The Ian MacVicar Yoga & Mindful Resilience Coaching Community is open to anyone wishing to improve their health in five dimensions: 1) physical, 2) mental, 3) emotional, 4) spiritual, and 5) social. We grow collectively and individually by sharing our knowledge.
Advance Notice – Insight into Your Best Self
We are well into the 2021 Holiday Season, and many people are starting to feel the demands of fulfilling family expectations against the backdrop of Round 4 of COVID-19. Meeting these expectations can be draining. Despite the busyness, the Holiday Season can provide an opportunity to count our blessings and to consider our areas for growth.
New Year’s Resolutions are statistically hard to keep – most don’t last through January. Lasting change usually occurs when you can change the environmental context of your habits or insight into the mental framework through which you view the world. Mindfulness of your present moment environment and Insight Meditation examining your thoughts and feelings usually requires more than just education – it requires frequent training and practice until a new habit is embedded.
I will be conducting a Koru Mindfulness Basic online course 19, 26 January and 2, 9 February 2022. Four 75-minute classes and self-paced practice with instructor feedback over four weeks provides an opportunity to make such fundamental life-affirming change. Here is the registration page: https://student.korumindfulness.org/course-detail.html?course_id=5875
I will be providing further details as to course content through this blog space and via other advertising venues. In the interim, here are some testimonials as to the power of this course, and to the effectiveness of my teaching/coaching methods:
https://ianmacvicar.com/testimonials/
More to follow – and Compliments of the Season!
Catch Some AIR?
You might remember the expression “Catch some air.” Some years ago, to “catch some air” simply meant to go outside for a breath of fresh air. In the last decade or so it has taken on a heavy sports connotation such as catching air while skiing, skateboarding, etc. The word “air” is often preceded by a modifier such as “big” or “major” to emphasize the size of the jump.
I prefer to use AIR to describe how people can conduct a major re-set in their life. For example, I had the privilege of training a client in my Total Transformation Training Program (TX3P) over the past month. We worked from 60 to 135 minutes daily on the physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of their life. It was tough on the client, but their earnest desire to bring about that transformation saw them through almost five weeks of demanding training. My P4 Method, which employs the principles of Planning (sequential steps), Patience (in seeing progress), Practice (of mental and physical skills), and Perseverance (sticking with it when it is hard) (P4) guided our four plus weeks together.
I have been drafting the client’s Summary Report over the past few days, stating the training goals, and charting weekly progress. As I wrote, it dawned on me that there is more going on here than simply charting walking, lifting, yoga, and mindfulness. It was the client’s pursuit of a higher goal, that of finding what yogis call their “Best Self,” in which self-limiting barriers drop away allowing the client to clearly see themselves as they truly are, who they truly aspire to become, and how they are going to get there with the assistance of the coach.
The acronym AIR comes to mind for Attention (to the present moment), Intention (for the future goal), and Repeat (for the dedication to the training program). To my mind AIR captures both the current mission statement and future oriented vision statement – and it describes the shared path of the coach and the client.
May you “catch the air” you need in achieving your goals and staying on the path to the next plateau.
Resilience Rebroadcast Blog (RRB)
Why RRB?
RRB, like many blogs, arises from my observation of contentious issues, evolving events, perceived bad choices – which I will rail against, and what I perceive to be good choices – which I will attempt to rally people around. Subjects discussed will be as diverse as the role of physical exercise in reducing stored stress in the body, to “What is consciousness?” to “Are we living in a multiverse? The unifying thread throughout RRB posts will be “How can we use our minds to improve our lives and that of the human condition?”
How?
In this weekly RRB column, we will discuss how scientific, sociological, psychological, philosophical research, historical anecdotes, and the re-interpretation of wisdom traditions gives us the ability to improve the quality of our lives through improving the quality of our thinking. This does not mean that we will eliminate anger, disappointment, grief, or sadness from our lives – these are part of the human condition. It means that we will discover resources that we may not know we have when difficult times hit us. Rich or poor, difficult times are inevitable. Resilience helps to ensure that they won’t knock us down as far, and that we don’t stay down as long as we might have otherwise. In other words, resilience is central, perhaps even crucial to coping effectively with the storms of life. Some people are naturally endowed with this capacity naturally, although it usually doesn’t occur without having gone through some degree of suffering to learn the necessary coping skills.
The “Final Forty”
Psychiatrist and Co-Founder of the Koru Mindfulness Centre, Holly Rogers, M.D. assesses that approximately 50 percent of our capacity to bounce back lies in our genetic inheritance, 10 percent, in our life circumstances, and 40 percent in our mental attitude.
That 40 percent is ours to develop, and if I can raise my happiness level even 10 percent it is worth investigating. Those of us not blessed with “resilience genes” can take comfort in the fact that these traits can be learned. The evidence-based concept of neuroplasticity tells us that changes are possible through out life span as we can lay down new neural pathways in the brain through habit formation.
CTA
I invite you to join me on this adventure. I will bring you stories of the research and the researchers; practice tips and tricks for making little attitude adjustments that could produce positive results in your long-term outlook. I also hope to provide a better understanding of the objective and subjective aspects of that amazing tool that is the human mind.
RRB?
Yes – it is a deliberate play on words that people who have spent time “playing in the mud” will get.
Q2C?
Questions, Comments, and Concerns are welcome – it is a blog.
Thanksgiving
A day to pause and remember our blessings and give thanks for the bounty of the earth and sea.
Also a good habit for every day as it elevates the mood and starts the day off with a positive perspective. This is not new. The Roman philosopher Cicero (1st Century BCE) advised that “Gratitude is the principal virtue – and the prerequisite for all the others.” Wise words, still valid 20 centuries later and a good mindful way to start your day.
KORU BASIC COURSE 2103/IMA 5586 STARTS – WEDNESDAY 6 OCTOBER 2021!
Introduction to Koru Mindfulness
New Resources Page
I consult experts in designing my resilience programs, as well as my yoga and mindfulness classes. This page has free and paid resources for your resilience toolkit.
Mindful Resilience Lessons
Koru Mindfulness Basic Course 2102 (Monday)
- Five-week course that develops skills in stress reduction.
Start date: 4 Oct 2021
Time 7:00 p.m. Atlantic
Duration: 75 minutes
Cost: $175 Cdn
Registration: Koru Basic Koru Basic 2102 (korumindfulness.org)
Contact: IanMacVicarYoga@gmail.com
Koru Basic Mindfulness Course 2103 (Wednesday)
- Four week course that develops skills in stress reduction
- Start date: 6 Oct 2021
- Time: 7:00 Atlantic
- Duration: 75 minutes
- Cost: $150 Cdn
Registration : Koru Basic Koru Basic 2103 (korumindfulness.org)
Contact: IanMacVicarYoga@gmail.com
What will change in your Post Pandemic lifestyle?
The COVID-19 pandemic has had, and continues to have tragic consequences for many families. However, in some cases, the forced need to work from home provided unanticipated opportunities for professional growth. For example, I became a Zoom aficionado during the past year, both in my professional and personal spheres. That never would have happened without the enforced solitude that COVID brought. Our extended family was not unscathed – we had six cases, but thankfully no fatalities – as of yet. We all become much more solicitous of each other’s welfare as well. We intend to keep up these habits post pandemic. What about you?
Stressed out? A Koru Mindfulness course will calm your nerves!
i will be conducting Koru Basic Mindfulness courses this week with start times on Tuesday 1st, Wednesday 2nd, or Thursday 3rd June 2021. More information is available here:
https://student.korumindfulness.org/course-detail.html?course_id=5132
