Dear Yogis,

I am writing this on Thursday evening – I know I am going to be busy tomorrow… I am getting in early.

EASTER is coming up fast.  Please understand that I DO NOT take holidays over Easter UNLESS you do.  If you are not going to be around for our usual classes, please let me know.  Otherwise everything is as usual.

FRIDAYS:  6.45pm FREE pendulum class
SATURDAY: 2pm TAROT CLASS.  I think I will also be giving a beginners class in knitting and crochet at this time if you want to join.  I really don’t mind what we do in this class – if everyone has a different direction that is totally fine..  As long as we have a finished article at some point.
SUNDAY:  10am THE BEAUTIFUL GITA STUDY GROUP. (Sunday April 4th – Studio Teacher Training)

WEDNESDAY 24th March (1pm Studio Art Class.  Bring unfinished/stalled projects for help. We will also be teaching beginners crochet and knitting in this class)

THE GARDEN
I now have a battery operated leaf blower, a hedge trimmer, a pruner and a whipper snipper.  All lightweight, all Ozito, all with their batteries attached as part of the package – and very economical.  I am loving it.  I can get twice as much done in a fraction of the time (and energy).  If it wasn’t for God making a whipper snipper available for me (via Val – thanks) at exactly the right time, I would not have moved in this direction. I have, and it has made me feel a whole lot more enthusiastic about the garden, because now I can manage it myself.

ART
I have started work (again) on the MAGDALEN REVELATION CARDS.  As I said to an artist friend who dropped in to see me today, everything takes time.  I did stage one which was organising and pasting on the images.  Stage two is overpainting which I have almost completed – 4 cards to go, then Stage three will be the finishing, and making them as good as they can be, and then I will have to WRITE THE BOOK.  This is going to be quite a job I think,  as the images are not simple.  The ideas contained in each image are philosophical and complex.  Nonetheless, I am looking forward to it.  I like writing.

There is so much to do, and the days are getting shorter.  I did get some knitting cotton from the OP shop so have started knitting dishcloths.  Everyone likes them, and I don’t even have to think as I do them.  They are super easy.

TEACHER TRAINING CLASS.
I hope you noticed in the last newsletter that I am starting up the monthly teacher training classes IN THE STUDIO (by request).  The first Sunday in each month starting the 4th April.  2pm as usual.  I hope you make time for us and come.  We have to keep a reasonable distance, but I am sure we are all aware, and if you want to wear a mask you can.

CBD AND ALZHEIMERS
I have been sent a fabulous article (well researched, well sourced) about CBD and Alzheimers, and how recent studies suggest that CBD is going to play a major role in staving off of this terrible disease of the protein covering of our cells in the brain – which ends up looking very much like a Swiss cheese.

If you are interested I can send it to you (everyone should be interested).  Please email me yogafirst@netcon.net.au.  I want many people as possible turned on to the wonderful healing properties of this remarkable oil (which is not hemp oil – a different formulation entirely).

You would do well to read this article, and also go to Netflix and watch WEED THE PEOPLE, which is about the beauty of medical marijuana.  This is a Human Rights Issue, not just a push for decriminalisation.  If you are confused about this issue, please chat, there is a lot of misinformation out there.  I have always urged my students to watch TED TALKS, and of course the Netflix film.  Mostly an American or European view… but  things change.

 

TURKEY TAIL
I have some fabulous fresh Turkey Tail Mushroom powder. $35 including postage.   This is a booster of the immune system and can enhance your dreams.  I thought it was just me – but a lot of my clients tell me that they now dream in technicolour and smellavision – they never did before, and were lucky to get the odd black and white version.  Boosting the immune system is what I take it for, anything else is a wonderful bonus.

I am shortly expecting a new shipment of DAMIANA HERB TEA – also for relaxation and anxiety.  This used to be a marijuana substitute BEFORE marijuana was bred for potency – it is a different plant to what it used to be.

