DEAR YOGIS,

Another few days has past and more to go before we can unlock our doors... Although I did have a visit from my “bubble” person yesterday.  I so enjoyed it.  Because I am busy all the time I didn’t know how much I missed company.  Now I do, However, until lock down is relaxed, I am confined to the bubble.

ZOOM SCHEDULE
STUDY:  Friday 6.45 Tarot, Sunday 10am CCP Study, Monday 6.30 Teacher Training, Tuesday 7.30 CCP Repeat.
YOGA CLASSES ON ZOOM: Monday 1pm and Wednesday 5.30

FUNGI/HERBALS…

As you all know, sourcing has always been a huge focus of what I do.  I don’t have a huge menu of herbs and fungi that I stock and sell  especially as I forage and make many of my herbals.  Sustainability and longevity of my herbal practices are a priority.  This also applies to the few fungals, oils and herbals I stock from other suppliers. Because I follow the seasons it’s hard to guarantee a sustainable supply. I am still a one-person business after all.

I have always had the policy that I would stop sourcing a herb from the wild if it became unsustainable whether that was an overseas source or here at home.

This can be annoying to me and to my clients however,  we’re obviously super grateful to the CITES organisation for preventing people from trading in these rare, wild herbs and ensuring their ongoing protection.  (The photo on the right is Turkey Tail growing in my yard this year and on the left in a local garden last year).

And so, we welcome a new batch of Turkey Tail.  Remember that Daoist herbalism is about the energy of the herb and formula, not the isolated herb’s chemistry.  I take Turkey Tail every day, and we have a dedicated band of folk who do this, which is important this time especially considering that this fungi focusses on the immune system, and respiration.  Please go to “Ted Talks” on YouTube and to the film “FANTASTIC FUNGI” on Netflix to review the work of Paul Staments who is the go-to guru of fungi, especially Turkey Tail.

TURKEY TAIL:  $35 for 22 grams includes postage.  This is not a dead, dry powder, but a mix that comes alive when you spoon it.  It is rich and crumbly.. just like you would expect a mushroom to be.

ORGANIC REISHI SPORE OIL:  $25 including postage.  Not many left – we can put you on back order.   What an amazing fungi this is.  Reishi spore oil is a concentrated supplement form of reishi mushroom. There are many great nutritional compounds present in the reishi spore oil. Reishi mushrooms are rich in triterpenes, beta-glucans, polysaccharides, antioxidants, enzymes and ergosterol.

They also contain a source of minerals including magnesium, potassium, and calcium. Order reishi spore oil  today.    The photo on the the left clearly shows the brown stems that are so characteristic of this fungi.

Reishi Spore is oil produced from carefully selected high quality organic Duanwood grown Reishi spores. It is rich in Ganoderma Lucidum (Reishi) Triterpene, Ganoderma Lucidum acid, unsaturated fatty acid, and organic selenium. Our Reishi is grown organically in the mountains in China and extracted in a GMP certified facility. It is tested via hplc for purity after manufacture and is EU and USDA certified organic.     1000 kg dried Reishi fruiting bodies (mushrooms) produces approximately just 1 kg of spores, it then takes over 1000 kg of spores to produce only a few kilograms of spore oil. The Reishi Spore Oil is 30% triterpenes so each 50ml bottle contains 15ml triterpenes.

If you are no close by a naturopath or herbalist to help you, try these fungi.  They are not FDA tested to cure anything and certainly speak to your therapist if you are hesitant.  In the meanwhile access the talks of Paul Staments.  If you would like to try these, please email me to enquire, especially about availability yogafirst2@bigpond.com.  With Covid and lock-downs my students are more self-help centred as nothing much else is available to them.  I have been using these fungi for a number of years.  I am my own experiment – if a herb or fungi doesn’t work for me, or if I don’t feel a difference, I don’t pass it along to you.

