Blog Student News Trainees/Teacher News

Dear Yogis,

ZOOM:
Today (Monday) 1pm RESTORATIVE with weights and bands.
TUESDAY: 7.30pm The Chakras a group discussion.
WEDNESDAY: 12.30 GENTLE RESTORATIVE, 5.30 RESTORATIVE YOGA with weights and bands.  6.45PM MINDFULNESS YOGA

We have all of Tuesday afternoon waiting for you to come to a class.  I have started thinking about the end of the year and the Holiday Season, and have started to produce cards and paintings.  I am thinking about a class so you can do your own too THE TAO OF WATERCOLOUR.  It is easy to make doodles into cards, and with the price of cards at the moment, it can be a save.  The postage makes sense if the cards are original and can be framed.  Yours could.

Years ago when the Collins Street Store “Georges” was still open I used to make all their Special Occasion and blank cards.  It kept me very busy.  My mum knitted socks for them and I made cards.  It was lovely experience.  I still make cards. I make tarot cards, gifts cards, and Christmas cards without Father Christmas – I have flowers and Australian orchids on my Christmas cards.  If you want to make cards (easily) come to class.   TUESDAYS AT 1.30 to 3pm from 29th September ($50 for three classes).

…OR, you can buy mine.  When I have a stash I will put them on our web site store www.yogabeautiful.com.au  and ETSY www.myyogabooks.etsy.com.  I am also on Patreon (without videos – yet). www.patreon.com/TarotArt

 For our class you will need some basic materials you can source between now and then, even if you can’t get to a store.  If you have some left over card, newspapers, watercolours, basic brushes we can do this.  Even if you don’t have card stock you can do the small paintings and mount them on the cards when you get them in plenty of time for Christmas (or frame them) – NO ART SKILLS REQUIRED. If you can doodle, you can do this.  Email your interest or you can sign up in the usual way – go to the home page, click on DONATE and PayPal will take credit/debit cards and PayPal account.

The rain has returned.   If this was December I would be super happy… rain at night until the fire season please.  We are told it is going to be a cooler and wetter time (especially November) with a hot February as usual. Start preparing now if you didn’t start last year.

We repeated the Bhagavadgita learnings yesterday.  It is a huge subject but every time we get together we learn something new, approach the subject a different way.  From this point of view there are no repeats. Next sunday morning we will be discussing YOGA in the Bhagavadgita.  It is a huge subject and unlikely we will get through it even in a couple of sessions, particularly as we are yogis, and have our own ideas about what “yoga” means to us.  Be there.  Put it in your diary now.  It is $20 for the 2 hour lecture and the repeat the following week is FREE if you have purchased the first one.  Two for the price of one.

LOVE

No matter what Church you belong to,  or if you absolutely don’t believe, we all long for the same thing, TO LOVE AND BE LOVED, as the song says.  We are all reaching for that deep sense of connection, worth, and belonging that we believe LOVE provides.  and are led to believe that this feeling is as close to heaven as we humans can achieve.

If we have felt respect and love as a child from our parents,  we are more likely to have a reasonable chance of experiencing what we conclude is love.  Such positive influences from our parents provides the foundation for compassion and kindness as an adult.  I will always remember what my teacher said to me as I began my work with people in rehabilitation ….“Always remember – HURT PEOPLE HURT PEOPLE”.  In America (before Covid), statistics showed that the prison system was the fastest growing sector of the economy and over half the population of America would be incarcerated by the middle of this century.  The way to reverse this would be to help the children.   Like every human,  the majority of prisoners have the desire to make sense of their lives, and create a future that is different to their past, if not for themselves, then for their children..

If you want peace in your life (we all do) you will have to commit to a healing process that mends our concept of self, teaches emotional intelligence, and most importantly helps you work towards forgiveness both for yourself and others.  No healing can take place without forgiveness.

Mother Teresa coined the phrase “One-by-One”.  She knew she would be overwhelmed if she thought about all the people on the streets of Calcutta, and the 40,000 she rescued.  She expanded her mission one by one.  That is why I urge you to think as I do of healing the world “one yogi at a time”.  It is a strategy you can all adopt, and begins with forgiveness.

START TODAY.  Heal the world where you are, one yogi at a time.

NAMASTE.  JAHNE

 

 

 

Dear Yogis,

Sunday again, BHAGAVADGITA TIME.  By the time you read this, we will be well into the discussion… if you come in fast you may catch the last hour.  It will be worth it.  Although this is a repeat, it is not a recorded repeat.  I do it again, and because everyone has usually gone through the first one, it is quite a different class looking at the same topic.  This week (as last week) the focus is on GOD – KRSNA as He appears in the ‘Gita.  We did plan to speak about YOGA and the ‘Gita last week, but we didn’t get around to it. Let’s see what happens today.

Yesterday we had the most marvellous (ZOOM) MAKE YOUR OWN TAROT training.  Number three of a series of three.  The group decided to move forward and do three more.  In the first three classes, we decided on the theme, the design, the size and how we will print/publish.  We are now working towards packaging and making the book to go with the set.  However, you can start with us, even if you missed the first three, you can start fresh.  Having students who have done the beginning and can coach is always helpful, plus they move back and forth between solving design issues, or colours, and the book.  When you start the book you may realise a problem with the card design.  Whatever reason you come along, even if you like painting or collaging miniatures, it is worthwhile and fun.

