. Yes, it is a really cool job, and probably do our best to be mindful and present in our lives, but its progress not perfection. I am more than happy to still have my fair share of hardships in life, and oh-so-grateful to have a life beyond that that has been cultivated by trying to choose healthier ways of being. I’ve also learned how to show myself love when I don’t do the “healthier” things, or when I lose my temper. There is always tomorrow.

A yoga practice is an additive, it is just one delicious slice of the much bigger pie. I’ll admit, yoga definitely helps me deal more effectively and respond more compassionately, but life didn’t stop “life-ing” just because I seem super zen in my one hour yoga class. My point is, I would have saved myself alot of aching if I hadn’t assumed that my yoga teachers were all-knowing, supreme beings that had mastered how to “do” life. There is no otherside, the grass is greener where you water it. I wish I could go back and tell myself that!

But I can tell you- be gentle with yourself. No one ever stops making mistakes, no one is super calm and flowy and spiritual 100% of the time. It’s okay to not know everything. It is so nice when people are authentically themselves, because it shows people that it is super okay and encouraged for you to be exactly that. Yourself! It’s so much easier to be human when we can tell and show each other just how valued we are, on every step of the road. Lots of love, always, from your friendly neighborhood yoga teacher.

-Levi

Levi is a grad of our 2023-2024 YTT program

Connected to community

Rachel Smiley (they/them) is a grad of our 2024, 250-Hour YTT. They teach at The Move Room in Hamilton Ontario. Rachel organizes Rainbow Moves, the Move Room’s weekly queer community class.

For many queer and trans folks, the body can feel like a mystery, or something we disconnectfrom out of necessity. In a world that still regularly commits violence against queer & trans people, disconnection is an act of self-protection, but when we do this we lose out on experiencing the wholeness of our own beings.

Our bodies are the only things that stay with us our entire lives; they work for us even when we don’t ask them to; they are the only things over which we have true autonomy. It’s within the context of mindfulness and embodiment practices that I have realized deep truths in my own life. Mindful embodiment practices such as yoga allow me to connect to my body, ask myself what I need, and then give myself exactly that, with compassion.

Communal experiences like moving, laughing, eating together shift us towards a greater sense of ease and connection with those around us. These are all experiences of the body; being disconnected from the body, therefore, prevents us from full participation. This is an oft-touted argument for the benefits of affinity spaces. Affinity spaces allow people to let their guards down, to connect over shared joys & struggles, to swap stories and share knowledge. They exist for all sorts of intersections and groups of people: new parents, religious groups, racialized folks, newcomers to Canada, hobbyists, and, of course, LGBTQ groups. Affinity spaces can take all sorts of different forms, from peer support groups to themed nights at bars to potlucks to yoga classes.

For queer and trans folks, gay bars have long existed to serve the purpose of safe/r space to gather, dance, seek information, or just be in community with each other without fear of violence or harassment. As queer liberation movements progress, we see this desire to gather in community take shape in other forms; no longer are we relegated only to dark, underground clubs. For many of us, there’s a real need to gather without the social pressure to drink, or simply a desire to experience a different kind of embodiment. As I look around where I live today in Hamilton, I see queer people organizing sports leagues, drawing nights, and clay workshops, in addition to dance parties and peer support groups.

Since January 2023, I have been organizing Rainbow Moves, a series of yoga & movement classes for queer folks at my home studio, The Move Room. I moved to Hamilton shortly before lockdowns began, and by the time 2023 came around I hadn’t had the opportunity to build queer community in the way I had in Toronto. At the time, no one else was organizing queer yoga classes in the city, and I had been a teacher with The Move Room for about a year. I knew I didn’t want to do it alone, so I invited several other queer movement instructors to join a rotating roster with me. Although this was a decision partly made for practical reasons, I have found that when I share the stage with other instructors, I’m not only able to give voice to different kinds of queer folks, but I’m also able to come into the role of participant. My hope is we are able to collaboratively weave together our own community offering, rather than it being the vision of one specific person.

When I participate in queer gatherings around my city, I grow my connection to my community. As I grow my connection to my community, I feel even more bolstered and protected. I’m able to walk in the world more bravely, because I know my people have my back. When I witness, or am party to, homophobia and transphobia, I feel protected by my community. Taking part in my community has allowed me to expand my window of tolerance for difficult situations. Being able to stay connected to my body in difficult situations means that I’m able to choose words and actions that feel in accordance with my truth. I’m better able to act with integrity, care, compassion, and loving kindness, even towards those who have wronged me. Most importantly, staying in connection with my body means that I’m better able to act with integrity, care, compassion, and loving kindness towards the only person with whom I’m in a lifelong relationship: myself.

Hip Openers / World Openers!

