Monday 22 June 2015

JUN 26 FREE TALK- Fun Summer Health Tips and more


With the warm weather upon us we often find ourselves spending more time outside enjoying the weather.

Summer is a time of abundance: increased temperature and sunshine bring vegetation, plants, insects and exciting festivities. For kids and adults, playing sports, being outside, and enjoying the water can be enjoyable but also a time where first aid situations may come about.

Join Dr. Pete ND and Holistic Therapist Effie for a fun evening of summer health tips!

Dr. Pete brings unique natural health tips to make this summer a safe and happy one.

Learn new approaches in the areas of:
1) Skin health
2) Top 10 homeopathic medicines for your first aid kit
3) Non-sugary summer drink recipes (samples will be provided!)

The outdoors can offer a wonderful healing opportunity but often we are so busy that we do we don't take the time to be present.

Holistic therapist Effie will share:
1) A unique understanding of the healing power of flowers and plants around us
2) Simple, practical techniques to engage Mother Nature's healing energy
3) A guided meditation for releasing tension by connecting with the healing power of nature

Bring all your summer health questions (or other topics) for an open discussion!

Pete and Effie recently moved up to Barrie and opened their holistic healing centre near Dunlop Street West and Ferndale Dr.

Come out for the free talk and say hello to your newest neighbours :)

Dr. Pete Douros
Awakened Heart Naturopathic
drpete@awakenedheart.ca
705-881-7615

Effie Mitskopoulos MSW, RSW, CHt, CYT, R-KYT, Reiki Master
SoulBody Healer
soulbodyhealer@gmail.com
705-881-6028


https://www.facebook.com/events/639922472805017/ 

Monday 1 June 2015

Manifest Your Best Future Self Today!

Manifest Your Best Future Self


Dear lovely, shining, beings of light!

"As you think, so you are. The mind guides your actions and emotions. If you do not have a good road map, then you cannot know where you are going. You are just driving without aim, choice, or control."   ~ Yogi Bhajan

What are you goals for the future? How do you see your Future Self?

How you think of yourself is who you are.
If you see yourself as a confident person, then that is who your brain and body projects you.
If you don’t see yourself as confident, then that is what you are manifesting.
If you want to be a confident person, then visualize yourself as being currently confident.

Your brain and body only understands the present moment
, so how you think of yourself NOW, is who your brain and body is creating in the present and the future. Thus, be mindful of your thoughts, for they are creating your present and your future!

Your mind is a very powerful tool you can use to your advantage to achieve what you want in life. To manifest what you want for your future, believe that you are that person today.

Visualize your Future Self: what you look like, how you feel, and how you interact with others. Try to use all your senses in the visualization: sight, smell, hear, touch, taste, and sense (emotions). This will make your future self more potent for your brain and body and it will believe that you are what you visualize.

The best time to do this visualization is when your brain is the most influenced to suggestion; right before you fall asleep and right after you wake up (you can also do this during meditation or hypnosis). During this delicate time, your brain is in a very restorative state that readily absorbs your experience and changes your brain connections faster and more effectively. So be mindful of what you are putting into your brain at those times and put something good in there!


Monday 25 May 2015

Beyond Addiction: The Yogic Path to Recovery








Facebook asks: what have you been up to?
Well, I just came back from Owen Sound where I attended a 9-day immersion course for Beyond Addiction: The Yogic Path to Recovery.

This course was developed by Sat Dharam Kaur ND and Jivan Joti Kaur PhD and featured Dr. Gabor Mate.






I will post a full experience to come, but for today I will share a quote from Buddha's Dhammapada that is in the manual:

Mind creates the world;
What you see arises with your thoughts.
If you speak and act with a confused mind,
Trouble will follow you as certainly as a cart follows the ox that pulls it.


Mind creates the world;
What you see arises with your thoughts.
If you speak and act with a clear mind,
Happiness will follow you as certainly as your own shadow in sunlight.

"It's his fault." "She shouldn't have done that."
Believe such thoughts, and you live in resentment.

"It's his fault." "She shouldn't have done that."
Question such thoughts, and you live in freedom.

Anger teaches anger.
Fear results in more fear.
Only understanding can lead to peace.
This is the ancient law.