SIMPLICITY (Again)
Simplicity is more than a mere reaction to the modern crises.  Whilst simplicity provides an answer, it does not provide an EASY answer.  Both Christian and Yogi simplicity lives in harmony with the ordered complexity of life.

Simplicity is a grace, because it is given freely.  It is also a discipline because we are called to do something.  What we DO does not give us simplicity, but it does put us in the place where we can receive it.

SIMPLICITY IS AN INWARD REALITY WHICH CAN BE SEEN AS AN OUTWARD LIFESTYLE.  We must have both.  One without the other can be a disaster.  It is all about balance.

SEE YOU ON THE MAT.

NAMASTE. JAHNE

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DEAR YOGIS,

We are a few days away yet from the opening up of Regional Victoria, and maybe the rest of the State.  Now is the time to hit the books, do the study you don’t usually have time for.

ZOOM SCHEDULE for the rest of the week:
Wednesday 5.30pm Zoom Restorative Yoga All welcome – (email me for ID)
Friday 6.45 Zoom Tarot Class. Sunday 10am CCP Training (all welcome – TO BOTH/ALL)

NOTICE TO MASSEURS/Yogis…..Stretching doesn’t work.

This timely message was prompted by an article by a well known American Masseur that I read all the time – Charles Duff.  He massages/thinks  like Tom Bowen (very yogic).  He doesn’t focus on the pain, he sees the problem.  

Everybody’s obsessed with stretching. The minute they  see tight hamstrings, pecs, etc., and all they want to do is stretch them out. Have you found this – sure you have!

Students and clients will tell you “it feels good”, and it does. And don’t get me wrong, stretching is super effective—IF you’ve properly prepared the muscles ahead of time. But this isolated focus on stretching is misguided – it is the way of the physio, not the way of the yogi. Imagine trying to stretch a frozen shoulder client’s subscapularis or pec muscles independently of any others.   Once the screaming stops and they’re done kicking you, maybe then you’ll see what a bad idea that was.  It doesn’t work.

Listen up. Tight muscles are tight for a reason.  As I have said many times before…. they are scared! 

And until you understand that reason, you won’t be able to stretch the muscle. The body will just shut it down – it is protecting you against a presumed pain.     Here’s why: we have sensory organs wound into our muscle fibers, called spindles, that report the degree and speed of stretch to the central nervous system.   If the body feels a muscle is being stretched too quickly or is in danger of injury, it will ALWAYS engage that muscle to PREVENT it from stretching, a process known as the stretch response (or the pain response). Which has the opposite of the intended effect.

Remember, to the body, referred pain is real. Referred pain and taut fibers throw off the spindles and can trigger the stretch response. Very often, the pain comes from the other side of the joint (the shortening muscles), or the other side of the body.  A pain in the right hip could be referred from the left shoulder!

I have mentioned this in many previous classes, almost to the point of exhaustion —but I’m bringing it up again, because it’s crucially important, and most yogis and masseurs miss this. They’re only thinking about the muscle that won’t stretch.

In the case of frozen shoulder for instance, our adaptive, protective posture rounds the shoulders and keeps the arm across the abdomen. That means muscles like the pec major, pec minor, and serratus anterior have adaptively shortened.   The remedy can be clearly seen and experienced in The Bowen method.  Tom Bowen really understood this and used this knowledge in all his work. First, (no matter the “pain”), unlock the back.

That rounded shoulder posture pulls the mid- and lower trapezius muscles get pulled into chronic stretch. Those muscles then become hard and weak as the body uses taut fibers and trigger points to try and stabilize the trapezius in its battle against the rounding shoulders.  It is like dealing with a tortoise shell.  Hard.   We have to address the rounded shoulder posture, or the pain will just come back. But trying to stretch the pecs won’t work—the client will feel pain and cramping between their shoulder blades, due to the contraction in the trapezius muscle.  I am sure you have all experienced this in your self or your client.

All the muscles involved in functional movement must have normal length and movement to maintain health.  

