Page 138 – Yoga Beautiful

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,

What a glorious (if freezing) morning. I am sure the afternoon will be suitable for gardening if I can get out and see it at all, I am busy, busy, busy and inspired by dolls. I am up to painting the faces for three dolls, which means EYES, and I love imagining the eyes they will have. I paint them on, no hard plastic stuff on my dolls or bears thank you. Then I have a stuffed rabbit. Did I tell you about the beautiful French (mauve) Teddy Bear I bought for myself. I totally love it, and will look out for another.

YOGA FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES.

Tomorrow (the date has changed) I will be teaching a group of people who are not able to stand up safely – about 10 students with all kinds of disabilities. Some in wheel chairs, some unable to understand, some who just wander around and don’t sit or concentrate in the way we do etc etc. I had the idea that I could use flash cards with simple pictures on them.

Yesterday afternoon I put together a small group of flash cards showing various simple positions, and will try them out tomorrow (they are not the finished product, they are a trial).

A member of the group will choose card, and as a group (or as close as possible to a group) do the movement. I would like to call what we do asanas, but we are not there yet, at best we will do “interpretations” of what we see. They will be guide posts. Having me do the movement isn’t “interactive” enough. There needs to be a number of clues, and and invitation to try.

I will let you know how I manage. If you are interested in getting a set of these cards, when I have worked out what is successful in terms of movements I will do a series and make them available to you. Only 20 cards. That is enough.

CHEWING GUM TO COMBAT COVID!

Would you believe it, clever science has been trying out SPECIAL CHEWING GUM. Early results have been extremely promising. In test-tube experiments using saliva from individuals who had been infected with either the Delta or Omicron COVID variants, the virus particles attached themselves to the ACE2 receptors in the gum and the viral load fell to undetectable levels. Clinical trials are now being prepared. They will involve COVID patients chewing four ACE2 gum tablets each day for four days, after which their saliva will be analysed for viral load.

If the trials replicate the success of the test tube experiments, the gum could be a cheap and easy addition to the arsenal of tools used to suppress the transmission of COVID. The Pennsylvania University researchers have also tried a second type of gum, derived from bean powder rather than from lettuce, which may have benefits beyond stopping COVID. According to the study, this version “not only traps SARS-CoV-2 particles in lab experiments, but also influenza strains and other coronaviruses that cause common colds”.

Good news, indeed. So the next time you get frustrated at having to grab a stick to clean a sticky mess from the tread of your shoes, cheer yourself up with the thought that chewing gum is now being used for good, as well as evil. (*taken from ….”Your Life Choices”)

THE BEARS AND OTHER TOYS – remember the workshop is on Saturday next

I am becoming a “toy Tragic”. As I said, I even bought a large gorgeous mauve french bear on Saturday, and I walk around the house carrying her . I have called her “Edith” after Edith Piaf. – well, she is French.

The toy I am carrying in the picture is the latest of my own bears, and a possible for you to do at our workshop. I have called this bear MARMADUKE. and he looks suitably bemused. It is quite a simple pattern. The bear takes two pieces of fabric and one continuous seam, then the patches for the muzzle and tummy (both optional) and the two arms which can be done a number of ways. I line them for my bears, but they can be a felt addition in which case they require little to be done, except positioning them and sewing them on.

At the workshop you will get a template you can use for making your own bears at home afterwards, fabric, materials, I will teach you what you need to know. Afternoon tea (chocolates, cheeses etc) will be available. You will be able to finish a bear like the top one on the right, in the time. He is larger than he looks, but can be finished in a variety of ways.

The teddy with the longish arms still unfinished in the left, is the latest. Quite a bit bigger, and difficult even for me. you can’t see but the reverse is a beautiful little Liberty print. I will photograph it when it is further along.

For the workshop – If you have favourite needles, scissors, and a piece of fabric you prefer, please bring them. Saturday at 12noon.

Details below.