Tuesday 19 May 2015

Sprout Into Your Potential



Sprout
Into Your Potential
By Dr. Pete Douros, ND & 
Effie Mitskopoulos, MSW, RSW

What is smaller than a grain of rice and holds the potential to create and sustain life? Something that can sprout into a towering tree and live for thousands of years?

Mother Nature has provided us the gift of seeds, which are abundant with living energy and vitality. In order for nature’s magic to happen, a seed needs a supportive environment to grow and flourish. Given the right conditions its potential energy is unlocked and it buds and blossoms into something powerful! 

Similarly, we are like the seed. We have so much potential energy and vitality within us that’s waiting to be unlocked so we can grow and flourish. Each person’s journey to sprout into their best state of health has many dimensions and potential paths. Allow us to help guide you in figuring out your wellness goals, make a plan of your journey, and assist you on your journey to increased vitality. 

In a supportive, compassionate and comfortable environment explore your physical, mental-emotional and spiritual needs and collaborate on treatments that will help you feel better. We offer a wide variety of holistic treatments and healthy lifestyle coaching from Naturopathic treatments and counseling to yoga, energy work and more. 

We feel joy in seeing our clients flourish into their full potential and lead healthy and happy lives.  Find us near Dunlop St. West and Ferndale Dr. in Barrie.

Did you know that Naturopathic Treatments and Registered Social Work are covered by many Extended Health Benefit plans?
Dr. Pete Douros, ND, DHMHS, BBA (Hons)  
Happy to serve you: Naturopathy, Homeopathy, Applied Kinesiology and Koren Specific Technique
 www.awakenedheart.ca 705-881-7615
Effie Mitskopoulos, (Hons BSc), MSW, RSW, CHt, Reiki Master, CYT, R-KYT  
Happy to serve you: Psychotherapy, Hypnotherapy, Reiki, Meditation, Mindfulness, Hatha and Kundalini Yoga www.soulbodyhealer.com 705-881-6028

Check it out!
http://www.joomag.com/magazine/another-view-magazine-barrie-spring-2015/0484800001431616006?short

Monday 11 May 2015

Healthy Sound- Peruvian Whistling Vessels

Come in sets of 4, 8, and 12
Archeologists have been finding these clay pots at burial sites and sacred places in the Andes for centuries, thinking that they were only 'amusing liquid containers'. Some of the oldest vessels have been dated from 500-300BC.

The ones pictured here were specially made for Dale, at WindSpirit in Orillia. They were made with clay that was blessed and incorporated her own positive intention and blessings. She graciously shared them with us so we could experience their healing power. But the magic happens when they are all whistling together. So we all took turns blowing into the vessels.

This one wanted me to play him!

Sound has been long associated with shifting consciousness and also bridging a connection to other realms. In many traditions, the breath is considered as life force energy. Using my life force energy, I took a big breath, and started to blow, long, steady and rhythmically into the spout.  Interestingly, the sound comes out through a hole that is at the level of your 6th Chakra (Third Eye), the seat of intuition and higher vision. The sound vibrates the eardrums, sends nerve impulses to the brain, which the brain decodes, energy shifts, consciousness shifts, and one has an experience!

For me, I could feel an immediate calming effect, as happens when one centers in on the breath. But it was much more than becoming calm. I could hear different waves and pitches, the sounds felt like they were coming from inside my head. Only in my right ear did I hear sounds that seemed like something was trying to communicate with me. I focused on my breath and my own positive intention, when an immense clarity was brought to my attention. It was so powerful that a tear came to my eye. I felt this authentic vision of myself, about my purpose.  Thank you Dale for sharing your sacred vessels and thank you to the vessels for this incredible experience!





Monday 4 May 2015

Plants for Well-being

I repotted my Golden Pothos so it can grow long tendrils so I can spread the vines along my meditation room wall.

I find working with plants very therapeutic. All we have to do to is give them love, water and put them in an appropriate location and they happily clean our air and give us life sustaining oxygen! And when they flourish you can honour a sense of accomplishment and feeling that you are a loving and nurturing being.

Plants are so nurturing in fact, that they will lower your cortisol levels, heart rate, and blood pressure so you feel a sense of calm and tranquility. Even looking out the window at a tree has this effect!



Why is composting important?


I set up our compost bin today, but why is composting important? 