Clare Hitchens (she/her) is a grad of our 2024 250-Hour Yoga Teacher Training. You might meet Clare staffing our front desk some evenings, and occasionally subbing for TBY classes!

I did my first yoga practice with a physiotherapist when I was healing from a lower back injury caused by my dog bolting after a squirrel while attached to me. One day I went to see her shortly after I’d been in a car accident. Although I wasn’t injured, I was in shock, and she noticed that and offered to lead me in a yoga practice. At the end of that practice, I sat and wept, and she quietly left the room for a few minutes. When I recovered, she offered that a yoga practice can provide that kind of release of emotions, and probably for the first time I made the connection between mind and body, understanding a bit better how intertwined they are.

Once I started a regular yoga practice it became abundantly clear how it could affect my mood, and how important it was for regulating my emotions and managing daily stress along with helping me feel stronger in my body. However, there were aspects of yoga that I did not expect, and those are what I want to talk about in this post. I’m going to talk about hip openers, and I will put in a warning here about fat shaming language and sexist comments. Many of us have tight hips. We sit in office chairs, and we barely move for hours during the day. I’ve heard people proclaim their tight hips to me with what seems like pride, which is interesting. Children raised as girls and young women are taught very specific things, contradictory things, about their hips and thighs. For one, at least for my age group, we were taught to always sit with our legstogether, not to cross our knees, but only our ankles, never to sit wide legged. “Put your legs together!” could be snapped by one’s mother at any time. For another, hips were seen as places we could gain weight, and that was a thing to be avoided. Think of the saying, “a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips.” We said that to each other all. the. time. and thought nothing of it. Denying ourselves delicious food was accepted as normal practice to avoid weight gain. Contrasting all that would be people who made comments about someone having “good childbearing hips,” which was admiration for a wide set of hips with room for a baby. Appropriate use of a female body! Layer on sexist comments such as one made to me by a male co-worker when I was pregnant with my third child. He suggested I wasn’t taking my birth control properly and I might do better to hold the pill between my knees. So, wait, should I have good childbearing hips, or should I not have sex so I don’t get pregnant?? That’s the climate I grew up in, and I was unprepared for the effect of hip openers on my life.

In my early days of yoga it took me a while to get comfortable doing something as simple as a wide legged forward fold, never mind a reclined butterfly, in which my knees were spread wide, my ankles bound together, and my body in a very open position. It felt positively immoral! The more I practiced, however, the more I wanted those poses. Deep squats, hip rotations, a wide legged child’s pose! Gradually these poses began to feel empowering—there was a freedom in them that I craved, permission to put my body parts in any shape I chose to. And even more gradually they began to feel like second nature. What this has translated to in life outside yoga is much more comfort living in the body that I inhabit. I no longer obsess about how I look in my clothes, how I look when I’m exercising or dancing or eating, how somebody else might perceive me at any given time. I’m still human, and I still have moments of anxiety, but the freedom given to me in yoga to move my body into shapes that I choose, whenever I want, has made an impact on my life far beyond the mat.

barefoot bliss

(This post comes to you from Wendy – pictured below on the right – Operations Manager, strength & yoga teacher, and resident-barefoot-shoe-enthusiast, at the Branches)

I have always loved to walk barefoot outside. I enjoy the tactile stimulation I feel when walking on different surfaces. I walk barefoot so I can feel the burn of hot pavement in the summer and the gentle sharpness of blades of grass; the cool squishiness of walking through the mud and the grittiness between my toes when walking in the sand.

Barefoot shoes (also called minimal shoes) allow me a little bit of that sensory stimulation when I can’t (or shouldn’t) walk barefoot. It means I can still feel the bumpiness underneath the grass, the sharp pebbles at the edge of a dirt road. Does it hurt sometimes? Sure! I’ve landed on a few rocks while running that sent a few choice words streaming out of my mouth. But those experiences never made me want to switch back to the relative void of sensation I felt when walking in thick-soled shoes.

I initially started wearing barefoot/minimal shoes because I was experiencing knee pain and trying to find a way to improve it. I had heard minimal shoes might help, so I decided to give them a try. However, as soon as I started walking in that first pair of barefoot sneakers, I no longer really cared if they cured my knee pain – it just felt so good to walk in them!

Those shoes were the first pair of shoes that I didn’t have to ‘break in.’ My feet didn’t feel like they were being squished. I didn’t have to deal with the pain and irritation of blisters and calluses, in fact, I could actually wiggle my toes! Over time my knee pain did improve, but the reason I keep wearing barefoot shoes has more to do with the connectedness I felt with my body and the world around me.

