the journey of healing

Alissa Santiago - leading restful yoga experiences

[alissasantiago-restfulyoga]

Resetting Intentions

I have to admit that the holidays are not my favourite. They come with a lot of pressure, lots of gatherings and very little downtime. I like the idea of the holidays but taking on too much zaps me of energy as I’m sure many of us feel.  This season, I was well into thinking whipped cream and eggnog was part of a well balanced diet. Instead of keeping my plans I gave myself permission to take care of myself instead. It was hard and I felt guilty for cancelling but couldn’t ignore how my body was feeling and did not want to push it into sickness or injury. I’ve learned over the years how I feel energetically often manifests itself through my body. So I listened and took a day to recharge and it did wonders. I think all this time learning to take care of myself and building a self care plan might actually be paying off! 

Every year I like to reset my intentions at least twice, once at the start and again on my birthday which conveniently lands midway in the year. For the past couple of years I even tried to give myself a theme on how I’d like to guide my intentions. It acts like a touchstone for me when I feel low or lost. Whatever your intentions are this year - may you be happy, may you be healthy, and may you be safe.

xo,

Alissa

[alissasantiago-restfulyoga]

30 Days to create new habits

Hello beautiful people! The last couple of weeks have been a bit off balancing on a personal level and it’s been hard for me to sit in front of my laptop and use my words. I always know I’m struggling with something when I am resistant to meeting my words on the page which is so frustrating because writing is one of the few things that actually bring me joy. This month I’m participating in a 30 day yoga challenge at Moksha Yoga Danforth. I’m doing the yoga but I feel disconnected with my heart so I let go of the tangle of thoughts and return to my breath. Sometimes there are small moments where I can feel love, gratitude or community during my practice and I try to hang on to it so I don’t have to feel sadness, worry or anxiety but maybe it is about feeling the array of emotions to experience growth. This challenge I’m trying to give up an unhealthy habit and it’s HARD. Habits are hard to give up. This month I’m going to focus on moving forward and being able to land in being uncomfortable without giving up. Challenges are great to help create new habits and break old ones. This week self care looks like practicing yoga 6 out of the 7 days and listening to the voice in my head when she tells me I can’t and show her that I can.

This month as part of my own self care challenge I’m offering 15 extra minutes on every booking. Message me to book an appointment or if you have any questions about the 30 day challenge or anything else I’ve written about. I hope you go into the weekend with good vibes and find a way to take care of yourself.

Be well my friends!

Alissa

[alissasantiago-restfulyoga]

It feels like I’m running after my life

Good morning beautiful people! And yes I recognize that it is not morning but I  woke up  a few hours ago and it’s morning somewhere. It’s been a busy week full of all the things I love so no complaints. First off I wanted to thank you all for the referrals and support so far. All of my clients this week were from referrals. The support that I’ve been getting warms my heart and I’m so very grateful for it! On the heels of International Women’s day I have to say the power of women supporting women is real and it comes from caring about the tribes we find ourselves in. I love seeing women uplift and care for each other and I see it every day. It makes me feel hopeful about the future.

This week I’ve found myself saying, “it feels like I’m running after my life...” I was rushing out the door for one thing then the other. I am constantly wishing I had more time in my day. We all could use more time can’t we? But what I’m really wishing for is I wish I took the time take care of myself. I wish I made more time to do the things that bring me joy and I want to do them every day. There are days when it’s possible and I’m grateful for them. And there are days where I feel pulled in too many directions. I’m not sure what the answer is here, I’m still trying to figure it out. I want to be efficient. I want to get all of the things done. I have very high expectations of myself. Don’t we all? I have to remember to be kind to myself and to set realistic deadlines. I want to give myself time to be in stillness so I can feel grounded. Today it looks like having a cup of coffee at the coffee shop around the corner and writing. These posts have become my weekly reminder to slow down and to take a moment.

