True healing comes from self-knowledge.

Corporate Wellness Retreat Facilitator

Are you looking for a more cohesive and healthy team? Many corporations are experiencing the benefit of including mental and physical wellness strategies in increasing their productivity. A healthy individual is an intrinsic aspect of a productive team.

But how do you create a more cohesive, productive team? By encouraging self-care in the individual. The mental and physical health of one affects the health of all.

Employees will never have the capacity to care about their company if they don’t know how to care for themselves. And if you, as an employer, are perceived as having the well-being of its employees as a priority, you will be sought after by the best people. They will take fewer sick days and fewer stress leaves, because they will have a better sense of their role in their own health.

A strong, caring, corporate identity breeds loyalty and efficacy.

Keynotes: The Small Acts That Make a Difference

The philosophies and practices of the yoga tradition provide tangible ways that every human can take care of themselves. Your sheaths or ‘koshas’ are akin to a series of nesting dolls, one inside the other, each one representing an aspect of you. The outermost doll is your physical body, then breath and then mind and onward.

Each layer has a primary way in which it can be set out of balance or in balance. For example, your body is affected negatively or positively by food and herbs whereas your mind is affected by what you take in through your eyes and ears. More than that, each layer is related to the others as though going through a slow refinement from outermost to innermost. Each is impacted by our lifestyle and choices. 

From the power of proper breathing to raising awareness of sensory intake, I will share easy to adopt strategies that will allow more resilience and connection in daily life. Through presenting the sheaths, participants will feel empowered as they connect to themselves in a new way.

These are uncomplicated, easy to implement and are absolutely based in common sense and compassion. What if settling anxiety began with a simple morning routine? What if shoulder pain could be lessened by deepening your breath? What if it was all about getting just a bit more conscious in our lives, step by step in small increments with a gentle and kind approach? 

Together we will cover:

  • What are you made of? An introduction to the sheaths or koshas using visual aids.

  • How do my actions impact my well-being? 

  • Which actions impact which layer?

  • Do I have to be 100% good (answer no!)?

  • Simple strategies to implement kindness to self in your life

  • Setting a map to deepen these strategies into more and more efficacy in your life

Meet Allie, MES, E-RYT

Self-knowledge (understanding), leads to self-love. It is through this process that we are capable of finding wellness. Throughout Allie’s 25 years of teaching Yoga and studying Ayurvedic medicine, she has encouraged people to find self-knowledge and power from within. Her teaching spans from Restorative as deep central nervous system calming, to vigorous explorations into fascial structure and ways of being.

She has been running transformative Yoga Teacher Training programs for over 15 years and has run a yoga studio for over two decades.

Allie has coached and mentored numerous people from the vantage point of yoga and ayurvedic philosophies. She earned a Master’s degree examining the ways in which our definition of power determines our ability to establish healthy relationships with self, others and the earth. As we study ourselves, we heal ourselves. As we heal ourselves, we heal the earth.

Allie is a natural storyteller that weaves hard topics with humour throughout her presentations and classes to transform shame and fear into self-love and belonging.

She has co-authored a book “The Necessity of Touch, Fundamentals of Yoga Assists” and is currently working on her own book based on yoga philosophy and the journey back to belonging. She co-founded Enliven, Centre for Cancer Care, a community-based centre supporting cancer patients, caregivers and health care providers on their cancer journey.

She has won numerous awards for her studio and her teaching in Huntsville. She has presented at the Toronto Yoga Show and Muskoka Yoga Festival. She has led multiple yoga retreats in Ontario.

Allie’s aim is always to leave participants feeling more compassionate toward themselves and the difficulties they face so that we all might be a little more resilient and a whole lot kinder.

I approach a yoga practice with a bias toward storytelling, humour and compassion. As we deepen our breath, move our bodies and stretch our fascia, what are the stories held within?

Corporate Yoga Classes

Can we be gentle as we explore our foibles and imbalances? Can we sensitize ourselves to

hear, feel and see what well-being is on a daily basis and therefore, more easily detect when we

are moving out of balance?

What if we thought of mastery, not as a handstand with the pinkie finger as the only point of contact on the floor, but actually an ability to be in one’s body with empathy and kindness?

I will provide this kind of playful but deep practice with all levels in mind.

My primary emphasis is to:

  • Teach to beginners because they are more prone to injury

  • Assist and verbally cue those that want a stronger experience

I encourage laughter while also inviting people to sink into what they are holding and what they are ready to release.

Come to this practice, not with the expectation of doing 1000 yoga postures, but instead, taking time to know yourself a little better.

Meditation & Corporate Wellness

Meditation, and learning how to focus on presence, responding vs. reacting in a state of calm will all provide your team with the self-care tools in their tool kit needed to be resilient individuals and team members.

  • We enter the forest at a threshold and fall into silence, carrying the intention we created prior to entry.

    Perhaps the intention is to slow down, find a tree that resonates or perhaps some moss to touch. The breath will be the thread we use to hold us in this moment.

    Slow steps with awareness of moss underfoot, wind coming through the branches and sun dappling.

    This is mindfulness in action. This is a really useful first exercise on arrival to ground and centre.

    Participants might find a stone or a feather that will stay with them through the entire retreat, reminding them of this original intention.

  • My current observation of people is that we are bone tired from stress, divisiveness and fear. We are in need of deep deep rest, more powerful than sleep and holistically impactful to all of the systems of our bodies.

    Typically this is done lying down, as a body exploration and relaxation. The big takeaway is understanding the power of the breath to trigger the vagus nerve and the relaxation response. A longer, more mindful exhale is all that we need to lower anxiety/reactivity and inflammation in the body.

  • In yoga we call this Ojas – our container, our resilience and our immunity. Introduce simple breathing techniques that will facilitate arriving and grounding in ourselves. If this is in a room with windows, we can incorporate the idea of forest/nature bathing and its power to heal.

    This is a good exercise for intention setting. Participants could boost collaboration by sharing their intention for this time.

“A class led by Allie Chisholm-Smith is like no other I have experienced. Her ability to take participants deep into their practice and cease the chatter in the mind, focus on the breath and sink deeply into the metaphors in her stories is calming, and grounding. This way of leading allows for me to go deeper into the poses and release fascia, the places of holding and find release, mind, body and soul. Thank you.”

- Joanne Mclean, Corporate Coach