I used to have a nice pair of ‘technical’ hiking boots that I invested in because I thought they were what I needed to be able to hike ‘safely.’ Ironically, I’ve had fewer injuries since I switched to minimal hiking boots. My balance is better, and my feet and ankles are stronger now that they can move more freely. I can both feel and respond better to the changes in the ground beneath me. I can feel the curves and edges of rocks as I walk across them, and I can respond with more agility to those small changes in balance, bending my feet and ankles to ‘grip’ the rocks as I go. Thick soled shoes take a lot of that sensory information away, leaving me feeling like I’m teetering while trying to balance on rocks, and stumbling as my foot leans too far off an edge it can’t feel. There’s a disconnect between what’s happening underneath me and what my body is doing in traditional hiking boots. That connectedness means I’m actually more confident hiking in minimal shoes because I slip and fall less often.

The connectedness to my body and the world around me is what has ultimately made me a barefoot shoe convert, and now, something of a proselytizer! I want everyone to experience the gentle invigoration of walking with more sensation and agility. Switching to barefoot shoes is something of a process – for most people a good amount of preparation is needed to build up the foot and ankle strength needed to enjoy wearing minimal shoes. If you’re interested in the (eventual) hedonism of barefoot shoes, start your journey with me at my Free Your Feet workshop, a staple offering that we host every year or two at the Branches.

Looking forward to walking in the mud sometime soon,
Wendy

staying grounded during a trade war

(We have Emma to thank for putting together this timely piece of writing, and including practical resources for coping during this stressful time)

At The Branches, we frame our yoga practice as a way to nurture self care and build our inner resilience so that we can work for a better world. I have been contemplating this “mission statement” of ours in the past few weeks. It feels like a catalytic moment to put our practice into practice. We don’t know what life will look like with the looming tariff war. There is a great deal of uncertainty we all face at this moment in time. And, the curiosity, embodiment and inner connection we practice in yoga can be part of how we face that uncertainty.

Can we approach this difficult time the way we might approach a difficult pose in a class? Can we stay attentive to our breath and feel the ground beneath us? Can we find the moments of lightness amidst the challenge?

I have found it really difficult to read the news recently without spiraling into anxiety and fear. But I have been reminding myself that the way I hold my body and the way I choose to breathe can help me stay grounded. I am also reminding myself that reaching out for connection, and talking to others that share similar concerns is also deeply helpful.

I wanted to share a few resources that are helping me stay grounded, and that are reminding me of the bigger picture.

The first is a printable PDF created by Leslie, one of our studio directors. It is called the Autonomic Nervous System Toolkit. You might have come across it already; it contains a bunch of techniques for bringing yourself and your nervous system back to the present moment. When I read the news, the threat-detection part of my nervous system can go into overdrive and I can feel my mind and heart racing a mile a minute. This toolkit is for that moment, so you can come back to yourself and decide what makes sense to do next.

The second resource is a very practical article about how to buy Canadian during this economic stalemate with the US. The author details what all the terminology means (how Made in Canada is different from terms like 100% Canadian) and encourages us to make changes in a range of sectors (not just groceries but service providers, entertainment, social media). It is rousing and encouraging and thoughtful. I hope you give it a read.

And lastly, this resource is about how to stay grounded in the Trump era. It is a long form article, written by a career activist. It gives a great deal of practical suggestions for how to approach change in your own sphere of influence and community, while keeping an eye on the larger powers. I came across it a few months ago and I keep coming back to it again and again. It is really helpful to read the thoughts and ideas of someone who has spent their life working for positive change, and who is not naive about how slowly that change comes about.

Thank you for being part of a community that cares about the world. Our yoga practice could easily be a way that we escape from or ignore the difficulties of the world. Instead we hope that yoga practice can be a place of refuge that allows us reprieve, so we can then return to our work in the world, renewed and more prepared to act with thoughtfulness, care and compassion.

With care,
Emma

how strength training humbled me

(Leena, studio co-director and teacher, shares her strength training origin story, below…)

My strength training journey has been a lesson in humility and patience.
It has taught me that if I want to go far, I have to go slow.

I started seriously lifting weights about three years ago. I wanted to rebuild my strength after having twins, and hoped lifting weights would help with some chronic pain. I started working with dumbbells and kettlebells on my own, but in the first few months, it didn’t go that well. After a session of lifting, pain in my neck and shoulders would flare up, resulting in days of headaches. I felt lost and discouraged.

Finally I decided to sign up for a 3 month program with Kathryn Bruni Young of Mindful Strength. We had brought Kathryn to the studio a few times to teach workshops, and I trusted her knowledge and approach.

The most important thing I learned from Kathryn was progressive loading. But it took me a few false starts before I really took it to heart.

In our first session, Kathryn taught all of the movements with really light weights so we could just focus on learning the movements and having decent form. I was relieved that my neck felt fine afterwards. That led to me overdoing it in the second session. I was feeling cocky after the first session had felt so easy, and when Kathryn said we could go slightly heavier, I picked up much heavier weights. By that evening, my neck pain had flared up, and a bad headache followed.

