Dear Yogis,

This morning I am going to talk to you about COOKING as a means to empowerment.  Usually, and I am sure you have felt this too, cooking is a way of being relegated to the kitchen… but look how many women (and men) have used it as a way TO GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN.

Take for instance Nardia Hussein.  She started her cooking life as a contestant on The Great British Bake Off. She had an arranged marriage (luckily to a good husband – good Karma), quickly had children and was marooned in her house all day in an industrial English town.  She suffered with depression, alienation and other emotional stresses, as you can imagine.  Whatever propelled her to enter the competition I don’t know.  She was the only Muslim, wore a voluminous black headscarf throughout the whole show, and doubted herself until the last few shows where she started to see her own potential.  She won.  When she got the prize she said “whatever happens, I am never, ever going to doubt myself again”.

She still battles her depression, but the person you see on the television is totally different now.  She has cooked a cake for the Queen.  More importantly, she has ditched the black for beautiful colours.  Her clothes and her headscarf are BEAUTIFUL colours.  She is shining through.

When are you going to take off the headscarf.

What made me think about this is because at one time my hair was the only thing I really felt I had control over (although I couldn’t have talked about it in that way).  Colours, curls, short long.  It changed all the time, but of course didn’t give me any control…. except on that one small thing, and it was only a temporary fix.

For the last 8 years I have grown it.  It is fast.  Last weekend I had such a strong urge to cut it – a need to feel differently about myself.  I examined that urge, and at the base of it was CONTROL.  Everything in our world has changed, and like you, I am still finding my feet.  I thought I was doing well, until that “hair thing” re-surfaced.  Luckily, I recognised it, and I didn’t manifest that anxiety.  I did what I tell you to do.  It hit the mat.  More yoga and certainly more meditation and more sleep, and I danced around the yoga studio to this song….

 

HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY – IN THE LIGHT

NAMASTE.  JAHNE

Good morning yogis,

THIS MORNING – TELEVISION

I am not addicted to the TV programme HOUSE, but I really like watching it.  Have you?  Over, and over and over again Karma is explored (although they never call it Karma).  They have patients “in extremis” who get  themselves checked in, mostly by almost dying in the first 5 minutes of the show.  People for whom there is no logical explanation of the problem, and House,  the hospital’s famous maverick diagnostician has to find out what caused the symptoms.  He rarely just treats the symptoms unless doing so is pulling back the curtain on the past.

His little team of helpers from time to time have to go to the patient’s house and scour it for something.  They don’t know what they are looking for and have to sift through the detritus of the past to discover the problems occurring in the now.  It happens in life.  The thing that appears to be causing the problem now, was caused by some “hiccup”, intentional or unintentional,  in the distant past.  Unfortunately, we need help to uncover it, which sometimes is painful.  We know uncovering the problem, easing the top off the scab to clean it up, isn’t going to be pleasant.  We don’t particularly want to go there.  The usual response on the show and in life is “Just give me a pill”.

This morning a husband and wife were close to death with an unidentified disease.. on sifting back the medical team discovered that the father 17 years ago apparently had sex (and a child) outside marriage…. he passed on a defective gene to both, who turned out to be the husband and wife in this time frame.  The clue? both had green eyes.  Unusual.  This whole situation had many ins and outs, blind alleys, mis-diagnoses, and went on for an hour, exploring  situations that occurred years ago which manifested in present time.

Today there was another “Karmic Backstory”.  House was totally rude to a patient, and refuses to apologise (in fact is grossly dismissive of his problem) although the guy really extended the olive branch, and goes above and beyond to level the playing field.  House, (who I think is on the spectrum), oblivious of what is happening compounds the problem over and over again with his insensitivity. Later in the episode, House  speeding home on his motorcycle – is followed by a police car – both pull over and guess who gets out of the police car?  The patient who in a cruel twist of fate turns out a senior police office, and arrests House using all of his disabilities against him!  We know that the Police Department isn’t going to care that House is a cripple, is a senior doctor, has clout…. Immediate Karma.  I know it is simplistic, but I enjoy it. It explores many ethical issues playing out in front of us daily.  IVF, The Gay Community, Incest and so on, and what they can cause medically.  How these negatives can manifest physically.

The program is even more interesting when you look for the Karmic content!!

TO CHANGE THE SUBJECT:   Yesterday was my day off and one of my stops was at Lincraft (for wool).  I made laundry balls.  I have some and they are fabulous.  In the picture to the right there are some old ones, and some “under construction”.  .  It is said that they save 20% of the usual tumble drying time, eliminate static etc.  But, commercially they cost $50 for three plus postage via the TV ad.  I make my own, and I make them for others.  They don’t have a cute face painted on the front that the advertised “Wet Balls” have, and they don’t have a foam centre.  They are scrap wool all the way through.  Go to www.wildnweedy.blogspot.com to discover how you can make them.  Easily. and save heaps.

Have a lovely day, and this evening in front of the television (if you can’t darn),  make some laundry balls.

NAMASTE.  JAHNE

 

Dear Yogis,

Imagine if you can,  what it would feel like to feel no pain.  Not that pain ceased to exist, but when pain came towards you,  you were able to see the causes deep within reality itself  which were bringing this pain to you.

Imagine what it would feel like if you had perfect peace of mind as you went about your day, finishing this and other pain forever, your mind completely free of these thoughts.  Whatever pain you have it is in your brain, and not in the site – where you feel it is only a warning signal to stop you doing yourself more harm.

If this were possible for you, you would have more time, more peace of mind, less confusion.  You would be able to love, to create and to give to others.  You would be like a child.

When Jesus said “Suffer the little children to come to me”, was he talking about children, or was he talking about adults who had been able to return to the innocence and openness of a child? In order to achieve this state of being, you would need to come to a perfect understanding of existence.  You would then know why things happen as they do, every thought which is thought, every pain which is felt.

You would know how to act in order achieve a state of perfect happiness.

After you have read these words, you will go back to your life  as imperfect and covid tainted as it is.  You may remember my letters to you, and for a mini-second you may be able to escape the darkness.  There is only one way to achieve this level of “perfection”..  You must learn from my words to you, and your own personal, regular, daily, practice and these (baby) steps will lead you to experience for yourself the state that we call “emptiness”.

 

YOGA CLASSES

Please read the web page “classes” before you book for classes.  We live in unusual times and there are unusual Covid requirements.

You might also read “RESTORE” and decide to come to my STUDIO+DISTANCE course on Restorative Yoga… You are all Welcome.  You will learn more than asana, and every skill is another class you can offer at your studio, or as a one-on-one.

 

WELCOME TO MY WORLD…

NAMASTE – JAHNE