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Dear Yogis,

Don’t forget, this morning is our Yoga Cafe.  A time of fellowship, not teaching (specifically) although we always learn something.  I started asking the people at the zoom get-together to bring something to show, something they made or would like to share.  You don’t have to do this, you can just bring a glass of champers, and or a croissant.  By the way – as a pastry aficionado, I have found that Coles sells “ready to bake” raw French croissant in their pastry section.  They are splendid.  I am going to show them at the show and tell. Not exactly yogic, but gorgeous. Yesterday I spoke about priorities.  When I have a croissant, a good one is important.

TIME
As I have been saying – When you have a croissant, have a lovely one.  When you do anything enjoy it.  We run around all the time, doing more in less time, forgetting the moment.  We are even told to soap our hair in the shower just once to be more efficient..  I did try it when I had shorter hair, and it did save me three minutes, but was it worth it?  When I was tiny my dad washed my hair.  He soaped it twice, and rinsed until it was squeaky clean.  When I wash my hair I listen for that squeak.  In spite of these lovely memories I tried the “time-saving” idea and soaped once.  It was faster but I just didn’t feel the same.  I hadn’t washed my hair “right”, plus I was cross with myself for buying in to the “finish as fast as you can” mentality.

I like being in the shower, hair washing or no.  I don’t rush, I dawdle.  It is not an automatic car wash. I wash mindfully, slowly. I relax and prepare for the day.  It is not a waste of time.  When I step out of the shower I am ready for the day – I am not pumped, I am just READY.  I use the shower as a mindfulness moment. A meditation.  Every out-breath allows me to let go of yesterday. I imagine being in a waterfall of light and prana washing any negativity clear away.  When my mind wanders I come back to this simple meditation.  Doing it this way I have more energy and can move into the day with calmness.  I am a recovering perfectionist.  Perfectionism narrows the mind and pulls you out of the present into the past or the future..

How about taking a yoga attitude into the day, applying it to everything.  EVERYDAY YOGA. Patanjali said that in our yoga practice there should be “no gaps”.  He didn’t mean we should practice vinyasa, he meant that everything we do every day should be done in a yoga way.  Life is not what happens after you have had your three minute shower, raced through breakfast, scrambled to load the dishwasher, wrangled the kids into the car and to school and so on.

Just for the next few days (just as an experiment) ditch the tyranny of time and make some different choices. Take time to have a shower, savour breakfast, really hug the children, go through your chores MINDFULLY.  Covid has taken lots away from us – but it has given us TIME.  Relax and enjoy even the small things and you will come home to yourself.  Life practised this way will leave you time for a gentle 3 minute meditation, and a body opening, glorious, unhurried,  Five Tibetan routine (7 minutes).  Ten “yoga minutes” out of 24 hours is do-able.  You might even have time to do a 10 minute read before the children hit the kitchen.  People tell me they haven’t got time for yoga because they have children.  It is an illusion, an excuse.  We all have the time, we just have to use it better.

Remember the yamas.  They also apply to Time. No killing, Stealing, Lying, respecting all things, or taking more than you need… all apply to time as much as anything else in your life.

Walk gracefully through the day, it is your gift to your children (and yourself).
ENJOY TODAY.. ONE MINDFUL MINUTE AT A TIME.

NAMASTE. JAHNE

ZOOM
FRIDAY: 11am YOGA CAFE,   5.30pm RESTORATIVE YOGA with eights and bands
SATURDAY: 12.30 RESTORATIVE YOGA, 2pm MAKING YOUR OWN TAROT
SUNDAY: 10am Teacher Training THE BHAGAVADGITA (you don’t have to be a teacher to come… interested? Join in)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Yogis,

We had the first of our Mindfulness classes last night.  What a great experience!  (next time remember to bring blankets for the nidra).  I certainly am going to do more.  I am now thinking about how to manage studio classes when they return, together with zoom which I can’t drop because so many of you are coming who could not come to studio classes.

We will manage and organise ourselves.. in the old days before there was a yoga school on every corner (before my graduates started teaching and building their own schools), I taught up to 5 hatha yoga classes per day almost every day – 6 days a week, workshops on weekends, retreats.  Everything.  This will be the same, but not as gruelling as meditation and restorative will be sprinkled here and there, and zoom has become a little less nerve-racking for me..

Regarding zoom.  There are always issues with computers.  Yesterday it took me three goes to get onto zoom. Luckily I was on time.  Every time I use it I learn a little more.  If you get on and I can’t hear you, and I am making hearing signs, it usually means there is an audio problem at your end.  You can log out and log in again.  If that doesn’t work, we can do a silent class – You can hear me, but I can’t hear you.  It has worked before.  My techie says I live in a difficult area and the internet is not the best – but we manage.

“POWER-WHINING”:  Some people I meet are always complaining (or dare I say it, simply rude).  Here’s a tip.  “Power-Whine” with a friend.   Psychiatrists call it “Regressive Coping”.  You each get two minutes to complain to the max. No interruptions.  In this way you will get everything off your chest, you haven’t hurt anyone, and you don’t have to take yourself too seriously.  I think nowadays we call it venting.

