Dear Yogis,

Fantastic – I actually got replies from my last newsletter about “female issues”.   An especially useful one which let me know that in New Zealand oestradiol gel will soon be available on the national health.  This is a life changing medication for menopause vaginal dryness.  My doctor and my ex were less than sympathetic when I was travelling through this.  It is an excruciating problem and causes problems on every level as you can imagine.  Sex feels like being made love to by a chain saw… need I say more.  If only I had had sympathy and medication, a lot would be different today.

There is a worldwide shortage of the patches – but ask for the gel.  You never know your luck.  I did use a natural medication, but the oestrogen gel is actually what I needed – industrial strength.

 

I am still contemplating the YARN BOMBING.  I loved doing it, and since the time we did it here in Woodend, the world has been waking up to it, and International Yarn Bombing day is exactly that – International.  I can help you do it where you are – it does need some considerations.  It is not just a matter of getting together a ball of wool and needles.  This can be a fund raising group.. or just for fun.  It brings people together.  PLEASE EMAIL ME:  yogafirst2@bigpond.com

 

SIMPLICITY

Thinking about bombing of any kind, keep top of mind that about 400 hundred people per hour are going to die of starvation whilst we are reading this, and many more are on the brink, and many more will be killed and maimed in the various wars being waged at the moment!.

What can you do about this – well a lot on a tiny scale.  You could agree with yourself to live more simply.  I look at the lifestyle of the now deceased Tasha Tudor.  Although she lived in an affluent society (1915 – 2008.  Boston. Mass. USA) , she maintained the simple life of her parents until she died.  Made her own clothes, raised her own food, used electricity marginally and so on.  She earned money through writing childrens books and painting, and rather reminded me of an American Beatrix Potter.  Because Tasha (like Beatrix) wasn’t distracted by the modern world, she was very productive and wrote 100 books and painted about 2,000 works of art mostly watercolours to illustrate her books..  in this way she changed peoples lives, and like childrens’ writers before her taught children about a different, simpler kind of life.

Whilst simplicity provides an answer to this modern dilemma, it does not provide an easy answer.  Simplicity is both a grace and a discipline.  Grace is a gift of God (yes, the “G” word).  In my understanding and experience there is no way we can build our will power and put ourselves into contortions, mind games, and attain it.  We perhaps have an idea of what simplicity is and batter it to fit our lifestyle, But that is not what simplicity is.  It slips in unawares.  A new sense of concentration enters our awareness, a wonder, a concentration.  We begin to understand that when the call is made the power is given.  Simplicity is a grace, and a discipline because we are called to do something.  It involves a consciously chosen course of action.

What we DO does not give us simplicity, but it does put us in the place and the frame of mind where we can receive it.  It is a vital preparation, a sowing of the seed both easy and difficult. It is an inward reality that can be seen in an outward lifestyle.  We must have both – to neglect either end and the effect is not useful. We must accept the goodness AND THE LIMITATIONS of material things.

For yogis reading this – consult the Purushatras.  Dharma – Duty and moral values, Artha – prosperity, Kama – pleasure, love, psychological values and Moksha – freedom, liberation, spiritual values, self-actualisation.

 

CLASSES WOODEND.  from 8th July for the next term….

Windarring Yoga –  Kyneton Tues. 1pm,  9.30AM in Gisborne (10 week term ending in September).

STUDIO YOGA WOODEND: Monday Hatha 1pm (full) Wednesday Restorative 1pm,  FRIDAY RESTORATIVE 10am

DISABILITY YOGA CLASS (YOGA FOR WHEELIES AND WALKERS) in NORMA RICHARDSON hall, starting 9.30am (or a bit later)  by donation.

Arrive around 9.30 and we will start when we are settled.   I will be leaving around 11am..  I am not sure how long the class will last, or how long it will take to get everyone ready and moving, but we will be relaxed, and see how it goes.  LAST WEEK WAS FABULOUS.

>>>>>>ZOOM DISABILITY YOGA TEACHER TRAINING. Transfer to distance, zoom done.   . Usual zoom classes MONDAY 22nd July.  If you want to join in you can, but you will need to email me to get the ZOOM ID.  

NEXT STUDIO TEACHER TRAINING – The Sunday July 28th at 2.30

YOGA MONTHLY LUNCH:  27th July, The Victoria, Woodend –  at 12 noon  Please email me if you haven’t already.

NEW YIN YOGA CARDS ON THE WAY – they are being printed.

 

NAMASTE .  JAHNE