Stop In at The Bodymind Centre and Help Them Celebrate 25 Years!
“Every moment of awareness is our teacher.”
By Sherry Hanes January 2020
In 1995, Erin May of Thunder Bay, Ontario, decided to bring to the world, her vision and services to help people improve their bodies and minds. She opened The Bodymind Centre, a multidisciplinary health and wellness facility with three yoga and pilates studios, a retail lululemon boutique and treatment rooms. Erin and her 35 staff guide people through evolutionary changes that they, themselves, choose, practice, direct and ultimately benefit from in every aspect of their lives.
But let’s take a little journey back in time for just a few moments.
At one time, we did not worry so much about our health, physically or mentally. The strains of over usage of muscles and the stresses of daily worry of the job, the home, the family, or just even being out socially, can cause a lot of us to become anxious, depressed, burned out physically and or mentally. Suffering daily from illnesses like colds, flu, arthritis, fibromyalgia, headaches and the list goes on, can all be caused by the stressors of all the above, mentioned scenarios and/or life styles which can also increase the risk of stroke, heart attacks, suicide, impairment of physical mobility and lastly…even early death. In other words, we can become, not well daily, age sooner and possibly even expire before our time. We can become confined to wheel chairs, have to use canes, walkers and the like. That’s just a sample of what happens with our bodies when we just let things happen to us randomly, when we don’t take charge of our mind and our bodies.
In the last 30 years or so, people have started to wake up to the fact that they possess the power to influence what happens with their health. They take charge of their body and mind, and refuse to allow negative influences dictate what happens to them. They are turning more to natural solutions and have set out on a quest to optimize their health as a whole experience with solution-based options. More people than ever are adopting healthy eating styles, regular exercise, yoga, nutritional supplements and mindfulness practices. There are over 50 million people practicing yoga regularly in North America, 300 million worldwide and 500 million practicing meditation across the globe. Schools and workplaces are implementing mindfulness practices to help effectively reduce anxiety and improve health and well-being and reduce sick time and absenteeism. Doctors are prescribing yoga and mindfulness instead of antidepressants to help patients make long lasting positive changes.
Daily self-care and yoga practice help on all levels, physically creating more strength and flexibility, enhancing the feeling of wellbeing and mental clarity, increasing resiliency and emotional stability. Helping people to be ‘more in control’ of themselves and their circumstances and the level to which they are affected. People notice astonishing differences in themselves and their ability for effectively dealing with daily life, resulting in personal benefit for themselves and those around them. Self-care fills up our energy tank and therefore we have more to give those we love and we are kinder to ourselves and others and the environment.
When one is ‘at one with themselves’ and exercises peaceful approaches, all things become possible even the elimination of prejudice, poverty and war. It begins by becoming mindful with ourselves, with our thoughts and actions and this translates into our interactions in our relationships with our family and friends, co-workers, our community and then on a larger scale globally. It all begins with the first step. For some people that can be their first yoga class, learning how to relax and breathe. Finding sometimes, for the first time, the self-awareness of their mind, noticing the shift into relaxation and calmness. Feeling the tension held in their muscles melt away, tension that they might have been otherwise unaware of. The chronic tension that leads to illness just dissipating away. It’s that easy. The key is consistency. Consistency of practice cultivates long lasting results and the optimum life on all levels.
The Bodymind Centre has created a friendly environment much different than a gym, which encourages consistency in practice with a multitude of classes to choose from. From absolute beginners to professional athletes there is something just right for everyone. You can start in “Yoga for the Inflexible” which is great for beginners and people with physical restraints. People looking to up their game can enjoy one the hot power yogas to develop strength and stamina. There are pilates classes to build the core and Reformer machines that tone and develop full body strength without impact. As we take care of the body, the mind relaxes and we become more self-aware. We feel better on all levels and we get more out of life. Our life quality improves and our life expectancy increases, we have a better sense of our self and how we want to be in the world.
For 25 years, The Bodymind Centre continues to successfully help people to be their best. Erin and the life skilled, certified instructors and practitioners honestly love to help anyone, and everyone, achieve new levels of physical, mental and emotional health.
