Christine Anderson

Why it’s time to roll up the mat and what thai massage has taught me. In the spring of 2003 I had just quit my regular paycheck to pursue life as an entrepreneur. I didn’t really have a plan, but I knew that what made me come alive was teaching embodiment—something that remains the foundation of my mission today.  I was living in Toronto, riding my bike from one end of the city to the other offering yoga classes to several groups of regular students. It was exhausting—and incredibly rewarding.  The year before, at a yoga workshop in Massachusetts, I […]

It’s not magic, it’s anatomy done right 🙌🏻

Content Warning: this generously sentimental post contains themes of self-help, woo, optimism, morning routines and radical self-empowerment. Twenty-five years ago, some unexplainable force had me walking into a strange environment full of sweaty half-naked bodies breathing like Darth Vader. I’ve said over and over again through the years that it was the single best decision of my life—still true, maybe more. Yoga taught me how to human. Every lesson I gained from my body in yoga, could be applied to my life off the mat. At 26, Yoga gave me a sense of autonomy I had never experienced. For the first […]

Following a gruelling search, I moved into this apartment as a massage therapy student in 2011. Months before, I had returned home from two years living in Costa Rica. You all know it as being the place I taught yoga retreats, meditated in nature, volunteered at a wildlife sanctuary and lived off the grid with an indigenous community founded by women. I’ve shared a lot about that time and what a life-changer it was for me to venture off on my own like that. What I haven’t spoken of is the love affair that made me come back to Canada. […]

I was probably 14 when I first tried a real cigarette. It was so disgusting, there was no chance I was going to become addicted. I grew up surrounded by cancer and second-hand smoke. Both my maternal grandparents and my uncle died of lung cancer. Everyone on my mom’s side of the family smoked. My mom didn’t but my dad did. As kids we hunted through the gully of milkweeds beside our trailer in search of the dry, hollow stalks left from the previous season. These, we would light by the campfire, sit back and join the night-time conversations while […]

Embodiment is about authenticity. Authenticity is about embodiment. Silence. Deep listening. Observation. Feeling. A true attunement of body and mind.  My body is an antenna, taking in everything around me and infusing my cells with information that comes in the form of feeling, intuition. When I am still, my brain can tune-in to what my body has already captured. The two behave like a neural synapse, launching fact and fiction at one another beyond the gap to the other for processing. It’s incredible to observe. Alone, my brain makes assumptions and acts on the influence of old memory, informing my […]

Part III — rewind to 2005 and my first human dissection💀 After the skin had been cut away, a vibrant glow of yellow, pink and splashes of green emanated from our donor— fat. We carefully dissected this layer as a complete blanket and laid it down beside the newly naked structure of muscle and bone.On the left, Venus—sensuality, intuition, emotion.On the right, Mary—stability, strength, action. As we examined her parts separately, she assembled in our presence, the wholeness of a human being. I ask clients first, “How’s your body?”Second, “What do you want to work on today?” Because you are […]

In January of 2000 I dislocated my collarbone in a yoga pose. Recovery was long… I had never been as mindfully present physically, while I struggled to regain my pre-injury practice. It was a surprise to discover that my body had been quietly detailing the emotional nuances of my existence since birth.  Looking deeply through this physical fragility brought incredible insight into who I was and why… definitely new terrain for me, but I went with it.  I sewed green hearts onto all of my yoga shirts because in yoga speak, shoulders are an extension of the heart and I […]

In 2017, I saw Roger Waters live for the first time and vowed not to miss another show if he came around again. Typically, I prefer the intimacy of a small venue, but there are performers and stages that are meant for big crowds, and the genius behind Pink Floyd is one of them. It was the best live show I had ever seen, and not just because the stage and lights were phenomenal. Back in 1979, when I was just seven, it was The Wall that initiated me into the art of sound. Beyond the lyrics, each song pulled me along complex threads of emotion […]