Dear Yogis,

Here I am at the end of another fabulous week.  Yesterday on my day off, I went to the library, spent way too long in the garden – but it is looking good and I have HOPS for the very first time….I harvested a heap of Kipfler potatoes, planted elephant garlic, and I am going to explore vegan recipes from the Middle East.  Australian vegan is pretty boring and bland (and the desserts are freezer needy,  “drippy” ie if you have warm fingers they run down your arm).  So watch this space.  Tonite I am having Lebanese Bread Salad plus chopped chives served with a Tahini lemon dressing (photo to right – result, scrumptious!).  I would have liked some Potato Kibbeh, but I am out of bulgur and you can’t really substitute.

ZOOM:
FRIDAY 6.45 Our fantastic Pendulum Class.  I have been sitting with my guides and asking about Past Life work, and the answers I have been getting are surprising.  You’ll have to come to class to find out!
SATURDAY 2pm.  This is the once-a-month studio class where we add the finishing touches to our projects.  So there will not be a zoom class at this time this week.  Zoom starts again next Saturday at 2pm as usual.  The studio class will also have the opportunity to see the new ANGELS I have been working on – a few false starts, but now I am into it!
SUNDAY 10am:  This time of the week is especially reserved for our GITA STUDY GROUP.  Our second time through this wonderful text.  It was good enough for Ghandi (who read it every day of his life we are told), so it is certainly something we can learn from.

A FEW WORDS ON STYLE

I think personal style is important.  Fashion is not important, brand names are not important, tanning, six packs,  false fingernails, eyelashes and hair are definitely not important.. As Ella Fitzgerald sang “It aint what you do it’s the way that you do it”.  For the thrifty (or we may say frugal) then the op shop is the place to shop..Swaps with friends are always good too.  This is where most of my clothes come from – we used to have monthly swaps at the studio but I haven’t done this for a long time.

I can manifest which is a blessing, but it can also mean you end up with a closet chock full of things you may never wear more than once.   I have put a picture of Gracie here, because she is always on trend.

Some folk couldn’t care a toss for how they look, and may not even glance in the mirror from one day to the next, but this is not me.  I find that nurturing this level of what my mum would have called “discipline” adds vitality and sauce to my life.   I get compliments which at my age is pretty terrific.  The years of yoga have added to my enjoyment of my “selfdom”.

Seeing that I am put together well also makes my community  feel that I am on top of things, which is good because I think I am my own artwork and an advertisement for what I teach.  How I look reflects what I am doing….  If I hosted a class looking like I didn’t care, my students would worry.  They would think I was loosing the plot – and I would be.  If I didn’t look well and happy how could I (or  they) be confident in what I teach?

How do you feel about how you look when there is just you – nothing added.  Naked. Looking in the bathroom mirror?  Do you say “you are looking great this morning?” or do you say “You are looking fabulous this morning?” or do you just not look?

Clothes are important, but even more important is how you feel about yourself.  Do you love yourself? Are you bored with what you do? Do you drag yourself through the day?  Do you dress for yourself, or to please someone else?  This attitude would make anything you wear forgettable.   Being happy no matter what is happening in your life, knowing that you are always loved and cared for by God, a straight back, a confident easy walk, a mouth that doesn’t slump downwards and a “twinkle” in your eyes is essential.  Nothing you wear, no matter how expensive, looks good without these essentials,  and you can’t get a pill to help (well, I suppose you can, but the effect doesn’t last, and in the end what you have is a mirage).  Invest in yoga, invest in yourself, and the rest will happen for you.

 

Meet me on the Mat,

NAMASTE.  JAHNE

Good morning Yogis,

Monday and Tuesdays zoom – The Breath and Rumi were great and we had some new students join us from across the country. Thank you for those who consistently arrive.  Yoga is all about “doing the practice consistently ( – not just the asanas).   I hope that more of you can join as the weeks progress.  We are not stopping our zoom sessions, and if you have something that you need  to explore with us, please let me know – I am open to suggestions for later in the year.

The PENDULUM CLASSES are especially popular, and I am updating the course we have on Etsy to make it a professional course, with a book.  You will be amazed about the history of pendulum use dating way back to the Egyptians.  In China and Europe, pendulum use was taken especially seriously and it has been used to solve crimes, in healing and the pendulum formed the beginnings of what we now know as FENG SHUI.  It is not a casual fun thing… it can help in diagnosis, in counselling, in therapies.  In knowing how to use it professionally you will be able to link in with these amazing energies.  It is not hocus-pocus.