If you try and stretch the pecs and serratus by themselves, it would lead to imbalance.  The brain/body knows this and the pain in the back will trigger the stretch response and shut it down. Which is just another reason people see frozen shoulder as “untreatable.”  Nobody gets this – Except my students of course (The ones that are listening).   The funny thing is that sometimes you can release the muscles in the back, and then the anterior muscles will stretch effortlessly—because you’ve brokered a truce in the conflict. You’ve coached the body back toward healthy, pain-free movement.

Our methods work.   Try them out on your clients.  This is the way that you will be most effective in class and on the massage table.  First you have to understand what is happening, not just go for the presumed easy answer.  In Massage (and yoga) the site of the pain is rarely the site of the injury.   Look elsewhere, understand how the body works and ask the right questions.  Good book?  ANATOMY TRAINS by THOMAS MYERS.

I will see you on the mat or the massage table.

NAMASTE – JAHNE

Dear Yogis,

Have you noticed…It is a time of coming together.  Nothing to do with zooming, everything to do with how the world is.  People you haven’t seen for years popping up, opportunities you put down years ago making themselves known… do you want it, don’t you want it.  A time of repurposing your life and making new decisions.   Don’t be blind to these new opportunities, grasp them, play with them, and then move on.  Don’t get stuck – we are just confirming, re-evaluating decisions.

My painting of the OWL EYE is a good reminder – BE WISE. I am planning to paint the eyes of the Dalai Lama, not as easy as you may think.  He mostly smiles and wrinkles his eyes up in photos.  Then I will paint the eyes of a multi-dimensional being which actually will be easier than the Dalai Lama.  I see these people all the time, up close.  The Dalai Lama I see infrequently.

ZOOM SCHEDULE
YOGA: Monday 1pm Gentle Hatha, Wednesday 5.30 Restorative, Friday 5.30 Open Yoga (whatever happens.. Hatha or restorative)
STUDY:  Monday 6.30 Teacher Training, Tuesday 7.30 CCP Study,  Friday 6.45 Tarot, Sunday 10am CCP Study

TRAINING AND STUDY.

FAST TRACK YOUR YOGA COURSE AND GET YOUR OFFICIAL QUALIFICATION.    I am still offering zoom FAST TRACK  for those people who have gotten at least half way into their courses and have stalled (some for a long time).  If you are ready to do the exam and answer my yoga questions via zoom, I will charge you $85 per hour (most people take 2hours), to achieve their certification.  I would have thought it was very worthwhile.  If you are interested, email me, we will organise a time that suits us both and get this thing DONE.

CCP PROJECT:  We are more than half way through our course (well most of us are) which started on the 22nd of July.  If you had come to the Sunday and Tuesday classes you would have got a lot out of it even if you never intended to be a CCP.  The thoughts about caring for the living as well as the dying are required from each of us at some time, and for each of us at the end.  You may think you are not going to die, you may kid yourself, but believe me you are.  Best be prepared.  It is a slow dance, and I have to follow your lead.

THE TAROT AND THE PENDULUM.  

Tarot and pendulum may not seem connected, but if I use them every day and find them helpful, you may too.  They won’t work if you don’t work with them or take them seriously.

We have to work with many levels and that is where these tools can centre us.  Sometimes assimilations from a “SOUL GROUP”  to a human can be problematical.. there can be imbalances, difficulties in assimilation and repairs to the matrix – once you can see this, things get easier.

We are on a voyage. Things are being revealed to us, a clearing is occurring.

A NEW COURSE: “REVELATION TAROT (and Pendulum) THE MISSION”.

Revolutionary, Multi-Purpose, Multi-Dimensional Psychological approach to reading the tarot for yourself or others.

“FOR EVERY PERSON YOU WORK WITH, AND LIFT, THE WORLD LIGHTENS”

I WILL MEET YOU ON THE MAT.

NAMASTE – JAHNE