Pranava Yoga open for business

Times Reporter 

 

A new business has opened in Strathmore that is sure to help you find inner peace and relaxation while getting your daily dose of exercise. Pranava Yoga located at 107-95 Brent Blvd is Strathmore’s first yoga studio.  There are currently five instructors teaching in the new studio, with a few different types of yoga being taught throughout each week. 

“What our vision is is to help people understand that there is no one style of yoga. As many teachers as there are, there’s that many styles of yoga, really truly,” said Becky Stone who co-owns the studio with Wayde Garrioch. 

Though a class she and another instructor teach might be named the same, Stone said it would be a different experience depending on the teacher. She recommends finding the teacher and the class that speak to you.

The classes offered are a traditional Hatha, which they call foundation classes, and are about holding a pose for four to five breaths. The Hatha flow class is faster transitions between the poses and can be more challenging but only in the sense that you should be more comfortable in the poses to begin with. 

Yin is meant to be slower, spending 10 to 20 breaths in a pose, and gets into connective tissues. Yin is more about spending time in a pose and letting it work its way through your body. Finally Pranava also offers restorative classes that Stone calls the dessert of yoga. You are completely supported using different blocks and tools to help get into the position and learning to relax and focus on a specific group of muscles.

Typically in yoga you learn to use only the muscles that need to be used and learn to let go of the areas that try to help. In a traditional class ideally the hope is to be completely supported but completely relaxed. 

“It is not yoga unless it is connecting you with your breath. The breath is the bridge between the body and the mind and as a yoga teacher our goal is to get you to listen to your breath so that you’re gaining awareness within your body,” said Stone. 

“There’s such a disconnect these days between what’s happening in our mind and what’s actually happening in our body and how do we get those two to communicate and that’s what the breath is for. Basically if you can breathe you can do yoga.”

There are currently kids classes being offered. They incorporate play, music, art and yoga poses making the class fun for the kids. There are also seniors classes being offered and Stone said they hope to offer modified programs for people who are wheelchair bound or who might have difficulty getting to the floor and back up again.

“We have a physiotherapist coming on board in probably late spring, early summer who will work in conjunction in creating yoga therapy programs which is really the new way of healthcare because it treats not only the physical body but it addresses the emotional body as well, and the spiritual body,” said Stone.   

“Yoga is not just exercise, yoga is about finding balance.”

In the basement of the studio there are two different saunas. Members, or even drop-in clients, can book their time online for the sauna and then head over to the studio for their time. It will be heated up and ready when they get there. The space in the basement will be a multi-purpose space but a lot of it will be dedicated to private meditation for people who may need some place for a private practice. 

“So if you’re finding that our schedule’s not working for you but you do have your own practice and you’ve got nowhere at home, or the kids are screaming or what have you, you can just come in and we’ll have screens and stuff set up to make it private to do that,” said Stone. 

There will also be meditation sessions held in the basement, and if all goes well there will be a childcare area. Monthly unlimited memberships give access to any scheduled classes and the sauna. There is also a drop-in rate available. If you still don’t know if yoga is for you, or which class would be best, just give the studio a call.  

“(I’m) so happy to help people out. If they don’t know what yoga is or if they would just like some guidance in making decisions about what classes to come to, or if they have mobility or chronic issues, dealing with chronic pain, anything like that and they would like some guidance in making those decisions they can just give us a call and we’ll certainly chat with them about that. Yoga is for every body,” said Stone. 

“There is a version of yoga that is accessible for everybody and if we can’t provide that for them we will help them find that.”

The studio is offering select classes over the holidays. To find out more or see which classes are being offered either call 587-365-3651 or go to pranavayoga.ca.