Dear Yogis,

You just want to learn about yoga, yoga is a life-style, not just a series of asanas.  For me, yoga is first, but I have lots of other interests – my dolls and bears are top of the list.  I love them.  They are filling my mind.

Are you Confused about bear/doll making? Come see me.  

The Saturday 2pm BEAR MAKING workshop…   On arrival you will have the opportunity to cut your own simple pattern based on my template (You can take your patten home and make many bears after the workshop)… you will have access to our house stash of felt, fabric and trims to give your doll/bear that individual touch.  If you are interested in making a customised doll or bear? bring in your textile treasures and trims and I’ll help bring your vision to life.

These are our first studio workshops since the big covid lockdown.  Our  workshops are small, relaxed and friendly but we get through a lot in each session.  The toys you make will stand out for their finish and attention to detail and my aim is to inspire makers of all skill levels but also equip them with the inside know-how to produce beautifully made toys too.  You’ll go step-by-step through the whole construction process and along the way, I’ll pass on all the things I’ve learned over the past years designing handmade products .  You can make your small doll entirely by hand, or you can do the ONE seam on my machine.

– If you’re a beginner, this is good entry level project.  You’ll  go home enthused and with the confidence to explore your creativity.

– If you are already an experienced sewer but are less confident sewing by hand, this workshop will be a refresher course in some basics and a chance the add to your skill set.  I am a dab hand at embroidery, and can help you master the simple stitches which will take your toy “out of the ordinary”. You can even monogram your bear – the first step in making your very first HEIRLOOM BEAR.   EMAIL NOW TO BOOK it is not too late.  yogafirst2@bigpond.com

IF YOU DON’T WANT TO MAKE A BEAR, you can always buy one of my hand made, hand stitched and monogrammed bears.  These are not Beanie Bears made in China!  They start at $165 for a little one.  The one on the right is nearly complete – the personality and face to be decided.  Hand designed and worked monograms start at $25 extra – you can use this monogram on clothes and linens.  A special and individual gift which can be handed down.  I will email you a choice of styles, and an example of the monogram.  Each one different, each one a work of art, presented in a tissue lined box, and Postage paid in Australia.  Let me know the initial you want on the front of the bear.

I can also make tiny ones for Baby Shower gifts, you name the occasion and we can design a bear to commemorate the occasion..

 

FORAGING.

I am out and about picking my greens instead of paying Coles.  

The dock, cleavers, chickweed and herb Robert are all bursting into life.  We will be looking for these and more on our Sunday FORAGING WALK (about an hour plus a peek at my dried herb stash) along the 5 Mile Creek Walk.  If you want to join me (and the weather is kind to us), be at my house at 2pm.  37 Morris Road, Woodend.  If it is wet and windy we will postpone to another day.

 

THE YOGA CLASSES – please book before you arrive.  They are small classes and one unplanned extra may not be able to join

MONDAY HATHA : 1PM, 2.15/WEDNESDAY RESTORATIVE 1PM/FRIDAY HATHA 2.15 (meditation at 3pm – you have to book to join us for this)
MONDAY ZOOM: Teacher Training 6.30
TEACHER TRAINING:  Studio Class Sundays 2pm (please register your interest).
MONTHLY YOGA LUNCHEON:  Victoria Hotel Woodend, Thursday 25th August, 12 noon. RSVP
BEAR MAKING WORKSHOP – Saturday 13th August 12 to 4 pm.  $45 – please register your interest NOW at the email address below. To pay as usual on PayPal.  Go to  the home page of our web site www.yogabeautiful.com.au.  click on PayPal at the bottom of the page.  PayPal takes debit and credit cards, and it is easy.

FOR BOOKINGS, ENQUIRIES – NEW EMAIL ADDRESS: yogafirst2@bigpond.com

HAVE YOU CHECKED IF YOUR REGISTRATION IS UP TO DATE?  IF NOT, MAYBE IT IS TIME TO DO THIS. EMAIL ME AND I WILL SEND YOU THE APPLICATION:    yogafirst2@bigpond.com

SEE YOU ON THE MAT.

