Friday Foto
Happy New Year! I hope you had a fun and restful holiday. I spent mine overindulging, to which I’m sure most you can relate. I’m making up for it now with resolutions geared towards personal health and fitness. I recently took up yoga and it has changed my life. I don’t mean to sound overly dramatic, but to set aside 60-90 minutes a day just for myself to focus on my body and mind has been incredible.
You may have noticed that Kingston has a few yoga studios (OK, a LOT of yoga studios) so I had to do some research and testing to make a decision on where I would practice. Based on price, location, atmosphere, variety and quantity of classes and quality of teachers, I finally settled on Samatva, located in the hub and in the west end on Bath Rd. Path is also excellent and if you’re into Bikrams, Feel is the way to go.
But maybe yoga isn’t your thing, heck, maybe your resolutions aren’t even fitness related. I’ve also made another resolution: to make a point of attending more of the great events we promote on our calendar (yep, it’s confession time). The truth is, I don’t make it out to a lot of the great events we promote. With busy schedules and the cost to attend some events, it can be tricky to get out there. But there are plenty of things to do that are low cost or even free and those that are pricier, are usually worth it.
This winter I will make the time to go to:
- a Midnight Magic Rodeo Show
- The Screening Room
- Modern Fuel, The Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Studio 22 and/or any one of our wonderful galleries
- Little Cat or Lemoine Point for a winter hike
- at least one movie during both Reelout and The Kingston Canadian Film Festival
- Victoria Park for a late night skate
- more shows in general at The Artel, The Mansion and The Grad Club
If you’re looking to do more this winter, yesterday’s post by Harvey is a great place to start. Whether they’re Kingston related or not, tell us about your resolutions. Or perhaps you have a suggestion for my list. I’d love to hear it!
Happy Friday!
Special thanks to |nb| for today’s photo, please show him some love and check out some of his other works on Flickr.
I fully agree on the yoga front. I'm not committed to any particular studio and I like Samatva a lot but I find it a little too jam packed with students. Maybe because it's closest to campus? I'm not sure why, but I have to get there really early to get a spot and even still, I have someone within an inch of me once the class starts. Don't they offer yoga at the PEC?
They do, but it's listed as an "innovative trend" (meaning it's not a regular fixture) and they charge extra for classes. If I were a student and had to pay either way, I'd rather go to a real studio.
I also experienced a packed class at Samatva so I started going to the 7am class. Much better, the students aren't up that early and it's a great way to start your day.
You need to go to Artignite!
What is it with Kingston and yoga? You can't move for yoga studios here. I have nothing against yoga, but it almost seems to be taking over downtown…
There are about 5 studios downtown and they've all been there for at least 5 years now – there aren't all kinds of new, extraneous ones popping up – they're all busy, so there's clearly a demand for them. I'm not sure this is an entirely Kingston-centric phenomenon either. Yoga is back in full force and I totally understand why.
Kingston yogis are incredibly lucky–we live in a place that just happens to be a fantastic meeting point for so many teachers and students from so many varied schools and approaches. As a yoga teacher in training, this is the best place I could have fallen into. And for those of you in the East end, Life Yoga opened just under a year ago–they're on Gore Rd. and have a wonderful space.