Enjoy this peaceful Guided Meditation for World Mental Health Day with the opportunity to rest your mind through your imagination. This Forest Visualization is part of an employee wellness project I worked on, creating yoga and meditation videos for the City of London, Canada. Meditation and yoga are beneficial resources for mental, physical and emotional health. They assist in managing stress, discomfort and change, while offering improvements in memory, concentration, mood, kindness and self-awareness.  This practice takes you on a beautiful nature walk, providing scenes from Skinner’s ..read more

Teaching virtual Chair Yoga the other day for employee wellness at Sinai Health! Chair Yoga is an accessible practice and a great way to add movement into your day, while reducing stress. It is especially helpful for those who sit for longer periods of time, by relieving physical tension and incorporating a wellness break into a busy day. It has been found that just 15 minutes of Chair Yoga or Guided Meditation in the office can improve physical and psychological stress.    If you would like to learn more, feel free to contact me at info@evonnesullivan.com or visit: services   ..read more

I am 10 years sober. Probably not something you hear about often, however, I wanted to share this message, as my own recovery journey is one of the main reasons why I began teaching trauma-informed yoga and meditation for mental health and addiction recovery. Finding myself on a path of healing, I took this struggle and difficult period in my life, and dedicated much of my time working towards a dream: to share with others mind-body practices for health and healing; tools that were fundamental in my own personal success. Thank you to the people and organizations that support my work; valuing ..read more

Four years ago, I had the most wonderful opportunity to begin teaching trauma-informed yoga with CAMH for mental health and addictions. Over this time, I have met so many incredible clients and staff, and am always grateful to share the mind-body practices of yoga, meditation and mindfulness, as part of people’s healing process. Being in recovery myself, I could have never imagined this path of health and connection that lay in my future. Thank you to Gifts of Light of CAMH Foundation, the recreation therapists, clinicians, support staff and of course, all the clients whose determination and ..read more

This past July marked 3 years since I began working with Gifts of Light at the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health providing trauma-informed yoga and meditation for patients in treatment for mental health and addiction. Below is the section related to our partnership taken from this year’s Programming Annual Report! Sharing mind-body tools and practices to assist people during their recovery is incredibly meaningful to me. I am grateful and proud to teach with CAMH. Since July 2018, through our program, over 3165 times a client has participated in yoga or meditation, along with 976 time ..read more

Excited to share a new mind-body health resource. For a few months, I have been writing, presenting and recording to create Meditation Moments - 7 Part Series. These virtual guided sessions focus on learning and exploring fundamental techniques and concepts in meditation and provide participants with the opportunity to build skills towards developing a meditation practice.  If you are interested in wellness resources or curious about the practice of meditation, I invite you to follow the links below to a collection of videos recorded from live sessions. Each part consists of a theme, with ..read more

The day I began talking about my mental health challenges, is the day I started to get better. Remember, you are not alone…one day at a time, through the good days and the more difficult ones, always be compassionate with yourself and know that it is ok to ask for help when needed. A big thank you to everyone who has supported my recovery and work sharing yoga for mental health and addictions. Most of all, I am grateful for the countless people I have met along this journey; finding positive connections and a community through related struggles, encouragement and healing. #BellLetsTalk #Ment ..read more

Two years ago this week, I began a wonderful partnership with Gifts of Light of CAMH Foundation, teaching trauma-informed yoga for patients at the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health. It has been an amazing experience being a part of the CAMH community - so many clients and staff have truly touched my heart.   I am incredibly grateful to share the healing practice of yoga with people in treatment for mental health and addiction challenges, and to be a small part of their journey. The dedication and strength patients have towards their health and healing is nothing ..read more

What are you grateful for today? I received a client request for a guided meditation focusing on gratitude. I have to admit that I was both surprised and impressed about this person’s initiative…given the challenges of today’s world. It can be difficult to maintain a positive headspace under stress and change. After spending today researching more in-depth about gratitude and positive psychology – while reading on, I began to realize that my mood, thought processes and outlook were all gradually improving. It has been such a helpful reminder. This great graphic is from The Greater G ..read more

When I first began attempting to meditate about 5 years ago, waves of panic would flow through my body. It would begin as a racing heart then travel to the stomach, to the back and finally the legs and arms. Occasionally, I would feel ill…most times though, just worried and not really sure about what.   Julianna Pennings Photography A standard yoga class usually includes a short meditation period (shavasana) at the end. When searching for resources that were beneficial for mental health, I started to practice yoga more frequently. Over time, I started to notice that during this fina ..read more