NAMASTE JAHNE

Dear Yogis,

Don’t forget – book NOW, TODAY  for our TEDDY BEAR workshop on Saturday .  Details at the bottom of this post.   If you haven’t understood what a “Teddy Bear Workshop” is – we will make teddy bears, SIMPLE.  You will be at my home and studio – you can learn  to make easy teddies,  see my herbs, my other art works in progress.. and have afternoon tea.  What is not to like?

 

The mental wellbeing of average Australians is lower now than during lockdown, according to new data.

We teachers (not just yoga teachers) are feeling the brunt of the covid problem, and the past few years have been eventful to say the least. After COVID arrived here in early 2020, many Australians spent the next two years going in and out of restrictive lockdowns.Separated from family, friends and colleagues, wellbeing nosedived.While the harsh lockdowns have ended, it appears the mental health of Australians hasn’t recovered and has, in fact, worsened.The 2022-23 Australian Mental Wellbeing Index, compiled by mental health treatment and research group Smiling Mind in conjunction with KPMG, gave an overall wellbeing score for the nation of 48.6 – out of 100.

The result is almost one full point lower than at the same time last year.

The study examined 226,013 participants who completed over 880,000 individual surveys on their mental health and wellbeing.The data revealed some concerning trends. More than 40 per cent said they had difficulty with focus and concentration; 41 per cent said they regularly experienced stress and 34 per cent were struggling with a lack of sleep.

You only need to look around to see why this may be the case.Lockdown may be over, but the effects of COVID are still well and truly being felt. Adding to that burden is out-of-control inflation, soaring living costs, an energy crisis, yet another foreign war and successive interest rate rises.The stress being faced by many Australians is likely the worst they’ve ever experienced, or at least the worst for decades.Andrew Dempster, KPMG mental health advisory lead, told the Herald Sun  it’s feeling like you have no input into the outcomes in your life that leads to the greatest distress.

There is no randomness in life, we all have a purpose.
The chi cycle functions as a bridge from the physical to the non-physical world.

We all think that we know ourselves, but there’s so much more to us than we can imagine. Following purpose with passion unleashes our true potential. But you can’t do this mentally, your purpose is not in your mind.

So to find your purpose, don’t start with purpose, start with aligning – you can’t start anywhere else.  
I see clients all the time confused about what they should be doing. Or thinking they are on the wrong track because things are difficult – especially during this time of covid.  Some who have nothing else fun their lives have made covid their hobby and purpose. They want easy, but there isn’t easy unless you are aligned, and even then there may be difficult days.  Following purpose usually means leaving the comfort zone, but then finding happiness in the discomfort zone.  

Feeling purposeless is a health risk. Getting trapped in the ‘complacent but unhappy’ trap creates inner emptiness, disconnection, stagnation and fear of death. We take up pastimes, and time goes past.       But living for purpose is a health booster and a healing tool. It can explode us out of demotivation, helplessness, emptiness, meaninglessness and more. We all have a purpose here, we all have gifts, we all have an expression of our “selfness”.  Some people find it quickly, for others it is hidden. Luckily there is a system to find purpose.

Our organs, meridians and the natural forces are the support network for this.   The chi cycle is the framework, keeping us on track to go through those mystical gateways each two hours. The daily purpose peak time is 11am-1pm. Chi floods your heart, the home of the mind and seat of the soul, precious information is within reach (great time to journal). But to benefit from that requires getting the 24 hours preceding 11am, sorted as well. It’s a mystical cycle, everything is connected, and it rolls on infinitely. You can jump in any time and catch the purpose flow. 

A portal to a different future!
With all the changes happening in our lives now, I reckon an opportunity gap has opened up, a portal to a different future shaped by purpose not security. This could be the chance we’ve been waiting for. Make it the portal to purpose!

To read more about the chi cycle, read books by  JOST SAUER, Australia martial artist, acupuncturist, and philosopher, who has written some great books on this subject.  Google him, choose any and start there.  His books are readable, doable and priced reasonably – you might even be able to get a second hand edition of your chosen book on a site like ABE BOOKS.  You can even go visit him – in Queensland.

 

THE YOGA CLASSES – please book before you arrive.  They are small classes and one unplanned extra may not be able to join.

