A Black Diamond yoga instructor is giving people the tools they need to connect with their inner space in a unique workshop this month.
Melanie Dawn is hosting Mindfulness 101, a free 90-minute workshop that teaches people how to apply the practice of mindfulness to everyday life by accessing their five layers of self - physical, energetic, mental, emotional and spiritual - at Focus FITness in Black Diamond March 28 at 10 a.m.
“You don’t realize that you’re at the mercy of your surroundings until you truly adopt the mindfulness technique,” said Dawn. “It’s such a pure heart that I’m offering this. I have no expectation that they’re going to love it or hate it. I just hope they’ll find some kind of peace.”
Dawn is a registered yoga teacher who has been leading drop-in classes at various venues in Black Diamond, Turner Valley, Okotoks and Calgary. She currently holds sessions at Formation Martial Arts in Turner Valley and The Nest in Okotoks.
The idea for the workshop stemmed from Dawn’s realization that she wasn’t doing enough for her community.
“I wasn’t becoming an active contributor to the community,” she said. “I thought, what can I offer? What skill set do I have that could increase the vibration of our neighbourood?”
Dawn figured her recent training and certification in yoga nidra, a relaxation technique commonly known as yogic sleep that accesses the five layers of self, would be a good start. Some of the techniques she learned include releasing tension and bringing awareness to breath.
“How you breathe tells who you are,” she said. “If you live in a head-space and you’re inside your mind, your breath would be very shallow. I’m going to get people breathing into their belly.”
Mindfulness 101 will also address emotional and mental awareness, Dawn said.
“I’ll bring up words like ‘gratitude’ and have them sit with that feeling sensation,” she said. “For mental awareness it’s watching your thoughts, the quality of those thoughts and are they in alignment with who you are and what you think.”
Dawn said she conducts intuitive readings for people on a weekly basis, and that the demand is increasing.
“What I see in those sessions is a lot of people are detached from their own bodies and their own stories,” she said. “When they come in I reconnect them with it. You don’t learn anything new, but you reinforce what you maybe are hiding or not acknowledging.”
Since beginning her own mindfulness journey 14 years ago, Dawn said she’s come a long way.
“I was an anxious mess and couldn’t sleep at night because I over thought everything,” she said. “Most of us wake up tired because we go to sleep holding on to so much physical tension. That’s where it started with me is practicing the mindfulness practices that were guided by yoga teachers.”
Dawn’s outreach won’t end with the workshop. She hopes to bring these techniques to others in the community including children and seniors.
“I would like to do this one to start and see how it goes,” she said. “If it’s well received I will make it an ongoing thing for the community.”
To register for Mindfulness 101 go to https://www.melaniedawnyoga.com/eventswheel's
