Life can often present us with challenging situations and people that can test our ability to remain positive, peaceful and healthy.  Our Positive Living classes teach helpful tools for coping with these challenges, and gently encourage us to do our best to rise above these situations.  In the process we learn to feel better not only about ourselves, but to also feel better about the very situations and people that once seemed insurmountable.  Each class is 1 hour long.

• New!!! Aromatherapy for Balanced Health – Essential oils can give us extra energy, calm our minds, help us sleep better, improve memory function, and provide relief from other imbalances. Learn how aromatherapy can help you, sample some essential oils, and make a customized body lotion and body scrub to keep. (1 hour class. $5 materials fee)
• New!!! Healthy Living Through Ayurveda – Ayurveda is an ancient practice of natural healing and self-care that promotes vitality by integrating the body, mind and spirit. Learn how to determine your individual “dosha”, and the recommendations for sleep, diet, exercise and personal care that support your dosha type.
• New!!! Managing Relationship Stress – Our relationships with family, friends, co-workers and acquaintances can be the source of particularly difficult challenges. Learn healthy ways of communicating and managing expectations, to help you get through these situations and improve your relationships.
• New!!! Humor As a Life Plan – Smiling and laughing has numerous health benefits, including reducing stress and improving stress-related illness. Learn the many ways that you can bring more humor into your life. You’ll also get to try some fun games and groan through a few corny jokes!
• New!!! Posture Made Perfect – We all know that we are supposed to have good posture, but we don’t always know what that means. And a lifetime of less-than-perfect posture can be a hard habit to break. Learn proper posture for standing, sitting, walking and sleeping. Getting familiar with how it feels will help you be able to do it on your own. We can also teach posture for walker and wheelchair users.
• New!!! “Dear Abby” – A group discussion program led by a grief and loss survivor. We will talk about the things that we wish were different in our lives, and offer advice for changing what we can and thriving anyway in spite of what we can’t. All group members will be invited to offer positive advice to each other from their own life experiences.
• The Power of Intention – Our thoughts are very powerful.  We create our own sense of reality based on how we think and where we place our attention.  In this class you will learn how to become aware of your current thought patterns, and decide where you would instead like to direct your energy and intentions in order to create a more peaceful and authentic reality for yourself. We will have a short intention meditation at the end of class.
• Making Lemonade From Lemons – This class helps you learn how to maintain peace and happiness despite the challenges you may be facing in your life such as grief over the death of a loved one, decline in cognition or mobility, increasing health issues, loss of independence, and moving from your home.  We will discuss different methods for coping with these issues through positive thinking, empowering speech, and a gratitude-focused approach to life.
• Introduction to Holistic Health Care – You will learn about the physical benefits and stress-relieving benefits of yoga, Tai Chi, massage therapy, Reiki energy therapy, and meditation.  We will discuss how these different techniques help to improve breathing, balance, flexibility, and strength; as well as promote relaxation and peacefulness.  We will have a short meditation demonstration at the end of class.
• The Amazing Benefits of Gratitude Journaling – Keeping a daily journal of things that you are thankful for is a life-changing experience.  By noticing and focusing on the good things in your life, bad things lose their effect, and you end up with a much happier outlook on life.  Gratitude journaling can help to elevate mood, increase optimism, alleviate depression, and cope with sadness.  Learn how to start a journal, what to include, and all of the ways that gratitude journaling can benefit you.  We will also have a short discussion about Mindfulness Meditation, as it ties into observing and finding things to be grateful for in the world around us.
• Every Day Stress Relief – This class teaches methods for staying peaceful amid the typical challenges of life.  We will discuss relaxing breathing techniques, an introduction to meditation, methods for being accepting of ourselves and others,  and ways to approach challenging situations in a healthy way.  We will have a short meditation demonstration at the end of class.

• Meditation Made Easy – Meditation helps to quiet the mind and release us from worry.  For many people, though, the goal of clearing our minds of thoughts seems impossible to attain.  This class teaches easy methods to meditate, and incorporate it into everyday life. We teach exercises that help the body and mind to become relaxed and centered.  The relaxation and peace of mind you will learn in this class will help you gain a more positive outlook on your daily life.  We will practice different types of meditation throughout the class.
• Good Health Through Balanced Energy – You will learn how energy imbalances can affect physical health, thinking and personality.  We will discuss the difference between yin (passive) and yang (active) energy, the concept of chakras (the seven energy centers located within our bodies), methods to balance our own energy, and methods for interacting in a healthy way with other people who have a different type of energy than we do.

View other Classes

• Architecture
• Cooking
• Drama
• Fiber Arts
• Fine Arts
• Flower Arranging
• Gardening
• Holiday Activities
• Interior Decorating
• Laughter Yoga
• Life Stories
• Massage Therapy
• Music
• Pet Connections
• Positive Living
• Reiki
• Tai Chi
• Writing
• Yoga and Posture

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