Dear Yogis,

Yoga classes (any classes) are taking a bit of a hammering from covid, and the fact that once clients are “mended” they have focussed on the home and renovation, rather than their yoga schedule.  If you are lucky enough to snag a tradie you have to do the job in their time rather than yours, and I have found that yoga classes have been suffering from the choice.  I can understand it though – I have been trying to get some plumbing done for months and it is so hard (but not critical as some of your work is, was and has been)..

As covid progresses and prices for the basics rise, we all need another string to our bow (or in my case several), in order to get the income we once got from yoga classes alone.  Luckily right now I have sewing, darning, and bear making which not only fills the coffers, it is enjoyable, and the end result is that I can give the bears to charity, sell some, do classes – every bit of which gives me great joy.  It also means I can swap, barter, exchange and give others joy with the end result of my efforts (especially darning), and get some essential such as eggs, and cat meat in exchange.

We have to know ourselves.  I am a Capricorn – it is an advantage and a disadvantage.  We are goal oriented, so I know how to make the best of situations, but that goal orientation does make it a single minded path.  Some folk just don’t understand it – they are out having fun why don’t I? They want me to take a mid-day holiday but I don’t.  Why?   Because like the squirrel, I am laying aside stores for lean times.  It is my nature, and I feel relaxed when I have got the work done – then I can take time out.  I am a Capricorn – I   have to plan my spontaneous time.

“EASY PEASY” FRIENDSHIP BEAR MAKING WORKSHOP.(Limited numbers please book early).

When:  Saturday the 13th August
Where: the Yoga/Art Studio, 37 Morris Road, Woodend (please park on the white gravel) – I do have good ventilation and an ION AIR FILTRATION system, and unlike many schools, I actually do switch it on!
Cost: $45 including using some of my materials and a template of the bear, although I ask that you bring a piece of fabric for the main colour, and contrast for the face and belly.
Please pre-pay so that I can get a template and little bag of possible materials organised for each student – you can add to these.

This could be a Charity Bear, or it could be a Friendship Bear.  Our local ambulance service runs out of bears from time to time and we have been asked to top it up.  You could do the same for your local service clubs.  We should finish the bear in the time.  There is no knitting required just sewing.  No need for machines, we can do it all by hand, although you can use my machines if you are in the studio and want to do this.

In the next couple of days I will put a pattern on to Etsy (will let you know on Wednesday if it is there – although you could check) which you can adapt size-wise. I will have templates you can use in the studio.  Please bring half a metre of main fabric and half a metre of contrast and some odds and ends for eyes mouth etc.  You can see how I use them above – although the placement of the eyes and the belly are up to you.  The fabric  can be cotton or wool – polar fleece and  felt are the easiest because they don’t fray.  Actually I like a frayed edge.

If you buy the pattern on Etsy I will have a free group zoom workshop, just to help you with the bits and pieces.  Etsy lets me know who buys the pattern as does pay pal, so I will know who wants to do the zoom, and who to send the ID to.   It is the simplest of patterns, but there is the easy way and the hard way to do things.  I prefer the easy way.

Hi there Yogis,

We are not in a heat wave, but 17 degrees at this time of the year could be called a heatwave.  Although we have had drizzly rain, my garden is crying out for a big downpour.  I still have my basic greens.  What would i do without broad bean greens and herb Robert.  I have them every day.

OUR YOGA PRACTICE.

Several of our clients and students are suffering from long-covid.  But not everyone gets covid.

“Being exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus doesn’t always result in infection, and we’ve been keen to understand why,” says Dr Rhia Kundu, lead author of the college study.    “We found that high levels of pre-existing T cells, created by the body when infected with other human coronaviruses like the common cold, can protect against COVID-19 infection.”  In short, battling other respiratory infections allows your body to develop the type of defences needed to resist COVID when you’re exposed to it.

We know that our students are protected.  At the beginning of every yoga session we do the MICRO COSMIC ORBIT, which wakes up Tcells and the cerebro-spinal connection.  Now scientists studying covid and Sars are finding that this is vitally important to protect our body from these infections.  To learn more go to my Tube channel where I began alerting you to this way before covid came on the horizon.  By the way, doing this discipline once a week won’t cut it, you need to do it EVERY DAY before your 5 Tibetans.  It only takes a few minutes and you don’t even require lycra.

There are hundreds of reasons to do a regular yoga practice.  Surely 7 minutes a day is a small investment in your health.  Takes longer than that to google the information.

CREATING A HEART INSIDE YOUR DOLL or BEAR CONTAINING PART OF THE ASHES OF A DECEASED PERSON.

So far this year, approximately 2/3 of people who died in Australia were cremated.   And while some people prefer to hold onto the ashes of a loved one in an urn, or scatter their ashes in a memorable place, others are getting creative.

Every day there are more ideas about commemorating a loved one, the ashes being made into diamonds, incorporated into paintings, even made into beads…  As well as being made into  jewellery, ashes can be made into a little (impervious) heart inserted into the body of one of our dolls or a bears.  You can supply me with a small amount of ashes (about a dessertspoonful) a piece of fabric the deceased loved for the heart and for the bear, and you can even incorporate a little pocket in your bear for a favourite and recognised perfume.  The size of the bear is up to you – small,  medium or large.  We could even put the little heart into a bear or doll owned by the deceased.  Sounds kooky, but I wish I had some ashes to add to a doll.

