EAST LONGMEADOW — If Earth Day got you thinking about ways your personal actions might be able to help the planet, an upcoming workshop at Heartsong Yoga could be for you.
Caring for the Planet, Caring for Yourself, Living Whole Living Well — a holistic look at how our everyday choices and actions affect the planet and our health — is slated for May 3 from noon to 1:30 p.m. at Heartsong Yoga Center, 264 North Main St., East Longmeadow.
The cost is $45 to attend. Individuals 65 years of age and older can register with a 20% discount by using the ELDER code. Register at heartsongyoga.com/upcoming-events.
Hosted by Heartsong Yoga owner and director Sheila Magalhaes in conjunction with Dr. Karen Hayward, retired Mass General internal medicine physician and co-founder of Living Whole Online, and local musician Bill Shontz, the 90-minute seminar is designed to incorporate information, movement and music to help individuals better understand the connection between individual health and planetary health.
This is the second seminar Heartsong Yoga hosted with Hayward, but individuals need not have attended the program in late winter to reap the benefits of this spring presentation.
“When we found out Karen was coming back to Massachusetts for the month of May, we said, ‘let’s do something about educating people about environment and eating well and give them actionable steps to move forward with improving their health’,” Magalhaes said.
Hayward explained that the integrative whole health approach of Living Whole Online “brings together conventional medicine and whole, plant-based food and movement of our bodies and what we call mind-body-spirit-disciplines, which include energy practices and family connections and the creative pursuits that lift our hearts and help us heal.”
“When you look at the health of individuals through that lens, it’s a very easy next step to look at the health of our planet, and how can we help our planet with our individual behaviors,” Hayward continued.
Hayward said she and her colleagues all believe that education is imparted most effectively through experiences, and the May 3 workshop is designed to provide information through this method.
“There’s a component of the workshop that will be teaching why individual behavior can actually have a very large impact on improving the health of the planet,” Hayward said. But the real power of the seminar, Hayward explained, is how the three presenters work together to make the information meaningful. “It is in the experiences that Sheila offers in movement and meditation and mindfulness, and the experiences that Bill offers with music, and the experiences that I offer with some energy practices and breath work.”
A lifetime environmentalist, Hayward said the songs Shontz will present “are among the most powerful environmental songs that I’ve ever heard.”
A final component of the workshop will include time for attendees to reflect on and write about the things that they have learned and experienced.
“So even in the 90 minutes, it’s pretty packed, and at the same time, it’s very fun. There’s a lot of laughing, there’s a lot of joyfulness and connection, and yeah, so you’re not alone,” Hayward said.
Individuals will also leave with practical, actionable steps and a sense of what they can do to “feel better about my contribution to the health of my own life and the health of the planet,” Hayward said.
