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What is Integrative Medicine?
Healing versus Cure
Integrative Care in Medicine
The Sick Role & Healing
Self-regulation Techniques
Presented to staff of SickKids hospital, as part of the Mindfulness & Compassion Rounds
Note: This is a very vital, sensitive, vulnerable, honest and emotional session of an adult recounting their healing journey post treatment. Some may find the presentation triggering. As a whole, we as a group felt it was important to share and to start to go deeper into the topic of healing a life; for all of us that give bedside care this is an important recounting. This is Part One, we hope in the near future to present Part Two where she is today and how this has motivated her to support and heal others…and to bravely share her story.
Montana is a yoga and meditation teacher, guiding individuals facing health challenges to discover their inner wisdom and healing potential. As a former childhood cancer patient at SickKids, Montana's presentation will highlight how the absence of emotional, psychological, and spiritual dimensions in her treatment led to decades of mental and physical health challenges.
Through the design and implementation of an integrative approach to well-being for herself and her clients, she has found that patients access increased agency in healing, overcome hypervigilance and fear, and discover a sense of peace with their new-found identities and in their lives.
Montana strives to bridge the gap between biomedical and integrative healing for healthcare professionals and patients alike, recognizing that these tools must be accessible to everyone. Learn more about her practice and get in touch at: https://montanaskurka.com/
Montana Skurka is an OCT-certified Integrative Wellness Educator and yoga and meditation teacher with a Masters of Teaching degree from the University of Toronto specializing in mental health education. She has over ten years' experience coaching individuals and facilitating self-care groups, providing her students with tools and supports to access their innate healing potential. Montana's dedication to this therapeutic holistic work and the mind-body connection stems from her personal struggles navigating health crises throughout her childhood and young adulthood.
One-on-one support for individuals facing health challenges addressing the emotional, spiritual & mental dimensions of your journey
Drawing from my lived experience with disease & disorder, I offer you empathetic and personalized support
Through tailored meditation, restorative postures, Reiki and additional embodiment techniques, I guide individuals on a transformative journey, fostering relaxation, resilience and holistic sense of well being
Your body is wise beyond comprehension. I am here for you 🤍
It’s been a time of much heartbreak, pain and grief globally over the last few weeks.
Join me for a few minutes to drop into stillness and connect with your breath. It is my intention that these practices allow you to cultivate a sense of inner peace.
Breathwork refers to a wide variety of techniques and exercises which encompass regulating the way that one breathes, particularly in order to promote mental, emotional and physical health.
It is a conscious practice of deliberately manipulating how one breathes with awareness and intention that has been used therapeutically and as a path of spiritual awakening for thousands of years in various ancient traditions.
This recorded session will introduce you to a series of breathwork practices designed to enhance your physical, mental and spiritual health.
"Breathwork has been shown to increase parasympathetic activity, heart rate variability, physiological flexibility, [and] is one of the greatest tools I have in my medical toolbox to help individuals manage stress, [which] has become an epidemic in our society.”
-Mark Hyman, M.D., Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine
Effect of breathwork on stress and mental health: A meta-analysis of randomised-controlled trials
Breath of Life: The Respiratory Vagal Stimulation Model of Contemplative Activity
The Effectiveness of Diaphragmatic Breathing Relaxation Training for Reducing Anxiety
Effects of breathing exercises on lung capacity and muscle activities of elderly smokers
Self-Regulation of Breathing as an Adjunctive Treatment of Insomnia
The Use of Breathing Exercises in the Treatment of Chronic, Nonspecific Low Back Pain
Additional breathwork instruction:
Photo by Emma Simpson on Unsplash
“The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely” - Carl Jung
Awhile back, I was asked to be a panelist at an event on the emotional impact of chronic illness, specifically Inflammatory Bowel Disease. After myself and my fellow panelists answered a few questions, it was time for the main event. A featured keynote speech was given by a man who had done some incredible feat while living with Crohn’s disease. It was clear he had given this speech before, and it certainly was inspirational. Cue Rocky Music as he explained how he had successfully climbed a mountain, or completed a triathalon - to be honest I do not recall what feat he accomplished, because it did not seem like anything I would ever be able to do. Despite his best intentions, and the importance of his message: yes, those of us with chronic illness can succeed, there was something that deeply troubled me about this presentation.
My suspicions of the potential harm these types of motivational speeches can do was confirmed when a middle aged lady timidly raised her hand with a question. She asked the same question I was thinking, and her words were both earnest and profound: “I have Crohn’s too, but I will never be able to accomplish this type of athletic feat. I struggle greatly with my illness and it limits my life in many ways. Am I only supposed to view myself as a success story if I am able to achieve something like you are describing?”