Erin opened her doors 25 years ago after returning from her training in Structural Integration in Boulder Colorado. She is a certified 1000 hr+ Yoga Instructor / STOTT Trained Pilates Instructor, and possesses an impressive scope of professional and worldly education. Starting in September of 1989 and continuing to April 1994 she attended Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario for a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Bachelor of Fine Arts. Since 1989, Erin has immersed herself in numerous programs that have produced amazing changes, not only for herself, but for others who have sought the expertise of her services. Erin has studied all over the world and began her formal meditation practice in Zen in 1990, Vipassina in 1991, and Tibetan Buddhism in 1992. She has attended many retreats in India, USA, Nepal, Mexico and Canada, including a special Kalachakra Retreat with His Holiness the 14th Dali Lama in 2003. She has travelled throughout the world to learn from masters in various traditions and regularly shares meditation as part of her yoga classes and in workshops, corporate settings and retreats. Erin’s education extends an unbelievable 30-year journey thus far, for her teachings and training of her skills and she passionately shares them with multitudes of others. As the professional services are too many to mention in this article, you can visit Erin’s website, https://bodymindcentre.com/about-us/practitioners/erin-may/ and learn all about Erin, what her centre offers as well as, what her gifts of healing and teachings are.
Throughout her career and her personal evolution in business, The Bodymind Centre, has been the recipient of many awards, which include, ‘Established Business of The Year’, 2019 by PARO Centre for Enterprising Women. This award recognizes a business with a successful and notable track record for 3 years or more for a woman who has established a business, taken financial risks, managed the business successfully, and given back to the community. Erin comments that “This was our first award from Paro and it was based on our 25 years of business and service for the Thunder Bay community.”
Other awards include, The Business Excellence Award in 2005 from The Chamber of Commerce which is presented to a business that exhibits true business excellence. This business has advanced in economic and/or financial growth through sales/earnings and financial management. They excel in quality customer/client service, are a leader in employment creation, diversity and inclusion, and seeks to continuously improve employee relations and are prominently involved in community affairs. Erin also comments “We won The Visionary Award in 2019 from Mindbody for being in the top 25% of sales for yoga studios in world. In addition, we are honored to be chosen” Best Yoga Studio” again this year by Walleye Magazine readers. Thank you Thunder Bay!” Erin was also honored to be chosen as one of the “Best Yoga Teachers”- Jan 2020 Walleye Magazine.
In her continuance to offer effective programs that provide solutions for life enhancement, Erin shares with us this message, “For 2020 and beyond I have developed a special protocol to stimulate the Vagal Nervous System which I offer in classes, workshops and retreats as well as online. The Vagal breathing Protocol switches on the healing and repair, relax and rest mode allowing people to find balance. Vagal stimulation has been shown to reverse many disease processes including Alzheimer's. inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, Chron's, Diverticulitis, IBS, anxiety, depression, mental fatigue, anxiety and more.
We also have Clinical Hypnotherapist and Counsellor Barb Davies on staff who has been trained in a special protocol that is extremely helpful in clearing PTSD. Barb will also be offering hypnobirthing classes which help labor and delivery to be much easier. We have registered massage therapist Shelia Sundell, who is offering specialized movement training to athletes and first responders at The Bodymind Centre. Shelia is also part of an incredible program called Strong Girls which is a non-profit organization with a mission to inspire girls to become their best, happiest, strongest version of themselves through sports, mindfulness and leadership programming, which will be also be hosted at The Bodymind Centre. We continue to have a great line up of classes in hot yoga, gentle yoga, ashtanga, TRX, Ball/BOSU, yin, flow, pre-natal yoga and specialty classes for the lower back and knees. Our reformer classes are amazing for building core strength and conditioning the whole body, great for fit people as well as those needing to get in to better shape or rehabbing injuries. Reformer resistance training helps to prevent and reverse osteoporosis. We have antigravity classes to have fun and swing upside down. Truly there is something for everyone.”
More services offered by professional, therapeutic and life enhancing practitioners at the Centre, include, Massage Therapy, which from this form of regularly scheduled self-care, can play a huge part in how healthy you’ll be and how youthful you’ll remain with each passing year. Crystal Acupressure, which is non-invasive, involves gemstones cut to a precision point that allow the healer to target specific acupressure points with great accuracy and stimulate healing using the same pathways as acupuncture without the needles. Structural Integration – which can provide relief from impaired mobility and/or chronic pain due to injuries, repetitive occupational and exercise postures, automobile accidents and accumulated stress of daily living and enhance performance. Along with Thai massage, Reiki, Cranio-Sacral Therapy, Hypnotherapy, and Bodytalk. Bodytalk is an astonishingly simple and effective form of therapy that allows the body’s energy systems to be re-synchronized so they can operate as nature intended. The Bodymind Centre can help you with any level of healing and wellness you may need or want to enhance.
Call them today: The Bodymind Centre, located at #8-105 Villa Street, Thunder Bay, ON. 807-344-1628 or email them at: info@bodymindcentre.com and see what is instore for YOU!
