It’s true – all good things do come in time. Especially the spring. March isn’t quite spring, but it is close enough when you’re Canadian. Now we see the light… within us and outside of us. So let it shine and smile, because April is almost here!
The Person behind the Voice: Julie Sylvestre
Hi!
My name is Julie Sylvestre. I am the Applied Research Coordinator at Algonquin College in the Ottawa Valley (Pembroke), and also teach part-time in the Environmental Technician Diploma Program at the Pembroke campus.
My first introduction to yoga was in my teens, probably around 1998, in the basement of a building somewhere in Pembroke, Ontario. It’s important to understand that seeking out yoga as a teen in Pembroke circa 1998 wasn’t easy. To be honest, I don’t even really remember how I came to be acquainted with what yoga was and how to find it in Pembroke! This was before yoga experienced hard core commercialization and had yet to proliferate throughout many rural Canadian communities. But, despite all of that, I found yoga in my small Ottawa Valley hometown.
It was in the basement of a local social services office in a room filled with adults twice to triple my age, being taught by a radiant and eccentric middle-aged woman with long, thick, curly red hair. I decided to join for personal reasons: I struggled with a lot of anxiety and bouts of depression, and somewhere, somehow, I heard that yoga might help. And so, I sought yoga to heal.
Fast-forward to my 20’s where I practiced yoga on-and-off in Ottawa, Montreal, and Halifax. During that time, I explored different styles, moods, and paces of yoga. Now, in my 30’s and back in the Ottawa Valley – where I was born and raised – I had the opportunity in 2014 to do my 200-hour Yoga Alliance Teacher Training, under White Pine Yoga Centre in Pembroke, Ontario. It was there where I immersed myself in yoga and where yoga finally became a staple in my life.
Yoga continues to help me in more ways than one. Movement and the breath are two of the most powerful forms of healing. Incorporating breathing exercises and some stretching 10-15 minutes each day, in some shape or form, will only benefit a person in the long run. After all, we are living, breathing human beings – moving and breathing is literally the stuff of life.
For this reason, and many others, I hope you will find Zen4Ten useful in cultivating vitality in your life!
Employees at Algonquin College have access to several great programs to continue learning new skills throughout their careers. There are tuition reimbursement programs, partnerships with other academic institutions for degree programs, and even some continuing education courses that are offered at a reduced tuition rate of $20 per course, if space is available. How awesome is that! For more information on this please visit our website at: https://www.algonquincollege.com/hr/benefits/education-tuition-reimbursement/
Want to achieve a new diploma or certificate but have no time for all the courses? Why don’t you check out Algonquin’s PLAR. Our Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR) is a process that helps adult learners to identify, articulate and demonstrate relevant learning acquired through life and work experiences and translate this learning into college credit. You just might be closer to achieving that diploma than you think.
For more information on our PLAR process, pleases visit our website at: https://www.algonquincollege.com/plar/
February is a hard month to come to terms with. It’s difficult to see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Most of us find the month of February quite challenging on the physical and mental well-being. We may feel cooped up, tired, and down. Use yoga and meditation to create space in the mind and body. These subtle, yet powerful acts can ease us through the month of February.
The Person behind the Voice: Julie Sylvestre
Hi!
My name is Julie Sylvestre. I am the Applied Research Coordinator at Algonquin College in the Ottawa Valley (Pembroke), and also teach part-time in the Environmental Technician Diploma Program at the Pembroke campus.
My first introduction to yoga was in my teens, probably around 1998, in the basement of a building somewhere in Pembroke, Ontario. It’s important to understand that seeking out yoga as a teen in Pembroke circa 1998 wasn’t easy. To be honest, I don’t even really remember how I came to be acquainted with what yoga was and how to find it in Pembroke! This was before yoga experienced hard core commercialization and had yet to proliferate throughout many rural Canadian communities. But, despite all of that, I found yoga in my small Ottawa Valley hometown.
It was in the basement of a local social services office in a room filled with adults twice to triple my age, being taught by a radiant and eccentric middle-aged woman with long, thick, curly red hair. I decided to join for personal reasons: I struggled with a lot of anxiety and bouts of depression, and somewhere, somehow, I heard that yoga might help. And so, I sought yoga to heal.
Fast-forward to my 20’s where I practiced yoga on-and-off in Ottawa, Montreal, and Halifax. During that time, I explored different styles, moods, and paces of yoga. Now, in my 30’s and back in the Ottawa Valley – where I was born and raised – I had the opportunity in 2014 to do my 200-hour Yoga Alliance Teacher Training, under White Pine Yoga Centre in Pembroke, Ontario. It was there where I immersed myself in yoga and where yoga finally became a staple in my life.