How do you find stillness? What grounds you? I’d love to hear about it. Leave a comment or drop me a line to book an appointment here. Also I’ve offered an hour Thai massage to the Moksha Yoga Danforth Contest this month, it closes tomorrow check out the details on their Facebook Page here. It’s a great self care package!

Sending you some light and love my friends,

Alissa

[alissasantiago-restfulyoga]

Fly Girl

Hi! I’m Alissa one of the Thai Massage Practitioners at The Treatment Room. I’ve studied Thai Massage in Japan and received my certification through Thai Massage Toronto last year. I’m also one of the faces that greet you at the desk at Moksha Yoga Danforth. An easy guess is I like yoga and I love the space and community I have found myself in.

This week I’m processing the loss of another space that’s helped me find this new version of me. The space is Fly Studio and it is where I started my aerial yoga practice. I immediately fell in love with the silks and the practice from day one and I was thrilled the first time I got into an inversion, a pose called inverted butterfly. I remember giggling whilst hanging upside down. What I love about aerial yoga is the playfulness of the practice. As I said good bye to the space I tried to hold back tears and embraced my inner Tinker bell. I’m so grateful for being part of the Fly community. I was thrilled to teach community classes there and I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to find a place to continue to do so. Most of all my heart is full of love for the ladies at Fly; the teachers, energy exchanges and students who cheered each other on as we maneuvered through the silks, our bodies and our minds. What the practice has taught me is pain and fear are a normal part of living and if we can just learn to breath through it you come out finding the curious animals called play, joy and strength.

If you want to learn more about Thai Massage or wanna talk aerial yoga get I’d love to hear from you.

See you on the mat soon!

Alissa

[alissasantiago-restfulyoga]

Trust and Meditation

Hi there! It’s Alissa and I do Thai Massage. I help people with their physical pain and emotional energy. In Thai Massage I take you through a series of dynamic stretches and work with the body’s energy lines to help relieve stress by connecting with the body and breath. Since I’ve started practicing Thai Massage I’ve become a bit more sensitive to my own energy levels and up until a couple of weeks ago I struggled with being able to sit in stillness and I wasn’t sleeping well. My mind was constantly racing, or more accurately, planning and worrying. It felt like every day I would come up with a new marketing or engagement plan or ways to better network. Essentially ways I could grow my business.  I told myself this level of stress and worry was normal for a person starting her own business but I’m not sure how good it is for me. I needed a way to quiet the worry or a way to turn my worry into a plan I could take action on.

I have long established that I am a little impatient and I have an all-or-nothing mentality, like it all has to work now or I’m gonna change direction. As I write this I can feel the muscles in my neck and shoulders tense up and my breath becoming shallow. I’m pretty sure I did not find the full expansion of my breathe in the fall, yeah I mean for the entire season. I tried. I had blocks I needed to deal with, I had to meet my fears and worries with compassion. I knew this and yet it still took me months to find my breath again. I have a self care team and there I was anxiety ridden. I couldn’t even cry it out and crying it out always helped. So instead I tried trust. I decided that I was going to trust the journey I was on and I was going to trust my decisions. I know this path is the right path for me. I resigned to honouring my intuition and slowly my breath came back to me. I had to be reminded to come back to the present. I have to constantly remind myself to come back to the the present. While the impatient child within wants things to happen now the grown up me takes a breath and tries to slow down so I can move forward with less worry on my mind.

I’ve started to meditate again and it is helping immensely. I started off by trying to go into savasana before a yoga class. I still find it difficult to enter the room early but I still try even it is for a couple of minutes. I downloaded a meditation app to help me re-establish the habit of meditation and I’ve made plans to attend a meditation class with a friend. In the past week I’ve noticed I’ve been sleeping better and my anxiety levels are manageable. My mind is a bit calmer but then the full moon happened and I had to just cry whatever the moon bubbled up to the surface. I find it helpful to hold crystals in my hands while I meditate. I like how my hands get hot as I sink into a meditation. I sit for 10 mins in the morning and 10 mins before I go to bed. I might increase this as time goes on but I’m happy with the results I’ve had so far.

