Halifax is home to a growing number of wellness and spiritual bucket list-worthy experiences. You can find inner peace through complete sensory deprivation or to the tune of a haunting Himalayan singing bowl. Source your essential oils from a local herbalist, bust out some wild yoga moves and figure out what foods you should be eating during the waxing moon. Indulge your curiosity, and you might just find yourself a little healthier as a result.
1. Kundalini Yoga
This is not your mother’s yoga class. According to Halifax Yoga owner Sherry Zac, Kundalini yoga is “like an express train that shakes and wakes you up.” Kundalini is known as the yoga of awareness: the combination of repeated, unusual poses, meditations, mantra chanting and breathing techniques can bring out some pretty strong feelings in practitioners. Each class is unique and designed to have a specific effect on your body and psyche. If you’re up for a good laugh, a chance to (literally) shake up your regular yoga practice and an experiment in testing your comfort zone, head to Halifax Yoga’s Thursday Kundalini class (see their online schedule for details).
halifaxyoga.com/schedule
2. Sound Baths
Terra Brockett of Awaken Vibrational Sound Therapy uses Himalayan singing bowls to “bathe” recipients of this relaxing treatment in mesmerizing vibrations. During a sound bath, bowls of various pitches are struck with a mallet, creating a sound immersion that promotes deep relaxation and invites recipients into a meditative state. The bowls can also be struck and then placed on a person’s body, so that the effects of the resonation can be felt deep within your body—like sitting on the dryer, but with purer intentions. Contact Brockett at to find out more about group and individual sessions. awakensoundtherapy.com
3. Eating With the Moon
Scrap your meal plan, your calorie counting and your one-size-fits-all diet. Krista Butler, nutritional therapy practitioner, offers a Food Rhythm course that teaches you to sync your food choices with the waxing and waning of the moon. For example, traditionally, the full moon is considered to be a time for letting go of what doesn’t serve you. During Food Rhythm, Krista guides participants to increase their probiotic intake, which “cleans up” and strengthens gut flora. At its heart, the course is about using your intuition to make energizing and healthful food choices, rather than following someone else’s rules. It’s the perfect way to get in touch with your bod and mother nature at the same time. kristabutlercourses.com
4. Essential Oil Therapy
It seems that recently, essential oils have been surging through the wellness scene on a tide of network marketing. Halifax is lucky to have our very own purveyor of high quality, hand-blended essential oils in Laura Brown of Osha Mae Soap. Laura is an expert in the world of aromatherapy, a freakishly effective and lovely smelling way to solve a surprising number of health quandaries. Osha’s oils are packed with healing potential, and when you visit her stall at the Seaport Farmers’ Market, Brown can help you select exactly what you need for anything from natural deodorant to a cure for your hangover.
1209 Marginal Road
5. Floating
The Floatation Centre is the newish north end wellness centre that features sensory deprivation tanks. The tanks are filled with epsom salt-saturated warm water which allows floaters to experience 75 minutes without sound, light or touch. Floating is an ideal time to catch up on meditation…or sleep…but mounting evidence shows that some quality time in a sensory deprivation tank also helps with chronic pain management, lowers anxiety, decreases blood pressure and lowers coristol levels. When you visit, read the Happiest Guest Book on Earth in the pre/post-float hangout area: that alone should sell you on this blissed-out experience.
thefloatationcentre.ca