Lacking a friend you want to show this side of yourself to, you could always do it standing in front of a mirror with your hands on your hips.  Aggressive.  After two minutes with a friend or just by yourself in front of the mirror, it looks pretty silly and unproductive, and guarantees a belly laugh or two when you can see how stupid you are being – as if whining changes anything? You could follow it with two minutes of gratitude, list everything you are grateful for.  This will leave you in a much better frame of mind.

Whatever else you do, gratitude is absolutely the best strategy to cultivate INNER PEACE.  When you learn to manage your mind, take care of yourself, are kind to others, and take a MINDFUL approach to life.  Like everything else, getting it right takes practice.  Imagine gratitude as the gearshift on your car.  You are in charge of course.

Only you can move your gears from obsession to peace, from hard and rigid to the softness of love.  Relaxing comes a whole lot easier when you are living in a bubble of gratitude.  As the Buddha Says:  “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are”.  I add,  “and be grateful”.

FRIDAY ZOOM:  11.30 Yoga Cafe  – it’s nice to bring something for show and tell, or just bring a glass of champers…it is not a crafting session. You don’t need to bring anything except you.  5.30 RESTORATIVE YOGA.  Weights and Bands optional.

SATURDAY ZOOM: 12.30 RESTORATIVE YOGA… Weights optional  2pm MAKE YOUR OWN TAROT CARDS

SUNDAY ZOOM: 10am the Repeat of last weeks BHAGAVADGITA. You don’t need to be a yoga teacher, or trainee yoga teacher to attend.  Interested?  Perfect.

All details on the home page of the web site:  www.yogabeautiful.com.au

 

SEE YOU ON ZOOM.

NAMASTE.  JAHNE

 

 

Dear Yogis,

Sorry you weren’t at class last nite.  We are moving forward with THE CHAKRAS.  There is so much to know of course,  but we are trying to stick close by the practical aspects of identifying, working with them, knowing when the energies are up or down, active or underactive. How to know that in yourself and others.  Kinesiology, pendulums, etc… It is a fascinating study.  Although the class is listed as starting at 7.30 and finishing at 9pm, not everyone has run out of questions and the class often lasts quite a bit longer.

The Stage 3 is going to be changing soon as we imagine we can move back into “normal” or “new normal”, and studios will gradually open up.  I am not sure how I will manage this.  There is only one of me, and I can’t do studio classes and zoom.  Plus many of my students now are interstate or under isolation in stage 4.  Then there are those people who have never physically been able to come to my studio because of distance and now can zoom.  It has been a wonderful time, and I don’t know what will happen next.  We will play it by ear.

INNER PEACE GROUPS.  Please think about this and start your own groups.  We will think abut how to do this in our Wednesday classes.  I want you to save the world.  I can’t do it on my own.  What are your priorities?

When I was in my late forties I gave this a great deal of thought.  I worked out that if I lived into my 70’s (where I am now) and given that I didn’t take action right away, I only had about 1,000 Fridays (the day I dedicated to my children) left.  If you are thinking of these things too, get 1,000 dried chick peas and put them in a jar.  Every week, take out one seed.  In this way you will actually be able to see the number of days or weeks dwindling.  Life in this way seems a whole lot immediate and precious.  Every one of those chick peas is a day or a week of your life, and the number is finite.  You can’t add even one to the jar.  Every day, every “chick pea” is precious.  What have you done with yesterday – all of your yesterday.  What are you going to do with today?  If you thought you “can’t do……..” and take a chick pea out of the jar when YOU don’t show up, you can’t put that chick pea back. You can’t re-run the day. Life is not a movie set, there are no re-runs, no dailies that you can change.  You can only change NOW.

As yogis we say we are saving the world “one person at a time”.  Starting an Inner Peace group can help in this especially at this time. In “normal” Inner Peace is in short supply, and I imagine the situation is worse right now.  How can you start an INNER PEACE group? How can you change your community “one person at a time”.  You can start by coming to our MINDFULNESS  session tonite at 6.45.  There is nothing I teach you that you can’t teach others.   Start today.

WEDNESDAY: 12.30 ZOOM RESTORATIVE,  5.30 ZOOM RESTORATIVE,  6.45 ZOOM MINDFULNESS

If you want to join you can always email me (yogafirst2@bigpond.com) and let me know your interest and we can organise it.  Or go to the web site and follow the directions under the drop-downs or the HOME Page.

By the way.  The photo to the right above are ORBS –  the angels around us all the time.  Others took photographs at the time I took this.  Mine werethe ONLY photos where they showed up.  There were camera buffs present who didn’t believe what they could see, who  checked the lens at the time.. no dust, no interference.  These orbs were around us, are around us,  we just are not always conscious of them.  Sometimes they make themselves known to me, but I am always aware that they are there even if I (WE) can’t see them.

 

YOU REALLY CAN SAVE THE WORLD

NAMASTE, JAHNE.