Recently, at an EDGE 3 retreat, David Graham had us plot our lifelines. It became obvious that all our lifelines had one thing in common – we all had major dips countered by an equally large upward swing. There were times we were winning, and times we felt we had lost. Our lifelines resembled a rollercoaster rather than the smooth, balanced line we had all hoped for. Over the years, I have worked tirelessly hoping that someday I would have…
As an executive coach who plans company retreats, its hard to be objective, however, I understand a leader’s reluctance in hanging the “closed” sign on the door, and hauling an already overworked team to a pricy out of town venue. Sounds frivolous right? First of all, a retreat need not be exotic or overpriced to be effective. There are spectacular venues close to most major Canadian cities and your coach should always have your budget in mind. Secondly, consider shifting…
Nature’s Reset by Devon Domanski. For many of us, September serves as a reset in both our personal and professional lives. The don of the fall season is a significant marker for a lot of things: back-to-school, closing the cottage, end of camp, the Vogue September issue (sorry – we’ve all got our things!), and new routines. I personally celebrate a birthday in September and use this time to really evaluate things in my life. What am I doing really…
After completing my 5th year in the TriAdventure, I feel more even more connected than ever. The notion of hard work, training and endurance, coupled with rallying the support of people in my network for a good cause has always resonated with me and I’m very proud of the results. When I first began, there were roughly the same number of athletes participating, as there were children at the African orphanage, Nikibasika – one for one. It was easy for…
Body Intelligence by Devon Domanski. Have you heard that our bodies ‘just know’? Our bodies like to TELL us stuff; sometimes it’s obvious like when we get knots in our stomachs or goosebumps as an emotional reaction to something, or when we display symptoms that pertain to an illness we’re fighting. Other times it’s less physical, and more subtle. Last week I attended my favourite class at the yoga studio, and my teacher put together an inspiring sequence that related…
In preparation for our upcoming EDGE 3 retreats this September, I thought I’d explore some ideas about nature from my most trusted source…my family! While recently enjoying a ridiculously lazy day at the cottage, I asked them why nature is important to each of them. I wanted to discuss “How nature moves us forward in our day-to-day, and how can it change the way we show up at work?” What fascinated me was that from 10 to 80 years old,…
My mother has always been my greatest role model for how to treat people with kindness and how to approach every human interaction with compassion and curiousity. She was a schoolteacher, and I imagine her as fair as she was kind, and able to provide positive reinforcement when the time was right. She would tell me that it was easy to give attention to the picture perfect pupil at the front of the class who sits up tall and gets…
Asanas On Autopilot by Devon Domanski. In my last blog I talked about starting the first section of my yoga teacher training. With each module, my peers and I are encouraged to take deeper dives into our learning, our practice, and ourselves, and it’s funny how an 8-day intensive is enough time to have some really profound stuff go down. This last module was an emotional roller coaster – navigating through highs, lows, thrills & uncertainty – but I walked…
Taking the Leap into Lotus by Devon Domanski. Earlier this month, I started the first of three Yoga Teacher Training modules which will prepare and certify me as a yoga instructor. It’s an endeavour that’s eliciting excitement and apprehension; confidence and humility; growth and acceptance – a journey I’m grateful to be taking with 17 new friends and 3 very inspiring instructors. My intro to yoga was 19 years ago. I had a high school PhysEd assignment where students had…
It was surprisingly cool for a summer morning in Toronto as I made my way to the edge of the pier with about a hundred other triathletes. We had heard it was going to be a chilly swim, but it wasn’t until I dipped my toe that I realized my wet suit wouldn’t shut out that kind of cold. There’s really no way to prepare for the uncertainty at the start of a triathlon. It’s controlled chaos much like…