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On September 22, 2007 The Daily Gleaner published a feature article about Kathryn. It is available here. |
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Kathryn Downton, Lifesong founder, is the Maritimes' only Certified Viniyoga teacher and therapist.
A specialist in age and stage appropriate yoga, she completed a 5 year Master's teacher training with Claude Marechal of Belgium in 2002 and continues with advanced training each year.
Also trained in Reiki, a form of Healing Touch, and Reflexology, Kathryn brings her varied experiences with community development, adult education, and healing chronic illness to her work. |
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Kathryn is Fredericton's most experienced prenatal yoga instructor offering classes to hundreds of women since 2000. She also offers Preparation for Birth Workshops for couples, and is a Doula with Doulas of North America, providing physical, emotional and informational support during labor to the woman and her partner. See "Birth Services ", for more information.
From 2001, Kathryn directed the York Street location of Lifesong Yoga and Wellness Centre, Fredericton's first integrated yoga and wellness clinic. After 1500 classes, 300 births, 24 wellness practitioners and yoga teachers mentored, countless workshops/public talks/private consultations, a Fredericton Yoga Teachers' Association initiated, the popular summer tourism program "Yoga at the Lighthouse" well launched, a change of direction was due.
In Fall 2007, Kathryn took a sabbatical from teaching group classes in order to focus on launching New Brunswick's first yoga teacher training, a 9 month invitation to dive deeply into the philosophy and "how to's" of this much-needed depth tradition.
Kathryn now welcomes you to her new private studio overlooking the Nashwaak (10 min from the Westmorland Street Bridge) for small group classes, a private consultation or the teacher/advanced student trainings. Kathryn is also offering group classes at new southside locations, and tailored programs by design in the workplace.
Some Musings about Healing and Wholeness: What's your life's purpose? What are you meant to accomplish during your time here on the planet? What do you contribute and what do you take? These are the big questions that get buried in the everyday rush and pull. We get crazy with the details and surface once in a while to wonder if we're really on the right track.
The word yoga means "whole", or "to reunite that which has grown fragmented". The old English word "well" comes from the roots, "to be whole".
We are whole. We were born whole. We forget and go seeking our wholeness. At any moment, we can simply shift perspectives and remember that most of our stress and striving is self-created. One person faced with enormous life challenges can be cheerful and optimistic. Another, "luckier" soul seems to spend all of his or her time grumping and complaining. Is our glass 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? It depends if we're looking from our wholeness.
That's what's brought Lifesong about. These ancient traditions can provide a home for Westerners seeking authentic modern solutions to age-old questions, How do we find a place for ourselves at a cultural time that doesn't much value the human experience as something to be explored, learned about, understood in and of itself? Those who choose to do so defy job descriptions. We're visionaries. We're healers. We're ordinary people who have faced all kinds of life challenges and looked for tools to "reunite that which has grown fragmented", to remember our "wholeness".
Illness, relationship, work crisis, financial challenges. We need strong tools to remember our wholeness in the face of life's challenges. In learning, we become able to share. In letting go of the things that make it difficult to be who we are meant to be, we become more and more empowered, each one of us, more and more effective, more and more joyful.
Teaching self-care, not to be confused with selfishness. Because as each of us is helped to let go of the things that make it difficult for us to offer our gifts, the world changes, ripple by ripple. Healing is radical! It's a lifelong process of deciding again and again, with the help of whatever tools we've picked up on the way, that we're whole. Welcome fellow travelers! |
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