Last August 4, was Flow In The City at Beyond Yoga studio in Tomas Morato. It was a full day FLOW affair organized by the women behind Flow:SurfYogaSamba Weekend Retreats- Denise Gonzales-Bernardo, Monica Eleazar-Manzano and Noelle Hilario. “We wanted to bring the FLOW experience to people who are unable to leave work or family for out of town retreats which we offer 2-3 times a year”, Noelle says. “This is also a chance for regular retreat participants to get together for a reunion party”, adds in Monica.
The activities for the day included Neuro-Linguistic Program (NLP) talk by PJ Lanot, Antigravity Yoga by Monica Eleazar-Manzano, Zumba by Sharon Yu, Inner Dance by Pi Villaraza and a Green Smoothie workshop by Imee Contreras of Sunshine Daydream.
For the NLP workshop headed by PJ Lanot, the participants did communicative exercises with the use of personality and modality mirroring. These are essential tools in dealing with others at work and at home.
Everyone was so excited to learn the art of flight from the Antigravity Yoga class by Monica Eleazar-Manzano. They all learned how to get into inversions like Back-belt Spider Man and Booty Wrap Monkey while enjoying the anatomical, therapeutic & hormonal benefits of being upside-down!
“We absolutely love heart thumping activities so we invited Zumba certified dance guru, Sharon Yu, to conduct a Zumba Party class”, Denise says. It was one-full hour of non-stop Zumba fun- which included lots of dancing, sweat and calories burned! MIO Watch Philippines representative, Ferdinand Aguila joined the class and measured the calories burned with his watch and awarded one lucky participant after the class! Participants had unlimited supply of Lightwater and Vitamin Boost to replenish lost vitamins and minerals from all the dancing and sweating.
Pi Villaraza of Bahay Kalipay, Palawan facilitated the Inner Dance process, which brings the concept of FLOW into spiritual form. In this healing modality, we embrace the fact that we are essentially all energy, all vibration. Transformation takes place when we ‘flow’ from one’s birth purpose, Villaraza states.
Imee Contreras and Toni Bernardo of Sunshine Daydream Live Foods gave a short demo on the benefits of the raw food diet and how to integrate this into our everyday fast-paced lives. Simply by adding some green leafy vegetables to a fruit smoothie, we are taking in lots of live enzymes that can do wonders for our health!
All participants were given Goody bags filled with Goody ouchless accessories and other goodies by sponsors; Browhaus gift certificates, Mio Watch gift certificates, Lightwater and Vitaminboost bottles to keep us hydrated all through out the day, Moringana capsules and tea packs for an immunity boost.
Those who registered and came early were also given a set of gift certificates, earrings and rings from ENVY, gift certificates from STRIP and Nail Rituals organic foot and hand spa gift certificates which was given out by PBA-star Renren Ritualo, himself.
After a long day of workshops and activities, we had a fabulous feast sponsored by Kashmir Indian Restaurant and Dimsum & Dumplings. All the ingredients used for the vegetarian siomai and siopao are 80-90% organic plus fresh herbs and seasonal vegetables are used in food preparation as well. Kashmir Restaurant, Manila's oldest fine dining Indian restaurant, brought some good-ol Indian pica-picas: vegetarian samosas, pakoras and potato tikkis.
ANC’s Green Living TV crew with host Paolo Abrera were also present the whole day to cover the event.
To catch other more exciting events from Flow:SurfYogaSamba, visit their sites:
Instagram: flowsurfyogasamba
