WINNIPEG – Meditation instructor moved to Winnipeg from B.C. 16 years ago to start a meditation school because of the sunshine in this city.
The native of France now works with more than 100 people in Manitoba who want to release stress from their daily lives at his studio Aromansse.
“Meditation is a state where you are accessing another state of consciousness than your day to day thought patterns,” Chaligne said. “Reflection is analyzing it.”
Chaligne started studying meditation in France and then in other cities across Europe. He also did research on how meditation and relaxation affects the brain.
“Six months in, people say it totally changed my life,” he said. “We have classes, for example once a week for 11 weeks, but we are also doing some workshops where people can come for four hours or a weekend.”
While meditation schools are fairly new here, Chaligne said some people still confuse it with yoga.
“It is not yoga,” he said. “All over the world it’s extremely rare to have the program we have.”