Instructor: Barbe Kelly, RYT 500 & Shannon Clark

Pink Yoga is designed to restore and help in the  healing process for all breast cancer patients and survivors. Join us on the journey to healing once a month for our free gentle yoga class. This class is led by certified Christina Phipps Foundation Yoga Instructor’s Babre Kelly and Shannon Clark.

This Free Gentle Yoga Class will be held Once Per Month on Friday evenings from 5:30-6:30pm. Dates are as follows:  June 8th, July 13th, August 10th, September 14th, October 12th, November 9th, & December 7th 2012.

*To learn more about the Christina Phipps Foundation visit her site at ChristinaPhipps.com

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    Presenter: Penny Powell, Juicing/Nutrition Consultant

Reduce body fat while adding loads of nutrients to your body this summer by learning simple and tasty juicing recipes. Learn which local, colorful, summer produce helps cool the body while significantly promoting weight loss. A hands-on, fun experience that you can use as a tool to begin transforming your body to its more natural state and size while taking your health and happiness to higher levels.

Participants will explore seven juice recipes with the opportunity to create their own while learning about centrifugal and masticating juicers.

Bring a friend and come have some juicy fun!

Need more information?? Check out Penny’s bio and our juicing content.

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Imagine practices such as yoga breath work, stretches, and postures replacing cosmetic make-up when it comes to beauty!

Today, with the concept of natural, organic beauty on the rise, more and more women are going within to meet and bring their natural beauty to the surface via prayer, meditation, healthy eating, yoga classes, massages, acupuncture, chakra balancing, nature walks and other areas of wellness.

Deeper levels of consciousness are teaching us that beauty is a soulful state of being as opposed to simply being about how one might look from the outside. Just as it’s best to treat an illness at its root and not simply cover up the issue with pharmaceutical drugs, it’s best to allow the beauty that lies within to rise to the surface by nurturing and nourishing the body, mind, and spirit.

As with health, beauty begins on a cellular level. Or, we could say that beauty begins with healing! Therefore, beauty is possible for all women — not just some — including breast cancer survivors!

“Our Pink Yoga classes are designed to give breast cancer survivors what they need to move forward in their healing process,” explains Barbe Kelly, 500-hour Registered Yoga Teacher at Life’s Journey Yoga & Wellness Center in Orange Park, FL. “A combination of breathing techniques, guided imagery, stretches, postures, meditation, and Yoga Nidra are utilized in this goal.”

About this class that Kelly teaches once per month on Friday evenings from 5:30-6:30pm., she explains that “breath work, stretches, and postures assist with range of motion and strength. Guided relaxation, meditation, and Yoga Nidra (also known as ‘Yogic Sleep’) help calm the mind, encouraging healing of mind, body, and spirit, activating the parasympathetic nervous system.”

“Our mission is to assist breast cancer survivors on their journey of recovery by giving them the tools and encouragement that they need to reconnect with self, find acceptance, and heal from the inside out,” Kelly explains.

Beauty from the inside out! Isn’t that the real meaning of beauty since that’s where real beauty lies?

Yoga Facial

Women who attend Kelly’s Tuesday Pink Yoga class have said how relaxed and refreshed they feel when getting off their mat after their practice. “They feel a sense of renewed energy,” says Kelly.

“A yoga practice has a way of making you feel like you just had a yoga facial,” adds Penny Powell, community liaison at Life’s Journey who also teaches yoga there. “Any yoga posture that allows the head to be positioned under the heart helps calm the body and refreshes the blood in the face and brain,” she says.

Here’s how you can give it a try, explains Powell

“Come into a neutral Table-Top position on your hands and knees and then let the crown of your head float down and rest on your yoga mat or a blanket, if necessary. Reach your hands back toward your feet, relaxing your shoulders and taking at least five deep inhalations and exhalations.”

Powell says that if getting down on the floor is not your preferred way to experience your “yoga facial,” try a Forward Facing Bend.

