Dear Yogis,

Sorry you weren’t at class last nite.  We are moving forward with THE CHAKRAS.  There is so much to know of course,  but we are trying to stick close by the practical aspects of identifying, working with them, knowing when the energies are up or down, active or underactive. How to know that in yourself and others.  Kinesiology, pendulums, etc… It is a fascinating study.  Although the class is listed as starting at 7.30 and finishing at 9pm, not everyone has run out of questions and the class often lasts quite a bit longer.

The Stage 3 is going to be changing soon as we imagine we can move back into “normal” or “new normal”, and studios will gradually open up.  I am not sure how I will manage this.  There is only one of me, and I can’t do studio classes and zoom.  Plus many of my students now are interstate or under isolation in stage 4.  Then there are those people who have never physically been able to come to my studio because of distance and now can zoom.  It has been a wonderful time, and I don’t know what will happen next.  We will play it by ear.

INNER PEACE GROUPS.  Please think about this and start your own groups.  We will think abut how to do this in our Wednesday classes.  I want you to save the world.  I can’t do it on my own.  What are your priorities?

When I was in my late forties I gave this a great deal of thought.  I worked out that if I lived into my 70’s (where I am now) and given that I didn’t take action right away, I only had about 1,000 Fridays (the day I dedicated to my children) left.  If you are thinking of these things too, get 1,000 dried chick peas and put them in a jar.  Every week, take out one seed.  In this way you will actually be able to see the number of days or weeks dwindling.  Life in this way seems a whole lot immediate and precious.  Every one of those chick peas is a day or a week of your life, and the number is finite.  You can’t add even one to the jar.  Every day, every “chick pea” is precious.  What have you done with yesterday – all of your yesterday.  What are you going to do with today?  If you thought you “can’t do……..” and take a chick pea out of the jar when YOU don’t show up, you can’t put that chick pea back. You can’t re-run the day. Life is not a movie set, there are no re-runs, no dailies that you can change.  You can only change NOW.

As yogis we say we are saving the world “one person at a time”.  Starting an Inner Peace group can help in this especially at this time. In “normal” Inner Peace is in short supply, and I imagine the situation is worse right now.  How can you start an INNER PEACE group? How can you change your community “one person at a time”.  You can start by coming to our MINDFULNESS  session tonite at 6.45.  There is nothing I teach you that you can’t teach others.   Start today.

WEDNESDAY: 12.30 ZOOM RESTORATIVE,  5.30 ZOOM RESTORATIVE,  6.45 ZOOM MINDFULNESS

If you want to join you can always email me (yogafirst2@bigpond.com) and let me know your interest and we can organise it.  Or go to the web site and follow the directions under the drop-downs or the HOME Page.

By the way.  The photo to the right above are ORBS –  the angels around us all the time.  Others took photographs at the time I took this.  Mine werethe ONLY photos where they showed up.  There were camera buffs present who didn’t believe what they could see, who  checked the lens at the time.. no dust, no interference.  These orbs were around us, are around us,  we just are not always conscious of them.  Sometimes they make themselves known to me, but I am always aware that they are there even if I (WE) can’t see them.

 

YOU REALLY CAN SAVE THE WORLD

NAMASTE, JAHNE.

 

 

 

 

Dear Yogis,

We are coming to the end of the CHAKRA yoga lecture series, and as much as I love them, how about a change of direction.  So many of you (and you are not on your own) are doing it tough during covid. Would you like a series on “MINDFULNESS” on Mondays at 2.30pm instead of the Tuesday yoga lectures, (and a 2 hour Mindfulness Retreat 1st Sunday in every month at 2pm).  Your choice?  We could have MINDFULNESS (THE INNER PEACE GROUP) on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays.  There could be a class there at the right time for you…Yoga then Inner Peace?

WEDNESDAY MINDFULNESS CLASSES (including Yoga Nidra) 6.45pm starting this week..  I taught these for years at The Bentinck and before that at Innisfree.  I still get students who email and tell me how these classes helped turn a corner for them.  Be there with us – Wednesdays at 6.45pm  and it starts this week.  If you want to join us, let me know your interest yogafirst2@bigpond.com.  I am doing a booklet (of course) for those who want more.  This will be a special offering which includes 16 cards of MINDFULNESS ACTIVITIES you can download for use in your classes, and yourself..

Many of the activities I did spontaneously, I have written them down, drawn the diagrams, and you will be able to take them to your classes, use them for your family, and use them yourself.  When you can’t think what do do, when you get stressed, when your mind goes blank – choose a card.

Mindfulness Meditation is a tradition which stands alone.  The meditation you and I have studied is about bringing your mind back to  a single focus, whereas MINDFULNESS MEDITATION is all about expanding your awareness to notice all you can without judging it.  If you feel cool, the idea is you notice it and avoid thinking of it as being good or bad, it just IS.  My favourite meditation and one I have been using for years is taking a small piece of chocolate and eating it slowly with my full attention.  You could use cake, or anything really.  In our cards we use an orange.

We are human beings (no news there) and everyone does meditation in a slightly different way as their understanding expands. The only definition of a good meditation IS ONE THAT YOU HAVE ACTUALLY DONE.  The goal is not to experience peace during the meditation, but to train the mind so that you will feel peace, awareness and choice AT ALL TIMES.