‘It helps a lot’

I am hoping that  you would pass the “HEARTFELT BEAR” on to your children.

To do something special like this where you can carry the deceased person with you – hold them close as you go about your day and into the night… I know that sounds a bit weird, but to go from this morbid bit of ash to a beautiful bear or a doll, it’s amazing.  It’s is also saving loved fabric from being discarded,.  Everything that went into reminding you of your loved one can be used.  We could even do it ahead of time as a project before passing over…   and you could both design and love the bear and I can add the ashes later.

I can even add the ashes to a bear or doll they already have loved, refurbishing if that is required.  I could unpick their favourite sweater for a tiny jacket, use a pair of trousers for the body and so on.   So much better than a tomb stone you only visit occasionally – tombstones are hard to hug….

The little bear to the left isn’t quite finished,  his nose and eyes need to be repatriated, and I have a wonderful big button to add to the jacket.

Dear Yogis,

Just because I am not 24/7 yoga as i used to be, doesn’t mean I have thrown the “baby out with the bathwater”.  I still do my yoga, I still teach, but NOW, I RELAX into sewing, darning,  doll-making and the like between times….

LETS GET DOWN TO WHERE WE ARE TODAY HEALTH-WISE.

The immune system is mysterious.   We may not be very smart, but Western medicine knows that immune cells are produced in many parts of the body including bone marrow, lymph nodes, tonsils and, interestingly, the spleen.  Western medicine understands many of the bits of good immunity, even though the ordinary MD is pretty vague how it all fits together.   Westerm medicine understands that we are all born with a certain immunity, although it may not comprehend why some people do better than others in life health wise.

Harvard for instance which is pretty much in front of these studies (if you discount Israel),  have connected stronger immunity to quality sleep; gut health, a nutrient rich diet, exercise and managing stress. Some time ago they worked out that there’s a connection between immunity and lifestyle but they are not sure what to do with this.  If they could prove it,  they would feel happier – but they can’t.

Chinese medicine however is a modality that knows how all the puzzle pieces go together (I have been a staunch supporter and client for about 20 years in which time I have been “rebuilt” from the inside out).TCM practitioners have  been working on it for several thousand years. They work on the principle that everything is connected. Our immune system is not a stand-alone operation, it is connected to all bodily systems (blood, organs, meridians).  They know that if this is in good working order, we can withstand most germ invasions.

Immunity is an action, a process
It is not about pill-popping.  We build our immunity by how we live and laugh and work and play, and eat, rest, move and get up and start again. Luckily we can control all of this and in this way control our health.

THE CHI CYCLE.

I was alerted to this early on.  Jost Sauer even wrote a very easy book on this subject.  The Chi cycle is the  routine that works with the body to enable it to do the best it can with what it has.

5-7 am. Up early and exercise because this detoxes the system, frees up blockages in the meridians (chi stagnation dampens immunity) and creates chi flow for strong immunity.

7-9am. Eat a nourishing warm breakfast with wholesome grains – oats, barley, buckwheat are the top 3 for boosting immunity –  somewhere before 9am. This builds blood, stimulates stomach chi and maximises bounce-back from stress and invasion (stomach chi = gut-health = immunity in Western terms).

9am-1pm. Create positive forward momentum until lunch time to stimulate the chi of spleen and heart – the vitality (immune strengthening) organs.

1-5pm. Eat a warm nourishing lunch to stimulate the chi of the small intestine to ‘fine-tune’ immunity. Work on less stressful stuff for the afternoon. This tunes you in with the natural 24 hour rhythm of health so you’re not wasting energy which weakens immunity.  Early lunch is when I have a BIG bowl of  warm mixed grain porridge.  I rely on this at this time for my own gut health.

5-7pm. De-stress. Switch off around 6pm with a chi practice (like yoga or tai-chi etc) or something fun and playful. This supports kidney health, and kidneys store your primary life force (Jing) – the fuel for your immunity. At this time I have a big bowl of steamed vegetables, preferably home grown.

7-9pm. Relax. Put all computers and phones in another room by 9pm.  When you do this, you make sure you can wind down enough to get quality sleep at the best time to launch your soul’s return trip to ‘the source’. This is your access to some of the amazing and mystical immunity events that can happen when you sleep.  Your body is a self healing mechanism, but it can’t do what it is designed to do if you are working on all of this.  This time of the day is when I do all my fine sewing, darning, and hand finishing.

Believe me when I say, change to this easy routine and if you are soon not in the best health you have ever been, you soon will be!

FREDDIE THE FRIENDSHIP BEAR.

If you want to make your own SIMPLE bear for yourself, or a local charity (or for donating to the Ukraine), I am working on an easy pattern.  I am also working on a “Teachers Pattern Kit” so you can invite a group to your place or zoom to make some together.  When I have got it ready I will put it on Etsy – and I will do zoom classes so you can make some for yourself and your community.  I will also be doing this on line, zoom classes,  so you can do it in your group.  Email me if you are interested: yogafirst2@bigpond.com