What’s on your mind these days? How do you quiet your mind? If you’d like message me about anything I’ve mentioned here or want to know more about Thai Massage drop me a line here.

Until next time my friends sending you some light and love,

Alissa

[alissasantiago-restfulyoga]

My Self-Care Practice

Hi again! It’s me, Alissa. I do Thai Massage. I also love to write so here’s me trying to combine two things I love..My Thai Massage blog called Helping you Connect. I’ve been writing for most of my adult life and even wrote a couple of books, I’ll get to that some time later for now here’s a link my writing blog if you are the least bit curious about my words. Lately I’ve had to place my writing life on a shelf because I felt like I had to focus on building and launching myself into this self care business. I kinda mean this in every sense, last year I took the year to explore the many crooks and crannies of my wellbeing. I worked hard on myself and I think I’ve come out better for it.

I did this through exploring myself through talk therapy and re-connecting with touch and connection. In my training to become a Thai Massage Practitioner I learned the importance of touch therapy through massage. I learned this through talking to the people I treated and how a session made them feel both physically and energetically during their massage and after. Being a student last year I became curious how massage can uplift or release energies stored in the body. And it differed from person to person and also each treatment was experienced differently. Before this I didn’t really give the energetic body any attention during massage treatments instead I focused on knots and pains as a receiver of massage. To be on the other side is a completely different experience I had not expected. For my self care journey I found it helpful to layer different forms of care and therapy to heal in a holistic way. I have been going to therapy for a few years and when I started to journey deeper into my self care practice by layering Thai Massage, yoga and meditation to my wellness routine I started to feel balanced. I began to recognize my triggers more from experiencing them in my body and mind. I also started to believe in myself more! I started to trust myself and my decisions because I’m learning how to listen to my intuition. I’m learning how to experience my intuition through both my body and mind. What are your thoughts on intuition?

If you’d like to know more about Thai Massage or just wanna reach out and ask me about self care and my own journey send me a message here. Go here to find out how to book a session with me.

For now sending you some love and light my friends.

Be well.

Alissa

[alissasantiago-restfulyoga]

Thanks for stopping by!

I’m Alissa and I’m a Thai Massage Practitioner. I’m also a writer, yogi, friend, daughter, sister - a person trying her best to live a life that brings her love and joy. I’ve come to this point in my life as a healer because over the past decade I was struggling in a world that was not the right fit for me. I’ve come to know this magical realm of self care which is nurturing, caring and loving and I so wanted to be part of it. It was and still is a journey to build a life and lifestyle which inspires balance holistically. I’m not by any means a pillar of calm and peace because well - life but that doesn’t mean I’ve given up on it. I appreciate the moments I am able to experience calm and peace; where I can find my breath. Most times I can find it in meditation and self-care like yoga or body/healing work, writing and journalling. Then the wind will change I need to layer my healing prescription with spending time with my tribe, cooking, or going on a nature walk or simply finding myself near water. I’ve learned to try new things to help inspire my journey.

I get inspired by the seasons and have found a natural rhythm as a continue to learn how to care for myself. The activities change depending on the season: in the fall it’s writing, in the winter it’s baking holiday cookies and getting lost in a good book, in the spring I return to my words and fall in love with the colour green and flowers and in the summer I relish in the times I find myself on the beach or simply get to ride my bike.

This year I found the practice of Thai Massage and fell in love with the rhythm of it. I loved the meditation of working on a body and helping one heal. I want to take the things I have learned along the way and help my community. My aim is to help you connect with your breath and body during your treatment session.

If this resonates with you and want to learn more about Thai Massage or want to book an appointment with me, feel free to contact me here.  

It would an honour to hold space for you on my massage mat.  You can find more details on my offerings here.

Love and Light my friends,

Alissa