“Initiate the movement from the hips first, torso second, and head releases last,” explains Gerry Lishin, one of Powell’s yoga-teacher mentors who is owner of Southwest Orlando Yoga and author of “Yoga Teachers Notebook.”

“Don’t lead with the head and neck,” says Lishin, “instead, lead with the sternum, reset and lengthen the heels and toes, release the shoulders away from the ears, and visualize your upper torso cascading like a waterfall over the rim created by your active thighs.”

“As I tell students in my yoga classes,” says Powell, “it’s more about getting out of the head and into the heart in Forward Facing Bend as opposed to how straight they can get their legs. All of that will come with consistency. Initially, allow the focus to be on refreshing the face and relaxing the shoulders. Let the shoulders float away from the ears for a really refreshing forward fold and yoga facial.”

You can even hang out in a forward fold sitting on a chair like Powell’s senior citizen students do in her Chair Yoga class with them. “Or, a standing Half Forward Bend can work, too,” Powell explains, “by resting your hands on your quads with your head under the heart. Or, sink into the fuller version of the posture by placing your hands on your legs, ankles, feet or even on a yoga block which “will help bring the earth up to you,” she says. “Don’t force your posture. Simply find a way to allow it to work for you and your body. And, when returning to a straight spine, keep your chin toward your chest as you rise slowly and mindfully.”

You are sure to feel the freshness in your face upon your return to your upright spine, and others might just see your ‘yoga facial’ glow, too.

Beautiful Shoulders

Another student who attends the Pink Yoga class at Life’s Journey said that she has experienced much better range of motion in her shoulder, “the shoulder affected by surgery and treatment,” says Kelly. Considering how common it is for women to hold life’s stress and tension in the shoulders, the ability to rotate our shoulders expresses another form of beauty. Once you get those shoulders rolling, why not massage them — along with the face and neck — with coconut oil or such for a beautiful upper-body glow?

From your seat or on your feet, lift your shoulders up, back and down a few times in a circular motion. This exercise will also stimulate the energy in your heart, and an open, loving heart is the most ultimate form of beauty! It doesn’t get any more beautiful than that!

Restorative Yoga

Like Pink Yoga, Restorative Yoga is another tool to enhance one’s natural beauty. “It encourages and allows the body to shift from the sympathetic nervous system of ‘fight or flight’ to the parasympathetic nervous system, reducing heart rate, lowering blood pressure, and relaxing muscles,” Kelly explains. “I would like people to know that it is essential for our well-being as human beings to step out of the ‘rat race,’ periodically, and come to that stillness within. If we take the time to nurture self, it can have profound, positive effects on our mind, body, and spirit.”

As the name suggests, Restorative Yoga is so amazingly restorative that it could certainly be called Comfort Yoga. However, don’t think for a moment that this passive form of stretching doesn’t reap great benefits that enhance beauty. Thanks to the use of yoga props, such as bolsters (pillows), blocks, straps and blankets that beautifully support and complement the body’s ability to stretch, restorative yoga postures can easily be held for extended periods of time, allowing the body to open, release, and restore to great degrees.

Most restorative postures are done from a supine (on back) or seated position. Resting on one’s back while placing legs up the wall is a popular restorative pose that helps remove congestion from the legs and rebalances the overall body, physically and mentally. A lovely foot compression, such as a sandbag, could even be placed on the soles of your feet as you rest in Legs Up The Wall posture.

The posture variations in Kelly’s Restorative class are endless, but they all feel incredible, her raving students say. Given that, ultra gentle yoga classes such as Pink Yoga and Restorative Yoga are ideal complements to one’s beauty regime. “The restorative practice also allow yogis to go deeper into postures during their regular yoga practice,” Kelly states.

Dee Arp, 5^th-grade teacher at Grove Park Elementary School in Orange Park, agrees. Arp, who takes a Mind/Body class with Powell at her school up to twice a week and a Restorative class with Kelly once a week at Life’s Journey credits restorative yoga for helping her to go even deeper – feeling more flexible and stronger — in her regular yoga practice.

