About Peace Halifax Program MindSets Yoga
About Peace Halifax
We were honoured to have Mme. Sophie Gregoire Trudeau tape a personal welcome message for Peace Halifax volunteers and participants celebrating our first year at the Halifax Central Library!
Situations in our world, our community, and even our own homes, can leave us feeling out of sorts. But three simple words can remind us of the power within each of us to hit the reset button whenever we choose.
#IAmPeace. Join us at Peace Halifax, a festival of ideas, music and fun set in an historic, beautiful space. Come experience the peace that’s inside of each one of us.
#IAmPeace. Come enjoy a pause, an experience of reflection and rejuvenation,at Peace Halifax, a day-long festival offered as a gift to the people of Halifax.
Hosted by the Brahma Kumaris Meditation Centre, Peace Halifax is about rediscovering the magic and practical expression of peace and taking it home with you. Similar events are organized annually in England and the United States. This is the second year for the event in Canada!
Date: Saturday, September 22, 2018
Time: 9 am to 5 pm
Location: Halifax Central Library, 5440 Spring Garden Rd.
All events at Peace Halifax are completely free of charge and open to everyone!
Peace Halifax Program
DOWNLOAD & PRINT YOUR OWN PEACE HALIFAX SCHEDULE NOW
PAUL O’REGAN HALL
Join us for inspiring talks at the top of every hour, learn how to meditate in 20 minutes, or move to the rhythm of our pocket raves. Paul O’Regan Hall will be full of peaceful activity during Peace Halifax.
MindSets: Engage your mind. Inspire your spirit. Every hour on the hour Peace Halifax will host spiritual talks in the well-know style of TED Talks.Our MindSets feature wise souls from across Canada, each giving a 21-minute talk on topics designed to cool the mind and warm the heart.
Learn How to Meditate in 20 Minutes: Begin the journey to inner peace. Guided meditation instruction at 10:30, 11:30, 12:30, 1:30, and 2:30.
Pocket Raves: Get ready to groove to the beat for 10 minutes every hour! 10:50, 11:50, 12:50, 1:50, 2:50.
1ST LEVEL OUTDOORS
The Peace Halifax experience begins as soon as you enter the plaza of the Halifax Central Library. Tell us what peace means to you on our Wonderwall. Sit in contemplation beside our Zen Garden or reflect as you walk through the Stepping Stones to Peace.
1ST LEVEL LOBBY
Once inside the Halifax Central Library look for our Emergency Optimist near the front door. Stop by for a consultation guaranteed to help you bring balance and peace back into your life. Or browse through the selection of books about peace, curated by the Central library’s staff.
Portraits of Peace will be featured in the library’s lounge area, highlighting wisdom from some of the world’s most peaceful beings.
Peace Sticks: Let your creative spirit flow from 10 am to 3:45 pm. Decorate your own birch stick using a range of art materials. You can also bring your stick upstairs to the First Nations Circle on the 3rd floor for our Sharing Circle of Peace at 11 am or 1 pm.
Peace Tree: Hold a thought of peace for the world while you tie a ribbon on the peace tree.
2ND LEVEL
Face painting takes place at the top of the 2nd floor stairs in front of the BMO Community Room. Put on a peaceful face and take a picture with our peaceful picture frame and fun costumes.
Family Crafternoon join us in the Lindsay Children’s room from 2:30 to 3:30 pm as we make paper peace wreaths.
THE EVERYDAY ART OF LIVING PEACE (BMO Community Room 2:00 pm -3:15 pm)
In this workshop we will focus on exploring how we can live peace in our everyday activities. Using experiments in open-eyed standing, walking, sitting meditation, we will discuss being peace and finding ways to bring us back to our peaceful selves.
Debbie Castle has a PhD in education & visioning. David Fletcher has a PhD in community resilience and indigenous wisdom. Together they are a dynamic duo who work with individuals, indigenous peoples and communities around the world to create peace through social change.
While living in Ethiopia, Debbie was introduced to Raja Yoga meditation. David began practicing meditation after experiences with Raja Yoga in India in 2002. They study with the Brahma Kumaris in Antigonish.
Yoga schedule
FAMILY YOGA with JULIE COLEMAN (10:30 am – 11:25 am – Room 301)
During our family yoga session we will take time together to connect with our hearts, bodies, minds and spirit. Join us as we share in playful yoga storytelling, breath awareness, song, individual and partner/group poses, creativity and stillness.
Julie Coleman (RYT, RCYT), connects to her yoga practice from a place of love, wonder, and pure joy that emanates through her teaching of alignment-based, heart-centered Hatha Yoga. She has been weaving the many practices of natural healing, and wellness for almost two decades, and is committed to creating a space for self-discovery, where others feel inspired and empowered. Julie celebrates her passion of teaching yoga to children and families as a means to create greater connection, joy and peace within.