Like all habits – good ones as well as bad ones – meditation of any kind takes commitment. I find that when my mind is racing, mindfulness meditation done just before bed (or in bed) calms my mind, and gets me ready to sleep.  I concentrate on breathing, familiar sounds and smells and the feeling of the blankets, the futon, and things that mean “sleep” to me. And I can easily doze off.  Not by losing consciousness in meditation (I meditate for reasons other than calmness), but by relaxing my mind in mindfulness.  A feeling of embracing the familiar.  But this works for me – something like it will work for you.  You get to choose. The chair at the right is waiting for someone- maybe you.

I am noticing that at the end of this covid time people are becoming depressed, even apathetic.  I imagine that more people will seek out counsellors, and need mental health assistance as they realise that Covid is not going away, that this is going to happen over and over until conditions slowly change. That eventually the money will run out.

They are not sleeping well, and getting through the day somehow, sometimes in a way that is less than helpful for themselves and their family.  I notice that my neighbours are using shopping to make their lives meaningful… couriers arriving every day! We keep treating the brain and we have forgotten the heart.  The result is that our technology and all the science we bring to play becomes destructive.  We have intelligence but we lack the intelligence of the heart.  As a yoga teacher I know how difficult it is for most to recover from this soup of anxiety we find ourselves in.

As you go about your day today, think about every person you meet as a human being (even if you can’t see their smile,  imagine one). They have a story.  They are trying to find peace and happiness just as you are.  Teaching mindfulness can help.

When your heart opens even just a little, a tiny  chink in your armour, even a small crack allows your peaceful core to shine out.  When this happens your body and your mind relax, and compassion helps you calm down and allows you to come home to your REAL SELF.

Remember, change doesn’t happen all at once. Small steps, baby steps, will get you where you want to be. I believe (I can almost guarantee) that you will go to places more extraordinary than you can ever imagine.  I believe there is a Divine Hand that works unseen – when you take one step towards positive change in any area of your life,  that Divine Energy will take a hundred steps towards you. Untold possibilities, extraordinary change will begin to appear, synchronicities will happen that will amaze you.

What can you do?  When my cards and book are ready, buy a set for yourself and your friends and use it as the foundation to start an INNER PEACE GROUP.  Right now one on zoom, later in the studio.  We have one called CAFE YOGA on Fridays at 11am – all welcome – email me for your zoom ID its free.  It is about peace and companionship in difficult times.  It is not all about navel gazing, we laugh we joke, we are together. 

As you move through your day – Read, breathe consciously, take time for a walk noticing something different each day, be a good listener, practice gratitude, learn to manage your mind, reach for simplicity in your life, and pay-it-forward with random acts of kindness.

YOU CAN CHANGE THE WORLD.

NAMASTE – JAHNE

Dear Yogis,

I have an idea, a way of thinking we can all apply to our lives, “reframing”….  There are always students and graduates who believe they have a problem.  I wonder what their lives would be like if they REFRAMED what they believe has held them up.  Seeing things from a different perspective is one of the greatest tools you can have in your mental grab bag.

If you meet with a situation which disturbs you, I cordially invite you TO CHANGE YOUR MIND.  It is not often that the situation can be changed, but you can ALWAYS change your mind about what is happening that may at first glance seem impossible or annoying..

Every day here on planet earth (especially at this time) choices are presented to us about the way we see things.  Is the delay you are experiencing presented to you so you can swear and pace up and down, or is it a chance for a minute of meditation – a time to relax, breathe and listen to a CD?  Is the constant fluff on the rug,  a reason to get angry or whine, or one of the “joys” of having a four footed companion with fluff,  which you love dearly. (The picture is one of my furry bundle of fluff).

Is the module you have been reluctant to finish a reason to quit, or is it an opportunity to do extra reading, get in deeper to the philosophy, read, and research so that in the end you get excited by the new learnings. Have you watched all the free YouTubes, read all the newsletters, have you come to the optional Sunday mornings and met the other trainees and graduates… or are you hunkered down in the “I can’t do this” frame.

A wonderful example is weight gain.  We all know that there is only one way to loose weight – Eat less, exercise more!  There you are.  No more books or expensive courses needed.  The diet cycle is endless until you begin to think of eating and food management in an entirely different way.

Reframing what was previously considered a problem can change both thinking and behaviour.  Thinking “I really don’t need another slice of toast, it will go right to my hips” frames the food as a problem.  Bread could be a pleasure, but you have thought about it as pain.  What if you changed your point of reference to all those good things that you can eat and stay thin.  Maybe you could make a game out of eating three servings of fruit and three servings of veg each day.  Once you have eaten those, you can have a small slice of pizza, or whatever is a good reward for you (an eclair with double chocolate and cream perhaps is not a good reward – however, after you have eaten the good things you may not even glance at the eclair).

This week, choose one problem that is causing you deep stress (not just irritation).  Think about reframing it.

A good friend of mine said to me when I was having a whinge…. “Life is joke and you are it”. She suggested I plan my tombstone to read something like this “Got everything done on time. Dead anyway” or “Finished everything on an impossible to-do list and died totally pissed off!”

I would much rather it read “She loved loving, was kind, knew how to have fun, and did a reasonably good job even if she didn’t answer all the emails on time and missed some classes”.  Much better than “Was a perfect yogi and died in down-dog”.  

 

WHAT WILL YOUR TOMBSTONE  SAY IF YOU DIED TODAY?  What would you like it to say?

NAMASTE.  JAHNE