I talked over my pain and approach with Kathryn, decided to apply more humility and patience, and went somewhere in the middle for the third session. After that moderate progression, I had a little bit of tension, but no headache – I was finally feeling some progress!

Everything came together for me when later in the program, we had some lectures with Neil Pearson, an incredible pain science teacher. Neal emphasized how pain and tissue damage are often not correlated, and how pain, especially chronic pain, is simply a rudimentary form of communication. Pain is our body asking for a change.

I realized my neck pain was communicating that it needed more muscular support (to get stronger), and that I also needed to go slow.

When the body is adapting, especially in an area where pain is chronic, progressive loading needs to be truly progressive – slow and gradual. Now about 3 years later, I’ve kept up and increased my strength training. I train 2-3 times a week, and now I can easily deadlift well over my body weight, and my squat is not too far behind. I still have to work to find that threshold of progressing at the right pace. Some days I do too much and my pain does flare up, but it’s much less than before.

I am delighted that I now feel so much sturdier and fortified in my body. Areas where I had chronic pain or soreness have faded or gone away completely. My twins are now six, and carrying them feels easy, almost easier than when they were tiny little three year-olds. When you’re stronger, daily life is easier, and that really is a joy! (As well as a privilege).

I used to think that yoga asana practice would be enough for me to feel strong and capable. Now, I feel so passionate about the mix of yoga and strength work. Yoga is awesome for my mental health, my nervous system, and for enjoying a good stretch. But the strength that you can really only get from lifting heavy weights has brought my body much needed challenge and balance.

The Strength Essentials classes have really taken off at The Branches in the last few years, thanks to Nicole’s dedication and passion for it. We are now up to five Strength Essentials classes per week. Because more and more people are getting serious about strength training, we have been working on a new resource to bring together some of our top recommendations and resources.

Nicole has put together a Strength Training Resource & FAQ that will live on our website. It offers great information and resources about progressive loading, working with pain, and also some protein and nutrition tips to support your strength journey. In it you’ll find my favorite four-ingredient homemade protein bar recipe that has been part of fueling my muscle building!

I hope you’ll check it out.

With you on the journey of slowing down,
Leena

make bodies neutral again

(This post comes to you from the brain of Emma Dines, studio co-director and teacher)

I have been thinking a lot recently about how I came to have a fairly positive relationship with my body as a kid and teenager, and how that led to my work at The Branches.

I think a lot of it had to do with my mom.

My mom grew up on a farm with two older brothers who called her “fat”, which affected her sense of self for a long time. When she had me, my mom was determined that me and my siblings would feel differently about our bodies. She was vigilant (and my dad was too) about never commenting on or talking about our bodies in a negative way. I still got the fatphobic messaging of mainstream culture from TV and school, but my childhood home was my first experience of Body Neutrality.

I am so proud that Body Neutrality (and Body Positivity) are core values of The Branches, and that they shape how we teach our classes. Our teachers are careful not to use language that privilege some bodies over others — that insinuates that being stronger or more flexible is “better”, more desirable or even the goal of yoga. Our teachers use language that attempts to acknowledge, inform, respect and celebrate a range of different bodies and needs. We are careful about our language because most of the world is not, and we want to be a safe space for people to feel into, experience and learn from and in their bodies.

My body has gone through a lot of changes in the last few years. I had two kids, I turned forty, the hormonal changes of perimenopause are coming for me and the body I taught yoga with for 10 years has changed. I’ve done a lot of work to reconnect with my changing body, and to replace my internalized fatphobia with Body Neutrality. One thing I am grateful for, and that I think comes from so many years of integrating Body Neutrality into my teaching, is that when I am teaching, I am so rarely self conscious about my body shape or size. My body becomes a tool to explain spinal movement or joint centration. Any fixation on what I look like evaporates. I really hope that is a shared experience in my classes. I hope that when people are moving and breathing in my class, they have an experience of their bodies that is so much more vast and varied than just what they look like.

I’m so grateful to my mom for cutting out the noise in my childhood and giving me space to hear myself. And now, with kiddos of my own, I am intent on sharing Body Neutrality and Body Positivity with them.

Some amazing resources I’ve found that are inspiring and radicalizing me on these topics are the Maintenance Phase podcast and the book Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture by Virginia Sole-Smith. I also continue to love The Body is not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor.

I honestly cannot shut up about all of them (ask me about the BMI! Ask me!!) and would love to chat further about all of this, so don’t be a stranger. Catch me after class or shoot me a note anytime.

I also re-vamped a printable journaling prompt on Growing Body Neutrality/Positivity. If you want to spend a little time reflecting on this, print it out and give some of this a think.

Sending you warmth on this cold January day,
Emma