Julie co-facilitates a 95 hour children’s yoga teacher training with Grow A Lotus Yoga, where she thrives on bringing the spirit of play and living from the heart to life.
LAUGHTER YOGA with HELEN FONG (11:30 am – 12:25 pm – Room 301)
During our laughter yoga session we will be participating in a group exercise using breath control (pranayama), meditation and movement to establish a state of happiness without using humour, jokes or comedy. Please join us to ‘fake it until you make it’ with laughter yoga exercises starting in a chair with options to move about.
In today’s world, people want to be healthy, they want to be happy, but instead they are getting stressed out, depressed, getting less sleep, more negative thoughts and feeling isolated. Does this sound like you? Are you someone who wants to move on and bring more laughter and joy into your life? You are in the right place. No yoga mat required. Please bring a bottle of water.
Helen Fong is a dedicated full-time Certified Laughter Yoga Leader and Certified Yoga Teacher with advanced training in Hatha Yoga, Yin Yoga, Laughter Yoga and Pre/Postnatal since 2006.
Training extensively in Halifax and Vancouver. It all began in 1998. She attended her first yoga class at Therapeutic Approach Yoga Studio while recovering from a motor vehicle accident and studying at Dalhousie University. A proud Dal Alum with an Advanced Major in Neuroscience.
Being of service to her community, Helen chooses to volunteer her time at patient wellness programs at the Abbie J Lane hospital and adult wellness programs at the Keshen Goodman Public Library on a regular basis. Living yoga on and off the mat is her passion and profession. Instagram @fonghelenyoga Twitter @helenfong
ALL LEVELS GROUP YOGA with JODY MYERS (12:30 om – 1:25 pm – Room 301)
During this session practitioners will have the wonderful opportunity to experience their own meditative yoga flow while combining their energies with other yogis in a field of Presence, all in support of Peace Day. Yoga teachers from all traditions are encouraged to invite their experienced yoga students so we can all practice together. Small intro in the beginning and short discussion at the end.
Facilitated by Jody Myers, senior Kripalu yoga teacher and founder of Atlantic Yoga Teacher Training with 38 years of yoga teaching, facilitating and training of yoga teachers.
RESTORATIVE YOGA with JENNIFER BELL-HARDING (1:30 – 2:55 pm – Room 301)
During our yoga session we will take time together to experience peace by letting go in Restorative supported shapes. If you have an eye pillow or favorite prop, bring it along. I will provide bolsters, blankets and blocks.
In 1985, while studying Theology at Mount A, Jennifer Bell-Harding was drawn to Transcendental Meditation to help reduce violence and crime in her community. She has been devoted to her daily meditation practice since then.
Jennifer was certified to teach Hatha Yoga at the Rama Lotus Yoga Centre in Ottawa, in 2004. Then she returned to Rama Lotus to receive her certification in Kundalini Yoga, in 2005. By 2013 she was certified as a Professional Kripalu Yoga Teacher, after completing 300 more hours of training at Kripalu in Stockbridge, Mass. Recently she was certified to teach Chair Yoga too.
She founded “Yoga in Russell” based in Russell Ontario in 2004 and had a thriving Yoga practice before returning to Halifax in 2014.
Jennifer has learned to adapt the traditional teachings for Prenatal, Baby and Mom, Restorative, and Chair yoga students. During the summer she loves to share her practice in the park or on the beach.
Jennifer currently teaches at the Halifax Community Centre at Chocolate Lake, where she also practices with her beloved teacher who introduced her to Kripalu Yoga in 1987. Seva has been a lifelong calling for Jennifer. She volunteered for many organizations but she finally realized her dream of volunteering to teach Yoga at Bryony House.
SHARING CIRCLE OF PEACE (11:00 am & 1:00 pm – First Nations Circle, 3rd floor)
How do you remain peaceful in polarizing times?
That’s the question respected Elder Billy Lewis will explore during a Sharing Circle designed to offer Peace Halifax visitors an introduction to the ancient practice.
Experience the peaceful energy and deep respect that are hallmarks of the talking circle. We’ll explore how to personally ‘keep the peace’ and learn about the principles behind talking circles at the same time.
Join us at 11:00 am & 1:00 pm in the First Nations Circle on the 3rd floor at the front of the library.
MindSets
Engage your mind. Inspire your spirit. Every hour on the hour Peace Halifax will host spiritual talks in the well-know style of TED Talks. Our MindSets feature wise souls from across Canada, each giving a 21-minute talk on topics designed to cool the mind and warm the heart.