Yoga continues to help me in more ways than one. Movement and the breath are two of the most powerful forms of healing. Incorporating breathing exercises and some stretching 10-15 minutes each day, in some shape or form, will only benefit a person in the long run. After all, we are living, breathing human beings – moving and breathing is literally the stuff of life.
For this reason, and many others, I hope you will find Zen4Ten useful in cultivating vitality in your life!
Happy New Year! Use this January yoga sequence to get in the flow of the new semester. Start fresh with a rejuvenating outlook on the new year.
The Person behind the Voice: Julie Sylvestre
Hi!
My name is Julie Sylvestre. I am the Applied Research Coordinator at Algonquin College in the Ottawa Valley (Pembroke), and also teach part-time in the Environmental Technician Diploma Program at the Pembroke campus.
My first introduction to yoga was in my teens, probably around 1998, in the basement of a building somewhere in Pembroke, Ontario. It’s important to understand that seeking out yoga as a teen in Pembroke circa 1998 wasn’t easy. To be honest, I don’t even really remember how I came to be acquainted with what yoga was and how to find it in Pembroke! This was before yoga experienced hard core commercialization and had yet to proliferate throughout many rural Canadian communities. But, despite all of that, I found yoga in my small Ottawa Valley hometown.
It was in the basement of a local social services office in a room filled with adults twice to triple my age, being taught by a radiant and eccentric middle-aged woman with long, thick, curly red hair. I decided to join for personal reasons: I struggled with a lot of anxiety and bouts of depression, and somewhere, somehow, I heard that yoga might help. And so, I sought yoga to heal.
Fast-forward to my 20’s where I practiced yoga on-and-off in Ottawa, Montreal, and Halifax. During that time, I explored different styles, moods, and paces of yoga. Now, in my 30’s and back in the Ottawa Valley – where I was born and raised – I had the opportunity in 2014 to do my 200-hour Yoga Alliance Teacher Training, under White Pine Yoga Centre in Pembroke, Ontario. It was there where I immersed myself in yoga and where yoga finally became a staple in my life.
Yoga continues to help me in more ways than one. Movement and the breath are two of the most powerful forms of healing. Incorporating breathing exercises and some stretching 10-15 minutes each day, in some shape or form, will only benefit a person in the long run. After all, we are living, breathing human beings – moving and breathing is literally the stuff of life.
For this reason, and many others, I hope you will find Zen4Ten useful in cultivating vitality in your life!
Winter’s here. Holidays are fast approaching. Let’s salute the love, merriness, and all around fun times that December brings.
The Person behind the Voice: Julie Sylvestre
Hi!
My name is Julie Sylvestre. I am the Applied Research Coordinator at Algonquin College in the Ottawa Valley (Pembroke), and also teach part-time in the Environmental Technician Diploma Program at the Pembroke campus.
My first introduction to yoga was in my teens, probably around 1998, in the basement of a building somewhere in Pembroke, Ontario. It’s important to understand that seeking out yoga as a teen in Pembroke circa 1998 wasn’t easy. To be honest, I don’t even really remember how I came to be acquainted with what yoga was and how to find it in Pembroke! This was before yoga experienced hard core commercialization and had yet to proliferate throughout many rural Canadian communities. But, despite all of that, I found yoga in my small Ottawa Valley hometown.
It was in the basement of a local social services office in a room filled with adults twice to triple my age, being taught by a radiant and eccentric middle-aged woman with long, thick, curly red hair. I decided to join for personal reasons: I struggled with a lot of anxiety and bouts of depression, and somewhere, somehow, I heard that yoga might help. And so, I sought yoga to heal.
Fast-forward to my 20’s where I practiced yoga on-and-off in Ottawa, Montreal, and Halifax. During that time, I explored different styles, moods, and paces of yoga. Now, in my 30’s and back in the Ottawa Valley – where I was born and raised – I had the opportunity in 2014 to do my 200-hour Yoga Alliance Teacher Training, under White Pine Yoga Centre in Pembroke, Ontario. It was there where I immersed myself in yoga and where yoga finally became a staple in my life.
Yoga continues to help me in more ways than one. Movement and the breath are two of the most powerful forms of healing. Incorporating breathing exercises and some stretching 10-15 minutes each day, in some shape or form, will only benefit a person in the long run. After all, we are living, breathing human beings – moving and breathing is literally the stuff of life.