It was clear that this seasoned motivational speaker was not expecting this type of question, and stumbled for words. In that moment, I related much more to the woman in the audience than the man I was sharing the stage with. I had no heroic story to tell, just my own experience of physical and mental challenges that continue to afflict me on an ongoing basis.
🜃
I went to the forest to cure myself. At that point, I was working as a yoga teacher and wellness coach, and had just started a podcast on re-integrating and re-humanizing the healthcare system. I was writing, and publicly speaking about my journey with wellness. But deep down I felt like an imposter, a fraud and a failure. Because I was not cured. Far from it. The medical trauma that I had experienced as a child with cancer still lingered and left its shadow in every realm of my life: from body image and relationships to my professional life and mental health. This trauma was severely compounded by a diagnosis of IBD at 17 years old, followed by years of intense pain and despair as I struggled to find relief. I still experienced lingering physical symptoms that could debilitate me in pain and keep me so fatigued. would teach a yoga class in the middle of the day, and then be so exhausted afterwards that I would have to lie down for several hours to recover. I kept this a secret: I figured if anyone knew, they would stop coming to my classes. During one of these classes, a student and new friend told me that I was the most energetic person that he had ever met. The gulf between who he saw and who I felt myself to be was so vast that I could hardly bear it. I believed myself to be a sick imposter posing as a happy and healthy woman and it was becoming increasingly excruciating. I was still the sick girl I believed myself to be, despite the smiling veneer I presented to the world. My symptoms were still with me, so what could I possibly say or provide of value to others?
I could not bear this feeling any longer. I suddenly left my life behind and ventured to the forest so I could cure myself once and for all to become the person I believed everyone thought I was. The only acceptable version of myself I could imagine was the eternally happy, healthy and energetic yoga teacher and wellness coach who could climb Mount Everest and perform a triathalon. Anything less could never do. So, once and for all, I had to cure myself. My life and worth as a human being depended on it.
🜄
It was at the halfway point of my retreat, 30 days in, that it became unavoidably clear to me that I was failing at the task of curing myself. I was still experiencing the frequent painful, embarrassing and uncomfortable symptoms of a colitis flare-up. This coveted cure I was desperately seeking was simply not going to happen.
I knocked frantically and loudly on my favourite retreat staff-members office hut door. He was eating lunch with his coworker, both of these men at least a foot and several hundred pounds larger than me. But they were afraid of me in that moment. I started yelling, and crying, hyperventilating, shaking. They looked at me with compassion and love in their eyes. I had been the girl with the smiling mask for thirty days living in this national forest. There was no mask left, it was just me completely coming undone in front of their eyes. I was holding nothing back, and all the medical trauma I experienced as a young girl and adolescent came flooding back. One of the men said to me: “why don’t you write a letter to doctors?”, which I did, but that is a story for another day. They were patient and kind and held space for me to lose myself in my grief.
I stormed out of their hut when it was clear that there was nothing left to say. I ran to the horses who were minding their own business in a far tucked away corner of the forest. I sat on a patch of grass as far away as I could manage to continue my breakdown. I don’t know how long I sat their drowning in my tears as this elusive cure from chronic illness faded in the distance. It felt like years, it felt like mere moments. Time had lost all sense of meaning, for my life as I knew it felt like it had ended. There was no hope left for me.
All of a sudden, I looked up and Mille the mule was staring back at me. Millie didn’t quite fit in with the other horses; she was smaller, and she was sick. Her eyes were runny and red and she was feeble, not as strong and capable as her horse-mates. She was staring at me defiantly, as if she could read my mind and was posing a question to me: “Yes, I am sick. Yes, I am smaller than the others. But am I a failure to you?”
I touched Millie’s face gently through the fence. No, Millie, I thought. Millie: you are beautiful, you are alive, you deserve to be here. You are sick, but you are not a failure.
She telepathically replied to me: Well then, so are you. So do you.
And we just stood like that, together - me and Millie for what felt like hours and what felt like mere moments. She would not leave my side, and a profound shift took place within me that day, in those moments with Millie. We were there together, and we accepted each other exactly as we were. And that was enough.
🜁
I cannot erase my past, or the ways in which physical and mental health issues have shaped my life up to the present day.
I will never be cured. But I say that now with a sigh of relief, rather than resignation.
Because, I am no longer fragmented.
These are all parts of me:
All parts are welcome, all are included, all make up who I am.
I will never be cured, but I am a living and breathing human being who feels both love and loss
🜂
When we face a chronic illness, it does not just affect the specific body part in isolation.
Oftentimes, we face a myriad of physical, mental, emotional and social challenges, and our Western healthcare system lacks the resources to guide us through this challenging time.
This is why it is so important for us to educate ourselves and learn how to break the vicious cycle, feeling empowered in our own care.