And talking about the yoga facial glow, when Powell recently noticed Arp’s face glowing after a Mind/Body class and asked her if she had spent some time out in the sun, Arp replied, “No, this is all from the class I just took with you. This glow is all yoga.”

  Instructor: Jackie Morrison

Session I June 18th-22nd (CLOSED)

  Session II July 30th-August 3rd

Cost: $115 per week

(includes materials and art supplies)

$50 non-refundable deposit due by July 1st to hold your space at camp

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  Presenter: Sandy Kirk,CICP

Reinvent Yourself and your Life

See new possibilities for yourself and your world

Learn ideas and techniques to use to help you become more fully expressed and fulfilled in your day to day Journey.

See how you can let go of who you know yourself to be and to step into who you can become.

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Presenter: Olga Provencher

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“I wish I had that in school when I was a child,” is commonly heard from so many area adults upon hearing what GEDS and LJYWC are providing for students. While there are many schools throughout the country offering yoga, LJYWC hopes to see this expand more in our local area, too.

“Yoga helps take us to our core, so it’s not hard to understand how it ends up playing a positive role in core academic subjects and other areas of the school day,” says Powell. “Children learn to take their yoga breathing into their study time and test-taking time, and it’s exciting to see just how much of a difference quieting the mind with the breath and certain stretches can make.”

Morrison is the teacher at LJYWC who specializes in helping not only students understand how yoga crosses over to homework, morning routines, the school day, evening routines and such, but she also provides a related workshop for parents called “Peaceful Parenting” to help parents learn how they can support their children at home in their off-the-yoga-mat journeys.

“Our yoga summer camps for grades K – 6 offer a unique approach to integrative learning,” Morrison explains. “We use yoga as a pathway to reading, storytelling, music, creative arts, science, earth care and more. Those areas of learning blend seamlessly with yoga poses to strengthen the body and mind. The curriculum we use will provide children with an exciting new way to explore and appreciate their body’s creative potential.”

During the week-long camps at LJYWC, not only will campers stretch their bodies and open their hearts, but they will also be activating the right side of the brain with daily creative art projects.

“We hope you’ll let your children experience one or all of our camps and workshops that will spill over to a lifetime of fitness, fun, and feeling great,” says Morrison.

The 2012 dates for the YogaKids Summer Camps at LJYWC are June 18 – 22 and July 30 – Aug. 3 from 9:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

The Back-to-School Workshops for Kids, listed below, can be taken individually or as a package.

Kids Workshop 1:  Bath, Breathe, Bed – By using yoga and relaxation techniques, your child will learn a nightly routine to encourage restful sleep. Better sleep for your child means improved emotional well-being, better decision-making and problem-solving skills leading to better grades.

Kids Workshop 2:  Bed, Bath, Board the Bus – By using yoga, breath work and music, participants will learn to establish a morning routine sure to excite every child to start their day filled with positivity, peace, and balance.

Kids Workshop 3:  Homework Harmony & Tranquil Testing – We all know that these times can be very stressful for both parent, teacher, and child. Together create individualized routines using yoga, breath, brain balance routines, and affirmations to reduce anxiety and bring peace to homework and testing time, resulting in smiles, confidence, and educational excellence.

Parent/Teacher Workshop 4:  Peaceful Parenting – With YogaKids Teacher and Trainer, Jackie Morrison, review what your children have learned and experienced in Workshops 1 – 3. Learn tips and techniques for reinforcing what your children have been taught in their workshops to support your children to be the best they can be. 

YogaKids Workshops will begin in June and go through August 2012. Want more information on YogaKids?? Check out our YogaKids Classes and Workshops.

A juicer and blender make it convenient and fun to increase our intake of greens and add significant value to our “green living”! Forget turning on the stove if you don’t want to, because you can certainly get a highly nutritious “green” meal or snack pretty quickly by juicing and/or blending. And, more greens in the body means more oxygenated lungs. How so?