For this reason, and many others, I hope you will find Zen4Ten useful in cultivating vitality in your life!
Winter’s coming. Winter can be cold, long, and dark… but it also brings bright blue skies, snow that sparkles like jewels under the moonlight, and cozy evenings with loved ones.
My name is Julie Sylvestre. I am the Applied Research Coordinator at Algonquin College in the Ottawa Valley (Pembroke), and also teach part-time in the Environmental Technician Diploma Program at the Pembroke campus.
My first introduction to yoga was in my teens, probably around 1998, in the basement of a building somewhere in Pembroke, Ontario. It’s important to understand that seeking out yoga as a teen in Pembroke circa 1998 wasn’t easy. To be honest, I don’t even really remember how I came to be acquainted with what yoga was and how to find it in Pembroke! This was before yoga experienced hard core commercialization and had yet to proliferate throughout many rural Canadian communities. But, despite all of that, I found yoga in my small Ottawa Valley hometown.
It was in the basement of a local social services office in a room filled with adults twice to triple my age, being taught by a radiant and eccentric middle-aged woman with long, thick, curly red hair. I decided to join for personal reasons: I struggled with a lot of anxiety and bouts of depression, and somewhere, somehow, I heard that yoga might help. And so, I sought yoga to heal.
Fast-forward to my 20’s where I practiced yoga on-and-off in Ottawa, Montreal, and Halifax. During that time, I explored different styles, moods, and paces of yoga. Now, in my 30’s and back in the Ottawa Valley – where I was born and raised – I had the opportunity in 2014 to do my 200-hour Yoga Alliance Teacher Training, under White Pine Yoga Centre in Pembroke, Ontario. It was there where I immersed myself in yoga and where yoga finally became a staple in my life.
Yoga continues to help me in more ways than one. Movement and the breath are two of the most powerful forms of healing. Incorporating breathing exercises and some stretching 10-15 minutes each day, in some shape or form, will only benefit a person in the long run. After all, we are living, breathing human beings – moving and breathing is literally the stuff of life.
For this reason, and many others, I hope you will find Zen4Ten useful in cultivating vitality in your life!
We all have mental health, just like we all have physical health. Both change throughout our lives. And, like our bodies, our minds can become unwell. Although you can’t readily “see” someone who suffers from a mental health illness, the effects are as real as a broken arm or someone suffering the after effects of a brain injury, like a stroke.
We know definitively that depression is an illness in the brain, and this is documented through extensive research. Essentially, what is known is that eventually the hippocampus in the brain shrinks in people who are clinically depressed, and the longer an individual suffers from depression, the greater the effect on brain function.
The hippocampus is responsible for forming new memories, and loss of volume in this area leads to loss of emotional and behavioural function. We need to understand that an individual’s whole sense of self depends on continuously understanding who she or he is in the world. His or her state of memory is not just about remembering a password, it is the whole concept that she or he hold of themselves.
It’s important to note however, that the effects of depression on the brain are reversible with the right treatment for the individual. With this in mind, early intervention is vitally important in treating depression since the hippocampus is one of the most important regenerative areas of the brain.
Getting treatment makes sense, right? It’s clearly really important to the individual on many levels, so why don’t people get treatment? I think we can all answer that one. Part may be a lack of knowledge about mental illness or understanding what is going on and why s/he are experiencing these symptoms.
However, a bigger factor is stigma. Many people with mental health illness experience stigma, which is the negative attitudes and behaviours others display around them. Stigma spreads misinformation, fear and perpetuates stereotypes. According to the Mental Health Commission of Canada, more than 60% of people with mental illness won’t seek the help they need and stigma is the main reason. People living with mental health disorders often say the stigma they encounter from family, friends, coworkers and peers is worse than the illness itself. Science doesn’t lie people, neither do MRI’s or neuroimaging. Depression is a physical and mental illness and treating it and people who suffer from it like it isn’t is unacceptable.
Mental health problems are actually more common than you think. Stats show that one in four of us will be affected by mental illness in any year and it is likely that one day you, one of your friends, colleagues or family members will experience a mental health problem. Yet mental illness is still surrounded by prejudice, ignorance and fear.
It’s time to start talking about mental health, break down the stigma associated with it and help people who are suffering but afraid to get help. Human Resources, in partnership with the Canadian Mental Health Association, have created a video on mental health and how to start the conversation, support your friends, coworkers and family. Please check it out, you just might help someone or be helped yourself one day.