-reduces the amount of waste we send to the landfill (so we don't 
  live in garbage city)
-returns nutrients to the land, garden, lawn, and soil (compost 
 contains more nutrients than peat moss!)
-helps mother earth stay healthy so we can stay healthy!



Friday 3 April 2015

What is Reiki?

Reiki s a form of energy healing that creates balance within the physical body, mind, and energetic body. It primarily works to enhance the recipients’ life force and energy fields that maintain the entire human body. One’s life force energy is directly linked to their primary energy centres (chakras) and their endocrine system (whose glands are in the physical region of the chakras!). It is Universal Life Force energy that flows through the hands of the practitioner, who has been attuned and is a conduit of this energy.  Because at the core of our being we are essentially energy, from the primary Source/Universe, it is much easier to access any dis-ease by cleansing the energy centres, which the endocrine glands process. Therefore, healing can take place on multidimensional levels: physical, mental, emotional, and energetic. Since we are in the realm of Universal Life Energy, Reiki has no limits to time and space; a Reiki practitioner can send healing energy across a distance and throughout time.

Thursday 2 April 2015

Spiritual Events over the the past few years....

August 26-September 1, 2013 Yin Yoga Training with Bernie Clark and Diana Batts (Vancouver)
What an enriching experiencing, for my teaching, but also for my soul. The days were long and began with meditation and yin yoga at 7am, but yet as each day came to a close I didn't wish it to end. I made sure to take many mindful moments to really soak in what I was experiencing. Bernie has a special gift of teaching his passion for science, anatomy, energy, philosophy, and yoga in a very organized and riveting manner. I learned so much about connective tissue and human skeletal variation. I really feel that I am able to facilitate the health of these tissues and the liberation of the energy that flows through them. Much compassion is cultivated for those who are unable to fold themselves into poses- it's not that you're not open enough, there is nothing wrong with you, your bones fit together exactly as they were meant to be! I was surprised to see that my own recognition of the complementary nature between Eastern and Western views of spirituality and psychology were also in line with Bernie's teachings. He also brought an amazing awareness behind the science of energy. I learned some new tricks to energy healing called earthing...as well as yin yoga of course! It was an enlightening week of yoga, meditation, insight, and lovely people to share it with. 

June 29-30, 2013- Hay House I Can Do It Conference
I was blessed to have an experience volunteering for this consciousness raising event with my beloved. Sitting alongside him while hearing protests of positive change, inspiration, wisdom, and love lifted our hearts and transcended our relationship. I must say that I was rather star struck sitting in the third row looking up at Doreen Virtue. I wanted to ask the long tingling question of my soul but couldn't remember it in her presence. Only after we left the auditorium did I remember My quest for opening my intuition. Bruce Lipton dazzled us with the scientific explanation of the "honeymoon effect" and Gregg Braden showed us that by surrounding ourselves with love allows us to live longer and heal from disease! And of course Brian Weiss regressed me back to a another life that gave me insight and understanding. And who could forget the wisdom of Dr. Wayne Dyer.

March 21-24, 2013- Toronto Annual Yoga Conference
What a lovely afternoon meeting people in promoting energy modalities of healing. I saw exhibits in meditation, chiropractic, Qi Gong, Tai Chi, crystal healing, nutrition, acupressure, massage, eco friendly products, psychics, and Yoga of course! I also saw a zen social worker, yay! Maybe one day I'll have my own exhibit! It's comforting to see that there's a whole conference that validates that healing your energy gives you great health, peace, and bliss. 
 
February 9-10, 2013- Reiki Level 2 Certification
Once I did the first level I was hooked to open my chakras even more with this second level. Now I can use the sacred symbols to intensify detoxification and healing and also take upon distance healing. I was amidst finishing my Masters of Social Work but still felt it important to take a weekend and pursue my journey of energy healing.

July 6-7, 2012- Reiki Level 1 Certification with the beautiful and gracious Tara Antler
I kinda fell into this training, or more appropriately it chose me. I had met Tara one brief Sunday afternoon before I taught my regular class at Jaya Yoga Studio 6 months ago.  For some reason the words of "one day I'd like to do Reiki" rolled off my lips. And with this she put me on her mailing list! The trainings kept on happening but the time wasn't right and then one Wednesday an email came regarding a last minute training starting Friday. I felt the stars were aligned! I later came to know that we are called to Reiki only when the time is right. At first I only wanted to open my own intuition and chakras for health. But now I am compelled to serve as a conduit of The Divine Energy for others' healing. Thank you to God and Tara for the opportunity.