Let’s take the dark, leafy green, kale, for instance! Observe the shape of the leaf. It looks similar to the shape of the lungs, right? Therefore, it’s not surprising that this valuable green, rich in vitamin A, supports the health of our lungs. Antioxidants-Guide.com tells us that “just one portion of kale is only 36 calories but it provides a massive 192% of your daily vitamin A needs” and, therefore, helps with “respiratory problems.”

Need some extra lung ‘fuel’ to get you through a power yoga or Zumba class? Add kale to your diet. DanceMagazine.com tells us that “for years, musical theater dancer Melissa Ryan drank coffee to get through two dance classes without a break, but she felt dehydrated and tired. Then she discovered kale.”

As Ryan explains in “Your Body: Green Energy” by Lauren Kay in the January 2012 issue of Dance magazine, “The first time I had it, there was literally a spring in my step. Now, if I have kale in a juice in the morning, I can take two classes with no problem.”

“You will get more minerals, vitamins, and enzymes in just one glass (of green juice) than you might normally get in several days on an average diet of cooked food,” explains Tonya Zavasta in “Your Right To Be Beautiful: The Miracle of Raw Foods.”

“Juicing not only eliminates the need for munching and chewing high quantities of greens and vegetables,” says Zavasta, but “it also minimizes the body’s digestive effort, since nutrients are absorbed in the bloodstream within minutes.”

A diet rich in kale helped Collin Powell of Orange Park to significantly lower his blood pressure. After seven days of increasing his kale intake via drinking green smoothies that consisted of blended kale, banana, water, and a touch of raw honey at times, Powell said, “Okay, this is going to be the true test” as he prepared to test his blood pressure, which, in the past, had been higher than it should be.

“Oh my goodness!” he exclaimed when the results popped up. “This is the lowest my pressure has been. This is the pressure of a 28 or 29 year old.” Powell was in his early 40s at the time.

“Our blood is very similar to green juice,” Zavasta explains in her book mentioned above. “The main difference between a molecule of chlorophyll in green juice and a molecule of hemoglobin in the blood is the central atom. Hemoglobin, the protein that makes our blood red, has iron as its central atom. Chlorophyll, the protein that makes plants green, has magnesium at its center.

“Green juices rich in alkaline minerals help to purify the blood. Your cells become more disease resistant and regenerate more easily in an alkaline environment. Vegetable juices supply minerals such as potassium, magnesium, calcium, silicon, sulfur, and zinc — all in correct ratios to one another. These minerals protect hair, skin, and teeth. Increasing your supply of potassium naturally discourages sodium invasion of the cells and, hence, reduces water retention,” writes Zavasta.

Need a simple and tasty kale juice recipe to help prevent cell destruction? Try this:

 GREEN LEMONADE

 Equipment Needed: Juicer

Kale, approx. 4 large kale leaves or a few handfuls of chopped kale; enough to get about 1/4 green liquid in glass

Apple, approx. 4 or to taste

Lemon, 1/2 or less (You can leave the peel on organic lemons.)

Push all ingredients through juicer. To squeeze as much green liquid as possible from kale when using a centrifugal juicer, push through the juicer WITH apple. You can even stack your juicer chute in the order above, juice, and enjoy! Optional: Serve over ice.

*Note: Masticating juicers will literally “chew” the greens for you, thus, extracting the maximum amount of liquid from the greens possible.

Don’t have a juicer as yet but have a blender? Try this smoothie below as yet another way to increase your kale intake. Or, have a kale juice for breakfast and a kale smoothie for lunch or a snack.

BLENDED FRUITY KALE

Equipment Needed: Blender

Kale, approx. 4 or more kale leaves or a few handfuls of chopped kale

Banana, approx. 2 to 3, however, the number of bananas you use will vary according to the desired sweetness you want. Only use banana if you are in normal health — that is, not fighting cancer or such. Banana will help to not only sweeten the kale but will also give your smoothie a creamy texture. However, half an avocado makes a smoothie creamy, too. If using avocado for a creamy texture, you can also add a fruit or two of choice, such as pineapple, pear, etc., to sweeten the smoothie.