In this presentation, I outline my personal story and share tools and resources to help you navigate your way to health and wellness.
Thank you for listening, and I would love to hear from you!
How are you doing? How do you feel?
We ask each other this question as a greeting many times throughout the day. But how many of us expect a true answer, or even know how we feel at any given moment?
Many of us were not taught that our emotions were important or to be valued. I believe this has led us to cut off connection to our emotional landscape, and many of us simply have forgotten how to get in touch with ourselves.
Instead, in the pursuit of 'productivity', we disregard, numb and ignore our emotions as we get lost in the busyness of our modern lives.
Connecting with the sensations in our body provides us with a portal to access a sense of connection, peace and stillness in the midst of turbulent times.
In this video, I guide you through a body scan meditation to allow you to drop in to the sensations and felt experience of your body in the present moment
We are living in unprecedented times with breakdown occurring on many levels of society: physically, mentally and spiritually. There is much despair, uncertainty and suffering accompanying these global shifts.
How do we move forward?
We have been trained to look for answers to our problems, both personal and societal, from outside ourselves. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to know who to believe; it seems as though we are at a moment in time where no person or institution is capable of guiding us towards a safe and peaceful future built on integrity, wisdom and compassion.
Perhaps we can find the answer through connecting with ourselves. Cultivating deep connection to the self allows for healing and can provide a sense of embodied safety through turbulent times. This connection we cultivate through mindfulness practices allows for intuitive understanding from within of what is true and right for you.
In this video, I guide you through a short breath awareness practice that includes:
- Breath-focused meditation
- Cat/cow yoga sequence that can be done seated or in a tabletop position
- Visualization paired with breath
- Journaling exercise
The relationship that you have with yourself is the longest and most important relationship you will have in your life.
What is the quality of your relationship with yourself?
Today's practice includes easeful and restorative yoga postures done on your back and a relaxing breathwork exercise. Through connecting to our body + breath, we explore how to cultivate a more compassionate and loving relationship with one's self. Most of us are feeling a bit unsettled & restless during this time of self-isolation.
My aim is that these simple movement & mindfulness techniques will bring you to a deeper sense of clarity & ease.
Beginner-friendly ~ great for anyone who has been interested in practising more mindful ways of living and trying out yoga, meditation or mindfulness practices. This session is all seated/laying down to ease us in.
Grab a cup of tea, get comfy, turn off your phone and join me!
What are you resisting in your life?
Meeting ourselves and others with a sense of acceptance allows us to move forward with increased clarity and wisdom.
Today's practice explores the theme of acceptance through a seated meditation and easeful yoga postures done on your back with the aid of a strap that target the hamstrings and hips.
Most of us are feeling a bit unsettled & restless during this time of self-isolation. My aim is to provide you with simple movement & mindfulness techniques that will bring you to a deeper sense of clarity & ease.
Beginner-friendly ~ great for anyone who has been interested in practising more mindful ways of living and trying out yoga, meditation or mindfulness practices. This session is all seated/laying down to ease us in.
Grab a cup of tea, get comfy, turn off your phone and join me!
Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu ~ May All Beings Together Find Happiness.
🜁 ~ 🜂 ~ 🜃 ~🜄
Five years ago, I walked up the stairs and through the doors of Ahimsa Yoga Centre for the first time. I could never have imagined how that fateful encounter would change my life forever. I had a feeling Ahimsa was special right away, based on the open, welcoming and laid-back feeling the yoga studio evoked. There was a friendly and engaging conversation occurring by the front desk as my cousins and I asked if we could register for a class. We were greeted with an overflowing amount of warmth and kindness by the staff, teachers and fellow students. It felt like everyone was genuinely happy that we were there. I have never wanted to leave ever since.
I had just moved into a bachelor apartment a few blocks away from the yoga studio and was entering the second half of my 20’s at this time. Having just completed my studies, I was finding the transition from academics to “real life” difficult, to say the least. I had everything I needed to enter adulthood, or so it seemed. I was on the cusp of ‘‘success’’ from an outsider’s view: a loving family, boyfriend and Master’s degree under my belt, I seemed ready to take on the world. But the truth was very different: chronic physical and mental health issues were plaguing me daily. Unprocessed medical trauma that had been buried since my childhood was leaking out as a poison into all areas of my life. It left me terrified of my body. Mistrusting of my body. Hating my body. Needing a constant escape from my body.
I had been able to survive up to that point by ignoring my body and existing within the confines of my mind. In many ways, living merely in your head is rewarded in our society. I could sit for hours and write an essay or study for a test, followed by numbing out through watching mindless reality television. I could ignore the physical pain I was often experiencing and the constant state of terror I felt coursing through me. I could fuel my chronic anxiety into “productivity”. I was a “good girl”, and I was burned out. I was dying on the inside while smiling on the outside.