AS I ALWAYS SAY – MEET ME ON THE MAT.

NAMASTE.  JAHNE

 

 

 

DEAR YOGIS,

Here is the studio where I paint my beautiful angels...it is an inspiring small space that looks out onto the garden.  When I go in there I immediately feel like getting back to the angels and to painting.  I don’t have to move anything, change anything.  It is all waiting for me – “a room of my own”.   It is important where the table is located.  I can look down onto the table and do a miniature, and then rest and exercise my eyes by looking out into the distance of my garden and beyond.  Think about this when you locate your computer and your own art table.

I know how hard it is to have to keep covering up, moving your work and changing.  If you want to draw, paint or create, it is made much easier with a dedicated space, not necessarily a room, it can be a largish cupboard (like the one in “The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe”).  I have seen some stunning conversions – wardrobe to office space, meditation room, or art/craft studio space.

We ask our students to use this principle for their meditation and yoga.  If you have a dedicated space, then as you move past it during the day you acknowledge the importance of this space to you.  It gives the space power, and gives you a longing to sit down and meditate or paint.  So much better than a willy-nilly (accidental) attitude to your practice – art or yoga.

Here is the latest Angel.  Not yet framed, and maybe not yet finished – I am not sure.  I am also doing a full length angel on an opened tea bag.  Something different, and quite a bit more difficult.  Another way of looking and thinking.  Just to my yoga students and recipients of the newsletter the cost is $65 including a lightweight frame and postage.  For the double length painting $135.  There is only ONE of each.  They are originals. To purchase email be to make sure the one you want is still available, then you can pay in the usual way.  Don’t pay until you have spoken with me.  I have to check if it is available, and then reserve it for you.  They have been selling rather fast.  I will be putting them on the web when I can get a few put by, but they will not be at this price.

I am still working on THE MAGDALEN ORACLE/TAROT.  

It is not an easy task, although the angels are helping.

 

THE TEACHING/LEARNING CONTRACT.

I often get asked if I am going to record my zoom sessions.  The answer at the moment is “no”, because I think that the teaching/learning platform, rather like a theatrical performance contains a contract between the teacher and the learner which benefits both far more than just looking at a screen.  By announcing a class, I am making a commitment  to be there, on time, prepared and ready to teach.  Hopefully Telstra knows this and the internet is available when I need it.  The student in order to get the most out of the experience needs to turn up on time,  ready to learn, take notes, ready to interact with me (and or the group), and ready to ask questions (preferably ones I can answer).

In a zoom class (as in a theatre) the student knows not to eat noisy food with his mike on, not to interrupt, not to wander about carrying on another conversation at the same time as the class and not to have a demanding dog, cat or child on their lap.  If it was in a theatre there would be other unstated understandings about big hats, noise, comments, and interactions with the people next to you.  In a different way these also apply to the zoom sessions, but not to a recorded session although recorded sessions need discipline and understanding also.

To experience a recorded session the student can turn up any time, listen to a bit here and a bit there totally out of context… and generally does not get a real lesson.  They get the feeling that something has happened, but rarely is it successful, and rarely does the student totally understand the session – particularly the rather difficult philosophical concepts we tackle which mostly require a teacher to be the guide.

I hope this answers (in rather more than a sentence or two) those who have asked the question “Are you recording this?  Most everything I do can be found in book form on my etsy site – so you can always READ it – thereby developing another lost art.

ATTENTION:  I am re-instating our YOGA TEACHER TRAINING DAYS.  The first Sunday in the month starting April 4th at 2pm.  All welcome.  Graduates, students, interested yogis.  Let me know if you are coming please – there will still be covid etiquette.

I LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU ON THE MAT, OR IN THE ZOOM ROOM.