June 22-23, 2012- Hay House I Can Do It Conference
              This is a spiritual conference I volunteered for.  I didn't know what I was getting myself into but it lifted me up! It was positively amazing! It shifted me into such a joyous place, a place of higher vibration. It was a fun filled event with oodles of wisdom and laughter!  It started off with Dr. Wayne Dyer, sharing his wisdom of how to manifest your wishes....remember they have to be aligned with your higher self in order to come true. But don't worry, these dreams are always amazing and exactly what you need! Gregg Braden blew my mind with evidence of peaceful civilizations dating back to 11 000BC- see we are a meant to make love not war :) The lively Bruce Lipton eloquently explained the science  behind energy and spirituality and the calming Brian Weiss regressed me to past life that showered me with love. The first day ended with beautiful Doreen Virtue having a conversation with Angels. In my quest for healing, I bought her Angel Therapy book and got it signed! 

June 1-2, 2012- Integrating Asian Healing Techniques into Mental Health

Yoga was a highlight at this conference. It has so many benefits for the mind, body, and soul.  No wonder mental health practitioners in the West are taking notice and beginning to incorporate it into their practice!  

This is something I am aspiring to do.  As a psychotherapist (in the past) and as a current social work student (Masters), I have been incorporating relaxation, meditation, postures, and philosophy in order to increase the well being of my clients.  Breathing and postures help to alleviate pain and move nutrients and Energy around healing the body.  Meditation heals the mind.  Furthermore, ideals such as acceptance and compassion toward the self and others are primary in Asian Healing Techniques.  In Western research and practice all of these practices have proven to be very therapeutic for clients being treated for anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues.  

Vital Force Energy was also touched on in this conference.  I attended the Qi Gong workshop and marvelled at how analogous Chinese Energy was from Yogic Prana...because they are the same thing!  We all have this Energy inside of us, blockages of Energy create illness.  Yoga and other healing techniques working with Energy flow remove the blocks and restore vitality.  Although Reiki wasn't covered in this conference it is yet another mode of clearing negative energies in the mind, body, and soul.  

Just to recap a couple more workshops, I attended: Yoga for Trauma, How the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali can translate into ones mental health practice (including the ideals described above), Buddhist Psychology, Kundalini Yoga (I highly recommend this more spiritual and meditative practice in uplifting your mood...and your soul!), and Soul Healing (through chanting and meditation).  Also highlighted were the healing practices of Shamans and Mystics in India and acupuncture in China. 

I am so grateful to be in the field of healing and that Energy practice is becoming more widespread and accepted here in the West.  When one heals the Spirit, one cures the body and the mind.  So let's be healthy together!

January 15, 2012- Consciousness Club (private gathering)
            A gathering of like-minded individuals expressing thoughts about life and the universe. Yogic and other philosophies tend to be commonly expressed.  Today's main theme emerged from living in a state of gratitude.  We also joined in a short group meditation.  You could really feel the warm energy coming from these delightful individuals.
 
April 15-17, 2011- Toronto Annual Yoga Conference
           This event was so much fun :) I picked up Chakra meditations stones, a cute bees wax Buddha candle, inspirational wall scrolls, a beautiful Indian silk skirt and wonderful energy! I also greeted some friends within the yoga icommunity. It was a full day of love, smiles, and good energy :)

March 12, 2011- Toronto Bikram Yoga Competition held at The Second City
           Yoga is not about competition, it is about grace, compassion and harmony. So us participants regarded this experience as a demonstration of a practice we love! Check out the pics in my Gallery!

Wednesday 1 April 2015

Here is a list of where you can find me currently teaching regularly:

Jaya Yoga Centre: 121 Willowdale Ave Suite 302, Toronto, ON www.jayayoga.ca
Please join me every Wednesday!
6:30-7:45pm Yin Yang Yoga
8:00-9:15pm Restorative Yoga

You are always welcome to contact me for private yoga or Reiki sessions!