The month of October is all about transitions. The temperature is dropping, the leaves are changing, and we’re beginning to mentally prepare for the onslaught of winter. So remember to transition from sitting to standing in your day, from being still to moving. The body and our minds require exercise. Use this 10 minute yoga and meditation practice to incorporate these healthy transitions into your day.
Please watch and learn from Mr. October. These activities can be reproduced at your desk.
The Person behind the Voice: Julie Sylvestre
Hi!
My name is Julie Sylvestre. I am the Applied Research Coordinator at Algonquin College in the Ottawa Valley (Pembroke), and also teach part-time in the Environmental Technician Diploma Program at the Pembroke campus.
My first introduction to yoga was in my teens, probably around 1998, in the basement of a building somewhere in Pembroke, Ontario. It’s important to understand that seeking out yoga as a teen in Pembroke circa 1998 wasn’t easy. To be honest, I don’t even really remember how I came to be acquainted with what yoga was and how to find it in Pembroke! This was before yoga experienced hard core commercialization and had yet to proliferate throughout many rural Canadian communities. But, despite all of that, I found yoga in my small Ottawa Valley hometown.
It was in the basement of a local social services office in a room filled with adults twice to triple my age, being taught by a radiant and eccentric middle-aged woman with long, thick, curly red hair. I decided to join for personal reasons: I struggled with a lot of anxiety and bouts of depression, and somewhere, somehow, I heard that yoga might help. And so, I sought yoga to heal.
Fast-forward to my 20’s where I practiced yoga on-and-off in Ottawa, Montreal, and Halifax. During that time, I explored different styles, moods, and paces of yoga. Now, in my 30’s and back in the Ottawa Valley – where I was born and raised – I had the opportunity in 2014 to do my 200-hour Yoga Alliance Teacher Training, under White Pine Yoga Centre in Pembroke, Ontario. It was there where I immersed myself in yoga and where yoga finally became a staple in my life.
Yoga continues to help me in more ways than one. Movement and the breath are two of the most powerful forms of healing. Incorporating breathing exercises and some stretching 10-15 minutes each day, in some shape or form, will only benefit a person in the long run. After all, we are living, breathing human beings – moving and breathing is literally the stuff of life.
For this reason, and many others, I hope you will find Zen4Ten useful in cultivating vitality in your life!
You have many options when it comes to selecting oils for cooking. There’s avocado oil, canola oil, coconut oil, corn oil, olive oil, palm oil, peanut oil and sesame oil.
There’s something you should know, oil changes its original taste and nutrition content in the cooking process. When you’re cooking at a high heat, you want to use oils that are stable and don’t oxidize or go rancid easily. Not all oils are created equal. In fact, no one oil can be used for all things. With oil, you can bake, fry, sauté, burn, or just keep as is.
High Heat Cooking
When it comes to high heat cooking, coconut oil is your best choice. Over 90% of the fatty acids in it are saturated, which makes it very resistant to heat. Coconut Oil also contains a unique combination of fatty acids with powerful medicinal properties. Almost 50% of the fatty acids in coconut oil is the 12-carbon Lauric Acid. The fats in coconut oil can also boost metabolism slightly and increase feelings of fullness compared to other fats. It is the only cooking oil that made it to my list of superfoods.
Dipping and Dressing
The oil you dip and dress, and then consume are usually not altered after its purchase. (Unless it expires, in that case, its properties definitely do change).
Flax, olive, peanut, toasted sesame or walnut oil are delicious and can be ready for consumption as is.
Share with us your what you like to cook with oil in the comments below or by emailing wellness@algonquincollege.com for a chance to win a $100 Bryson Farm’s gift card!
Spring is upon us. This means the snow has melted to reveal cigarette butts, and to unravel your allergies. It’s not all bad however, Spring means warmer weather and happier faces. Spring means enthusiastic cyclists, blooming flowers and flying kites. Also, get excited for PoutineFest, Tulip Festival and the Farmer’s Market!
What will you be doing this Spring?
Share with us your exciting Spring activities in the comments below or by emailing wellness@algonquincollege.com for a chance to win a $100 Bryson Farm’s gift card!
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Hi!
Hi!
Spring is upon us. This means the snow has melted to reveal cigarette butts, and to unravel your allergies. It’s not all bad however, Spring means warmer weather and happier faces. Spring means enthusiastic cyclists, blooming flowers and flying kites. Also, get excited for PoutineFest, Tulip Festival and the Farmer’s Market!