MONDAY HATHA : 1PM, 2.15/WEDNESDAY RESTORATIVE 1PM/FRIDAY HATHA 2.15 (meditation at 3pm – you have to book to join us for this)
MONDAY ZOOM: Teacher Training 6.30
TEACHER TRAINING:  Studio Class Sundays 2pm (please register your interest).
MONTHLY YOGA LUNCHEON:  Victoria Hotel Woodend, Thursday 25th August, 12 noon. RSVP
BEAR MAKING WORKSHOP – Saturday 13th August 12 to 4 pm.  $45 – please register your interest NOW at the email address below. To pay as usual on PayPal.  Go to  the home page of our web site www.yogabeautiful.com.au.  click on PayPal at the bottom of the page.  PayPal takes debit and credit cards, and it is easy.

FOR BOOKINGS, ENQUIRIES – NEW EMAIL ADDRESS: yogafirst2@bigpond.com

HAVE YOU CHECKED IF YOUR REGISTRATION IS UP TO DATE?  IF NOT, MAYBE IT IS TIME TO DO THIS. EMAIL ME AND I WILL SEND YOU THE APPLICATION:    yogafirst2@bigpond.com

SEE YOU ON THE MAT.

NAMASTE JAHNE

Dear Yogis,
The lion’s gate portal opens every year on August 8 when the sun in Leo, the star Sirius, Orion’s Belt, and the Earth all line-up. This creates a powerful portal of energy, which is potent for manifesting!  So don’t sit at home moping about what isn’t happening, imagine what is.  Everything happens in the imagination first.  Imagine your life, and then make it happen.

Every nite I sit and sew.

 I do the fine work required by my dolls and bears, and I imagine everything about each one before they actually take shape.  There is so much to do, and I am very conscious about how many are in my mind, and how many there are waiting to become visible.  I don’t exactly know where this DRIVE to make them comes from, I am not sure where it is leading, but at the moment it is taking me down some very interesting paths, and I just love the act of making.  There are so many skills involved, and it is not easy – I shy away from easy.  I do know that I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE making them – even if you don’t join me in the journey, I will keep on the path.  Nothing can happen that is not the will of God.  I trust this..

If you want to join me, I am going to have a class next Saturday (the 13th August) in my studio 12noon to 4pm.  You should be able to make a bear in that time, and you will have a template so you can go home and make more.  With Christmas coming (plus other anniversaries), you will be ahead of the game.
I will provide luncheon nibbles, etc as usual.  Please bring any material scraps that you want to use for the bear you intend to make.  You can bring an item or two of clothing to cut up, so that you will have a record of the person in the fabric of the bear.  Every winter evening, my mum and I used to make crazy quilts in this manner, and then when we used the quilt she would tell me stories about the squares.

DON’T FORGET YOUR YOGA.

Remember our logos “YOGAFIRST” and “YOGA BEAUTIFUL”.  I meant both of them and they are still what I live by.  YOGA FIRST, THEN ART. Your mat is your country – start there.

THE YOGA CLASSES

MONDAY HATHA : 1PM, 2.15/WEDNESDAY RESTORATIVE 1PM/FRIDAY HATHA 2.15 (meditation at 3pm – you have to book to join us for this)
MONDAY ZOOM: Teacher Training 6.30
TEACHER TRAINING:  Studio Class 2pm (please register your interest).
MONTHLY YOGA LUNCHEON:  Victoria Hotel Woodend, Thursday 25th August, 12 noon. RSVP
BEAR MAKING WORKSHOP – Saturday 13th August 12 to 4 pm.  $45 – please register your interest at the email address below.

FOR BOOKINGS, ENQUIRIES – NEW EMAIL ADDRESS: yogafirst2@bigpond.com

HAVE YOU CHECKED IF YOUR REGISTRATION IS UP TO DATE?  IF NOT, MAYBE IT IS TIME TO DO THIS. EMAIL ME AND I WILL SEND YOU THE APPLICATION:    yogafirst2@bigpond.com

SEE YOU ON THE MAT.

NAMASTE JAHNE

PS Covid rules apply.  If you are feeling unwell, have the sniffles, a headache, “under the weather” even if you are vaccinated,  please stay home.  There is always tomorrow.