It is through our felt experience that we become in touch with the present moment. It is only in the present moment that we experience the pleasures of life: sexuality, creativity, laughter, joy, connection, love. I knew I wanted to experience these things, but had forgotten how to long ago. We do not learn how to live in a classroom or doctor’s office.
I needed teachers, and I found them at Ahimsa. I returned daily for years and practised feeling safe and connected to my body in the warm company of others doing the same. There was a level of care and compassion consistently felt at that studio. You could visibly see it in the way we all lingered before and after class. We all wanted to be there - to continue the conversation, to be together, to soak up the energy we had cultivated for as long as we could before venturing back into the rest of our lives.
At Ahimsa, I learned how much more we are than the roles we play. I sat on my mat beside esteemed academics, restauranteurs, business-people, actors… but we were all the same. Stripped of our titles and technology for a few sacred moments each day, we sweated and breathed and moved towards our personal intentions supported and held by the members of this inclusive modern tribe.
Human beings are simple in many ways: we want to be seen, to be understood, and to belong. As soon as I entered Ahimsa Yoga Centre, I felt an indescribable sense of belonging I had never felt before. Over the last five years, I was fortunate enough to assume many positions at the studio. I worked in the Energy Exchange program, I graduated from the Yogayama Yoga Teacher Training Program, I began teaching yoga at the studio and coordinated the Yogayama program for a time.
My time at the studio and in these various roles allowed me to learn skills and make connections that will last a lifetime, from friendships to creative collaborations that have given me the confidence to redefine what success looks like and live authentically according to my own values.
It was also within this space that a true miracle occurred: I slowly began to inhabit my body. I learned how to live at Ahimsa. I laughed, I cried, I conversed with others for hours about philosophy and the strange & beautiful human condition. I flirted, I danced, I embraced. I made friends that will last a lifetime. I felt pleasure and pain. I was seen and heard and loved for exactly who I was. I saw and heard and loved others in return. A messy metamorphosis was taking place: I crawled, toddled, walked, and finally, danced my way into adulthood. We were alive together.
🜁 ~ 🜂 ~ 🜃 ~🜄
To my teachers : Thank you. I hope to continue to learn from you for the years to come. Thank you for providing a safe space for me to learn to love myself. Thank you for providing endless hours of inspiration through the love with which you imbue your teachings. I aspire to offer my students a fraction of what you have gifted me.
To JP and Michelle Tamblyn-Sabo: Thank you. Thank you for creating and sustaining this sacred space with your blood, sweat, tears and magic. Thank you for the integrity that guided your leadership as you provided us with the support we needed to heal ourselves. Thank you for being my mentor, guide, teacher, shaman, guru and boss. Thank you for believing in me when I did not believe in myself. Thank you, most of all, for being my friend.
To the Ahimsa tribe: I see you, I hear you, I belong with you. May we continue to experience precious moments of life together, in whatever form they come, for the years to come.
Love always,
Montana
Children are masters of mindfulness, which ultimately is the ability to be present.
They simply need the opportunity to practice this skill in engaging ways, which is what this class will provide!
Together, we practice various meditation techniques specifically adapted for children, such as: assessing our internal weather report, mindful breathing and mindful movement.
Mindfulness is greatly beneficial for children and adults alike, and research shows it helps to decrease stress and anxiety, increase attention, improve interpersonal relationships and strengthen compassion. Of course, fun and laughter is always included.
This yoga class designed for kids aged 3+ aims to keep children flowing and breathing as they invoke their creative spirit.
We will go through postures that provide an opportunity for kids to use their imagination to embark on a deep sea adventure. They will also enjoy the benefits of stretching and moving with breath, such as: improved balance, flexibility, focus, connection, health and well-being.
What makes you feel balanced in your life?
Today's practice explores this question through a breathing exercise, some seated yoga postures and ending with a restorative meditation.
Most of us are feeling a bit unsettled & restless during this time of self-isolation. My aim is to provide you with simple movement & mindfulness techniques that will bring you to a deeper sense of clarity & ease.
Beginner-friendly ~ great for anyone who has been interested in practising more mindful ways of living and trying out yoga, meditation or mindfulness practices. This session is all seated to ease us in.
Grab a cup of tea, get comfy, turn off your phone and join me!
Most of us are feeling a bit unsettled & restless during this time of self-isolation. My aim is to provide you with simple movement & mindfulness techniques that will bring you to a deeper sense of clarity & ease.
Beginner-friendly ~ great for anyone who has been interested in practising more mindful ways of living and trying out yoga, meditation or mindfulness practices.
This session is all seated to ease us in. Grab a cup of tea, get comfy, turn off your phone and join me!
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”
