About

Virginia V. Vianna – Labyrinth R&R founder and facilitator

Welcome to Labyrinth R&R

I first discovered the restorative power of the labyrinth while navigating life as a young mother searching for balance between home, work and study. Inspired by the great benefit I received from the meditation and reflection the circuitous and symmetrical pathway engenders, I went on to become an accredited labyrinth facilitator in 2012 through the Veriditas certification process with Dr. Lauren Artress and Dr. Kay Mutert in North Carolina, USA.  I have since had the honour and the pleasure to facilitate the labyrinth experience for a wide range of folks in Ontario and in my original homeland of Tasmania.

The healing and restorative power experienced by walking the ancient labyrinth pattern has complimented my mindfulness and bioenergy healing practices, and given a boost to my creativity and art practice.  I greatly enjoyed serving on the committee of the Labyrinth Community Network of Ontario, and spent five rewarding years at a Toronto hospital facilitating labyrinth walks for patients, staff and students.  After twenty years on my journey with labyrinths, I am convinced of the benefits to mind, body and spiritual health. I am inspired to continue to introduce labyrinth walking meditation as I understand the activity to be a catalyst for love, acknowledgement and healing for ourselves, and the interconnected web of relationships on our beautiful planet Earth.  I am encouraged by the writings of Robin Wall Kimmerer.  In her book Braiding Sweetgrass she says “What we are in control of is our relationship to earth.  Nature herself is a moving target, especially in an era of rapid climate change.  Species composition may change, but relationship endures.  It is the most authentic facet of the restoration.  Here is where our most challenging and rewarding work lies, in restoring a relationship of respect, responsibility, and reciprocity.  And love.”  I whole heartedly believe the labyrinth to be a valuable tool for doing this work.

I invite you to give the labyrinth a try.

Virginia‘s journey

Virginia grew up in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, breathing the invigorating air of the Tasman Sea in the southern Pacific Ocean.  She has completed a small circumnavigation living in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Montevideo, Uruguay for a decade, before travelling north to Canada and residing in Mississauga, and Toronto for twenty years.  She has recently journeyed back to the north Pacific Ocean to make her home.  She now spends her time between Squamish, British Columbia and South Arm, Tasmania.  

Her physical travels were accompanied by inner exploration, circling round and doubling back with formal studies and personal inquiry in languages, history and culture, environmental studies, comparative religions and philosophy, herbal and essential oil remedies, bio energy healing modalities, music, yoga and continuum movement practice.

She looks forward to sharing the transformative and regenerative power of the labyrinth with you.  It is a life affirming exercise and ideal for building community cohesion and harmony. Please contact her for further information.

What is a labyrinth?

“The labyrinth is a spiritual tool that has many applications in various settings.  It reduces stress, quiets the mind and opens the heart.  It is a walking meditation, a path of prayer…..a blue print where psyche meets spirit.”  

Dr Lauren Artress

A labyrinth consists of ONE circuitous pathway, the single continuous path twists and turns in a usually symmetrical manner and leads you to a  centre place.  After time in the centre you return on the same path back out to the starting point.  The exercise is often considered a metaphor for going inward to take stock of your personal journey and life circumstances. This can occur as you take a time out in your busy day to slow down, and is enhanced by the curving pathway that participants report engenders reflection and quiet contemplation, and that research has indicated utilizes the left and right hemispheres of the brain to bring about a more balanced and harmonious state of mind.

“As the left brain engages in the logical progression of walking the path, the right brain is free to think creatively.”

David Tolzman, designer and builder of The John Hopkins Bayview Medical Centre Labyrinth.

Physically moving inside the pathways of the labyrinth becomes a whole body exercise.   Gailand Mcqueen  says that labyrinths “are about embodiment……when we walk, run, or crawl a labyrinth, we are using our bodies.  Our spirituality becomes embodied even when we trace labyrinths…[they] help us rediscover our bodies as vehicles of spirituality.” 

A labyrinth is not a maze.  A maze has dead ends, has choices of paths, it is designed to bamboozle and defeat you.  A labyrinth on the other hand metaphorically helps you find your way.

Historically labyrinths were designed as sacred spaces.  It has been said that the origins are lost in the mists of time and no one particular culture can lay claim to their genesis.  They have been found and documented throughout the world across almost all continents stretching back at least four thousand years.  Such diverse locations as Syria, India, Peru, Egypt, Arizona, Sweden, Sardinia, Jordan, Portugal, (the list goes on) have all seen ancient labyrinths embedded in their land.  Labyrinth walking is a non-denominational spiritual practice that is inclusive to all.  You are definitely following in the footsteps of the ancestors when you wander the labyrinth path.

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“In the labyrinth something in us opens naturally and the still small voice within becomes audible.  It is the other side of stress.” 

Martyn Kendrick