*If using banana and you prefer an icy smoothie, freeze the bananas first and use in place of ice.

Water, approx. 1 cup. Varies according to desired texture

Honey, to taste (or another natural sweetener). Optional.

Want to make your “Blended Fruity Kale” smoothie purple? Add blueberries!

Since fruit can typically lighten the color of a kale smoothie, I enjoy blending the kale (or other greens) and water first for the dark-green visual of what will be nourishing my cells. Then, of course, I add fruit to sweeten the kale and make it more palatable and enjoyable to drink.

Now, that’s some green living!

Want green juice and smoothie visuals and samples of your own by way of juicing/smoothie classes? Give us a call at 904-276-3115, email us at info@lifesjourneywellness.com, or visit Life’s Journey Workshops for upcoming seasonal Juicing/Smoothie workshop dates.

Private juicing sessions for individuals and groups are also available by appointment.

What do so many of these children have in common?

They take yoga, a tool that provides them a hands-on experience for balancing mind, body, and spirit — a practice that brings them peace and calm that extends far beyond their yoga mats.

“Yoga provides children with exciting new ways to explore and appreciate their body’s creative and academic potential. They learn invaluable skills that set the groundwork for meeting challenges and growing strong and flexible — physically, mentally, and emotionally — while cultivating self-esteem for a lifetime of successful achievement,” explains Jackie Morrison, YogaKids® teacher and trainer who teaches yoga for kids at Life’s Journey Yoga & Wellness Center (LJYWC) in Orange Park.

Grace Episcopal Day School (GEDS) in Orange Park has hopped on board with yoga, too, and added it as an elective to the school’s list of classes. Once a week, middle-school students from GEDS visit LJYWC during their school day to attend yoga class.

“Our students love it,” says Martha Milton, head of school. “We are in our third quarter of offering yoga as an elective.”

Adam, 7th-grade student at GEDS who is in his second quarter of taking yoga at LJYWC, is often heard saying, “It’s now time for peace and rest in our sanctuary,” as he enters the serene studio each week.

“I go back to school and tell all my friends about it,” he says. “They don’t know what they’re missing out on. When I went to the doctor and he said that I have a nice, slow heartbeat, I told him that I do yoga!”

Adam has become such a yoga advocate that his yoga teacher, Penny Powell, also the Community Liaison at LJYWC, recently gave him the title of “Student Yoga Ambassador” for LJYWC; Adam was proud to accept it.

“I wish we could do this every day. This feels so good. Can we stay a little longer? I’m doing this elective every time. I’m doing some of this at home, too,” are a few of the many positive comments Powell hears the GEDS students saying during their yoga classes.

“I am seeing, week after week, that children truly do appreciate some time out for that sacred quiet time just as so many of us adults do,” Powell states. “There’s a calm that yoga naturally provides that even the most hyper child can feel on the yoga mat. I encourage parents to at least let their kids try yoga. The results can be astounding.

“Jackie told me that ‘we learn 10% of what we read, 15% of what we hear, but 80% of what we experience,’ “so I say, let the children experience!”

Stay tuned for upcoming YogaKids Summer Camps beginning in June!

Noretheast Florida Chronic Pain Support Group

 James McCaughern-Carucci, MHS, DD, CNHP, RMT

*Professor of Biological Sciences at St.Johns River State College, Orange Park, FL

*Board Certified Natural Health Practitioner

Chronic pain, regardless of the cause, affects us on all levels of being: mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. This group will provide you with the space to freely express what you feel, learn pain management tools, share with others that understand first-hand what chronic pain is like and support one another in an environment that is warm, affirming and safe. People with all forms of chronic pain and their loved ones are welcome. Pain is something you have – don’t let IT have YOU!

This support group is free – coffee and tea will be available!

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