NAMASTE – JAHNE

 

 

 

 

Good day Yogis,

It is Monday already.  What a weekend.  First the Friday nite free class was fun and informative, then Saturday at the studio was a wonderful and worthwhile time together, Ditto the Gita on Sunday morning and then my beautiful daughter came to visit for the first time in months.    She is in charge of waste management at a big tourist and food venue, so staying Covid Free is a huge issue.  If she got Covid it has the potential to close down the entire place.  Not a good look, so she is super careful.

THE COMING WEEK ON ZOOM/STUDIO

MONDAY:  1pm Studio Class/6.30 THE BREATH on Zoom.  This week looking at the role of movement.
TUESDAY: 7.30pm RUMI.  An ongoing zoom study.  Not just about poetry, also philosophy…history. Everything Rumi.
WEDNESDAY: 5.30pm Studio Yoga class (we have one permanent vacancy here – It is a restorative class)
FRIDAY: 6.45 FREE Pendulum class
SATURDAY: 10am ZOOM Darning/Knitting/Crochet class 2 hours $30 Booking required /2pm ZOOM TAROT/ART CLASS
SUNDAY: 10am  ZOOM, GITA STUDY TIME.

ART
I feel so blessed.  This month I sold a commission of three paintings, and this weekend have sold three (T-BAG) ANGEL PAINTINGS.  They sold so quickly that I didn’t have time even to take a photo (thank you to the client for sending me a photo of this one)…, but I am working on more, and won’t neglect this part of the process again.  I just thought I would “do it later”, but later didn’t happen.  It’s the way of things.  “Do it now” is what I say to everyone, and now I have to remember to do it myself… it is fundamental in this digital age.

The three I am working on now are a “Medieval” Angel, a White Feather (because whenever I ask the Universe about the “right direction” a white feather from an Angel will appear to show me the path, and an Angel in the Sky.  I will photo them BEFORE I put the glass in front of them so you can see them, and before I put them on the web, so you can have one for yourself (Email me if you want to see the next images ahead of the pack… you can have first choice).  They are meditation angels, and often get taken to hospitals, or placed in meditation rooms.  They have an energy.

COVID..

I am sure like me, that prior to Covid restrictions you had a way of thinking and acting.  Life may have been something you just fitted into as it came along – it felt comfortable (even if it wasn’t ideal),  and you were used to it.  Then Covid came along and took the lid off all of that.  We had to discover new ways to do things.  Through this experience God showed us that we don’t need what we thought we needed, and maybe we weren’t the people we thought we were.

Have you noticed, God leads by limitations.  We learn a whole lot more when we have to change than at other times – and we don’t change willingly.  He teaches as much by a door that closes as by the door that opens.  Life is full of little things that lead to other little things, that will eventually lead to a “big thing” that we didn’t expect.  We learn by studying The Gita that we are all on the Battlefield, and if (as in the Bible) we don’t beat Goliath, then we won’t be ready to be King.

If David had refused to take lunch to his brothers on the battlefield (remember he was just a shepherd), and if he hadn’t had a close relationship to His God, and if he had been daunted by the size of Goliath rather than trusting his own skills and the voice of the God within – then the outcome would probably be the same as it had been leading up to the encounter.  It looked like “game, set and match” to Goliath, but in spite of how it looked, it didn’t work out that way.  David was the victor, and eventually became one of the strongest and best kings in the Bible.

David only looked little.  He had a secret weapon.. his faith in God which allowed him to believe in a positive outcome no matter how uneven the battle seemed in the giant’s favour.  He didn’t care what the bystanders saw, he didn’t care about the “bad press”.  He didn’t care what his relatives said about him – He was calm and relaxed in the face of a giant enemy.  He knew who he was.

If things feel good we think it is God.  If things don’t look in our favour we think it is not God.  Pay attention next time.  Go into battle with your “secret weapons” – yoga, meditation, discernment, knowledge (and for me – God).  Don’t pay any attention to the naysayers, or the negatives in your mind.

I WILL SEE YOU ON THE MAT (or at our zoom classes)

Namaste – Jahne