Join us at the 6.45 FREE FRIDAYS Pendulum Class.  I will need you to email me so I can send you an ID.

MEET ME ON THE MAT (OR ON ZOOM)

NAMASTE JAHNE

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Yogis,

What a fantastic weekend.  I have purchased a new electric hedge trimmer to cut back the ivy, an electric pruning shear for the wisteria, and was given an electric whipper snipper which started this garden mayhem.  I wish I had done it sooner.  It has made the trimming pruning aspect of my garden manageable, and marginally enjoyable.  It is like cutting hair.  I can see there is a learning curve, and I am prepared to learn.  So all good.

Our Zoom classes.  The Pendulum class was fun, fun, fun (and we learned heaps).  The Tarot on Saturday was great, and the Gita class on Sunday was not to be missed.  We have two new students logging on – which didn’t quite make up for the regulars who post covid are off BBQ’ing, house viewing, and generally reverting to what used to be called “normal”.  Covid lock-down had a lot going for it.   It pushed you all towards more study, and more zoom classes.  

ZOOM CLASSES FOR THE WEEK.
Monday: THE BREATH 6.30.  We will be looking at how eating effects the breath (and life)
Tuesday: THE RUMI STUDY AT 7.30.  This is a fabulous study and we are all learning so much – especially me!  The similarities between Rumi and other spiritual leaders and prophets is getting more and more apparent as we progress into the study.

THE ANGEL PAINTINGS
I was going to do Buddhas on the tea bags, but I have really gotten back into angel paintings and the tea-bags are perfect size-wise.  I have started, and really, if I wasn’t speaking to you, that is where I would be.  In my studio painting.  I will add photo when I am able to get a good image. When I have a few, I will put them in the shop on this site.  The cost will include the frames and postage.  I think $65 would be a good price.  You will be surprised how lovely they look – the tea bag paper is rather lovely, especially the stains.. Miniatures appeal to me, and students are saving their used tea bags, without the tea.  If you can send me some, cut the bottom of the bag after you have used the bag, get rid of the used tea, and post them to me dry.  Leave the tags and strings on – the unusual aspect of the tags appeals to me.  Some are very colourful.

LEADERSHIP.  THE FIRST SELF- HELP MANUAL
You know that I read the Bible, and from time to time  I encourage you to do the same, especially in this case.  

NEHEMIAH,   a book in the old testament, is worth reading on the subject of Leadership.   The Jews needed to rebuild the walls of the city, and all though they could see the need for it, it looked too hard.  There were many obstacles including the inter-racial aspects and the politics of peoples settled in and around that area at the time.  Nehemia saw the problem clearly and had the will to do it.  The story tells how he used intelligence (and marketing) to get the walls rebuilt.

These walls were a symbol of the nation, and it seemed no-one had the heart to rebuild.  Nehemiah called on God, and repented not just for himself but for the Jews entire.  He reminded God of the promises He had made to Moses….

Believing his prayers had been answered (he had faith in things unseen), Nehemiah proceeded to enlist help of his fellow citizens.  He persuaded his employer in Persia to give him time off, he then went to Jerusalem and in the night surveyed the work to be done – speaking to no-one until he was completely aware of all aspects of what needed doing.  Once he had done this, he set about enlisting the help of all the Tribes.  What they couldn’t give in materials they gave in time or services, even guarding the wall was necessary (these were troubled times).  He even organised for those who had grain to provide grain for those who had none,  and to return any payments made.  He negotiated with rival tribes to keep the peace, and laws were devised to protect the people.  By doing this, he was able to bring everyone together for the project.

He didn’t forget GOD, and he didn’t forget to be GRATEFUL, and at every stage gave thanks for what had been accomplished step by step.

This is not a long book, and covers many aspects of Jewish life at the time, however I think it is recommended reading for people who are unsure of how to lead a group of people who are of different beliefs, and meld them together into a whole to achieve a common good.  It could be as simple as getting your family to agree on the building of a fence, or the building of a vegetable garden.  A project that has been agreed on, but looks too big.

It may seem unrealistic to ask you to read it and apply it to your life, but we can all learn something from history.  Like Arjuna in The Gita, Nehemiah was on the battlefield.  How he managed to rebuild the walls, and the leadership strategies he used, were like the tactics on a battlefield, or in any community or family with a project which needs to be finished, all that is needed is a clever, motivated, leader.

Read the book.  Not word-for-word (the first time).  Learn something.  

I look forward to seeing you on the mat.

NAMASTE.  JAHNE