PUTTING FLEXIBILITY FIRST with LILA ROBERTSON (10 am – Paul O’Regan Hall)
We have all heard of the health benefits of maintaining supple and flexible muscles in our bodies, but what about the health benefits of maintaining supple and flexible thoughts in our minds? This talk will explore a few key tips on how we can cultivate and maintain a flexible mind. In an ever-increasing polarized world, putting flexibility first brings great benefit to ourselves and others, improving the well being of us all.
Lila has been a student of Raja Yoga meditation for over 15 years. She aims to apply the teachings to all areas of her life-family, career, and community. Being a professional teacher for 21 years she loves to witness transformation and believes in the potential and power of each individual and in the process of lifelong learning.
INNER FITNESS with JUDI RICH (11AM – Paul O’Regan Hall)
Exercise your third eye and flex your spiritual muscles. This session will focus on the foundation of well-being as we re-awaken a pure vision of the self, and explore how to integrate that awareness into day-to-day life…thereby lifting the ordinary to the sacred.
Judi formally began her spiritual journey in 1992, when she discovered a Brahma Kumaris Centre in her hometown of Calgary. From childhood, there had been interest in ‘the bigger questions of life’, and how the answers might contribute to a kinder world. Through the study of Raja Yoga, a spiritual practice, Judi feels she has not only found the answers she sought, but re-awakened a capacity we all have for deep contentment, peace and stability.
In addition to currently serving as the Centre Coordinator for the Brahma Kumaris Centre in Calgary, Judi works as a graphic designer and fitness instructor.
THE ART OF STAYING HAPPY with Judy Johnson (noon – Paul O’Regan Hall)
Happiness is a state of mind ~ or so they say. Most of us want to be happy. Our pursuit of happiness takes us to have amazing adventures and to buy new things and spend time with friends. Is it possible to create a state of mind that nourishes happiness? Staying happy is an art that can be mastered from the inside-out. Knowing the secrets of staying happy allow you to create your own. Join us to explore the 3 Hs of happiness.
Judy Johnson has worked in the field of leadership development and organizational effectiveness for 30 years. Judy works as a facilitator, consultant and coach to managers, directors and teams in health care, government, private and community based organizations in N. America, Europe, Latin America and Asia.
Judy studies Raja Yoga meditation and currently coordinates the activities of the Brahma Kumaris meditation centre in Halifax, Canada.
MASTERING YOUR STATE OF MIND with MARA VIZZUTTI (1 PM – Paul O’Regan Hall)
Do you have a busy brain? If so, you are not alone. For the majority of people, life is very demanding. We are navigating multiple daily demands at work, on our cell phones and on the home front.
Over time, this can produce feelings of overwhelm, overstimulation and fatigue. However, our natural state of inner peace is certainly available to us.With intention and practice, we can cultivate more calm in both body and mind. Join me in exploring how you can begin to master a more peaceful state of mind.
Mara Vizzutti is a seasoned facilitator and executive coach who’s been studying and practising meditation intermittently for 14 years. In 2013, Mara discovered the Brahma Kumaris Raja yoga approach to meditation and has been practising it ever since. She has found great value in the practise and the teachings that underpin them. Mara also facilitates the introductory meditation program in Halifax.
INNER PEACE, INNER POWER…INNER RESILIENCE with TANYA RICH (2 PM – Paul O’Regan Hall)
Montreal-based Tanya Rich took up the practice of Raja Yoga meditation over 17 years ago, in answer to a rather persistent inner call to find a deeper meaning and purpose. Following an almost two-decades long career in live theater, Tanya now enjoys helping others build their capacity to ‘let go’—through her work as a Pilates instructor, specializing in mind-body movement.
SPIRITUAL INTELLIGENCE KEYNOTE with ERIC LE RESTE: (3PM – Paul O’Regan Hall)
Are we spiritually smart? Spiritual Intelligence may be the purest energy of the future and the most powerful one.
If wisdom has always been able to guide us in our reflections, it requires Spiritual Intelligence to translate it into actions. Spirit over matter; but smart! And the beauty of Spiritual Intelligence is that it’s an energy that always uplifts who we are, and what we do!
Eric Le Reste joined the Brahma Kumaris in 1983 in Montreal. Soon after, he opened meditation centres in Edmonton and Calgary, before returning to Montreal where he established “L’Émergence”, one of the main meditation centres in the city. Eric represents the Brahma Kumaris in Canada as National Coordinator and participates in various international projects including Images and Voices of Hope, dedicated to inspiring new restorative narratives in the media.
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