As I said yesterday, Christmas (from an artist’s point of view) is just around the corner.  If you are going to make your own cards MAKE YOUR OWN TAROT may be just the class you are looking for.  The difference between a Christmas card and a tarot card is just the image.  I am also going to teach some simple watercolour ideas.  I resent paying heaps for a christmas/special occasion card unless it is an original artwork and supports an artist.  Be an artist, learn some simple techniques.  Let me know if you are interested in making your own cards, yoga cards or miniatures for gifts…. yogafirst2@bigpond.com.

In yoga we have the philosophy, we have the words, we have the images.. all you need to do is learn how to make them into miniature art works.  It is not as hard as you think.. and ALL ON ZOOM.

One thing I will be doing on Zoom is small portrait silhouettes – they are personal.. and take quite a lot of thinking about.  I did them earlier in the year – I am sure you remember.   Individuals or families.  Imagine what a wonderful Christmas card that would make.  Please book a sitting, or email a profile – individuals or family groups.  If I can see both eyes or both ears, it is not a profile.  I can even do silhouettes of houses or animals, or you in a yoga pose, but I need an emailed photo.. an interesting view of a house, or a profile of an animal.  You will get one original to frame and 10 cards to send to family and friends (you can order multiples).

Email for a booking or to enquire: yogafirst2@bigpond.com

YOGA CLASSES.

As we are coming out of Covid stages 3 and 4, students are asking how we will be moving forward in the studio.  The truth is, I am not sure.  It took me a while to get into zoom, and surprisingly I have gotten used to it, and love that I can work with students around the globe.  Can I afford to go back to teaching in a small classroom, taking up the studio space when I could keep doing what I do and teach my students from anywhere.

Then there is TIME.  In order to continue zoom classes, and add studio classes, and keep doing my various art works and teachings I would effectively be doubling my workload.  There is only one of me, and only a certain amount of energy.

When I was younger (much younger) I taught 4 and 5 yoga classes a day because I had to raise children and all that entails.  That no longer applies.   There are students who want me to go back to teaching in the classroom, but I am not sure…you will have to let me know how YOU want me to go forward.  Yoga, Tarot, Silhouette Portraits, Watercolours, Yoga, Philosophy… I work with each of these… and enjoy them.

Then there is the fact that I have been teaching yoga for more than 50 years.  Which of you has been doing or teaching ANYTHING for that length of time? Committed to a community or to yoga (or even one job) for that length of time? Holding the space?   I am enjoying teaching art and tarot and other things I do.  It is refreshing to pass these skills along.  Not just yoga.  In this regard Covid has offered me a number of opportunities I did not know existed.

 

THINK ABOUT IT,

NAMASTE – JAHNE

 

 

 

 

Dear Yogis,

WEEKEND ZOOM
SATURDAY: 12.30 – RESTORATIVE YOGA,  2pm MAKE YOUR OWN TAROT
SUNDAY: 10am YOGA TEACHER TRAINING, The Bhagavadgita. (All welcome – you don’t have to be a trainee teacher).

For details go to www.yogabeautiful.com.au.  Look on the home page, the appropriate drop down, or email me at yogafirst2@bigpond.com

 

I was reminded today (reluctantly) that christmas isn’t that far away.  I don’t know what difference Covid will make.  We think we are good and getting better, but I am sure that Europe thought that too.  I do know that as usual the post will be difficult, so I urge you to think about it now.  Start buying your presents now and putting them away.   I am hoping that you will consider the Tarot Cards, Tea Leaf Cards and Pendulum boards large and small, and pendulums (Not many left, I will have to get making, but if you let me know what you like I can make one especially for you).  I do “three question tarot readings” also, which can be given as gifts…

Everything (even the readings)  is on www.myyogabooks.etsy.com

TAKE TIME TO GET ORGANISED.

I can’t work when my desk is too cluttered.  I have in-files and out-files but sometimes the papers don’t go in or out and I am left with a pile on my desk.  When that happens my work grinds to a snails pace, and no matter how urgent other things are I have to stop and de-clutter.  When you are working under the weight of clutter – clothing, toiletries, kitchen implements, desk clutter – whatever it is I have found that most people will be less creative.  I believe that the state of your desk and you wardrobe is a clear reflection of your unconscious.  The space outside you is a reflection of your inner space.  If you want some inner peace, first take care of the outer peace.  Get some plastic bags out, and now that the Salvos are open again, fill the bags up with things you no longer use or wear, and give them to people who will.

Before you start make a list of the tasks you are going to tackle and work through the list, in this way you won’t end up getting caught in the past.. sitting on the carpet surrounded by an impossible pile of paper and things.

As you are moving and sorting (once called “spring cleaning”) think about the fact that you are moving stagnant, old energy out of your life.  The everyday (no matter how you remove yourself from the media) can be cluttered with suffering, and negativity.  There are two types of suffering, mandatory and optional.  If you want a model of the latter Woody Allen is the go-to example of this.  He is (or was) an “Awfuliser”.  Someone who has a headache and calls an ambulance because he has “awfulised” it into a brain tumour.

Getting control of your thinking may not be easy, but if you want lasting peace it is a useful practice. As Pogo once said… “We have met the enemy and He is us”.  It takes consistent effort such as we learn in yoga and meditation to overcome that internal enemy, but it is possible day to day.  It takes no more time to use your thoughts well than it does to let them drive you crazy.

This sunny weekend, take the opportunity to do some spring cleaning, on the outside,  and on the inside.  This might seem very simple, but it is not easy, and yes, it will take time.  If it were easy we would all be yogis.  

HAVE A WONDERFUL SPRING DAY.

NAMASTE – JAHNE