Trust the gut

Hello there friends! 

Last week, I asked a dear friend if she could permit me to flake.

I had been sitting with this feeling for a few days.

We had put together our Studio Christmas Party and had even gone to the lengths of organizing live music and celebratory sound healing at the end of the community potluck.

I locked out the date, which was already surrounded by a rainbow of Google calendar colours of other shindigs.

As I did this, I could already feel in my belly that it was going to be a lot, but at the time the feeling of what I felt inclined to do was stronger, so I stuck with the mindset of "it will figure itself out later" (which btw, very much works a lot of the time in family and business life).

As the days started to fold over, however, unlike other times, this feeling didn't go away.

I was excited to hang out with teachers and students without yoga clothes on for once. Keen to listen to live hand-pan and have a bit of a group lay down after, but I could already start to feel that the date was not quite right.

And as I sit here at our Yoga Studio reception, I could feel that the date was not right for many others also.

And seeing each other in ourselves got me thinking: Is a Christmas party really what we need right now?

Am I just putting it together because it feels like something I SHOULD be doing?

Continuing to put myself in the shoes of the students we adore so dearly, I realized that what the students do for us and what we do for the students always has been enough, and always will be.

So then, why put so much pressure to put something together at a time of year that is tricky for many of us? Is it because we feel conditioned that it's something we are meant to do at this time of year?

Could we instead, as a yoga studio, encourage the community just to take a breather?

My mentor told me that the one thing she wanted me to do as we move into Christmas... is rest.

And this is us now, crossing our fingers and toes that you will get some rest too.

And hey, if you need to tell everyone you are at your yoga studio Christmas party, but you are at City Cave doing a float or sauna (if you are a member with Nin Yoga, you get $20 off floats btw!), or up in the mountains trying to find the next secret water hole, or just sitting in a dark room listening to an audiobook (who else was very excited when Spotify got audiobooks!), then so be it.

So yeah, I wanted to explain why we are NOT putting together a Christmas party this year. A decision that feels so much more right in the gut.

We will continue to, of course, have classes throughout the holidays and will only be closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year's Day, so yeah, still plenty of opportunities to party with us!

And if you have the space for some more chill time, we have plenty! You can view our full schedule here.

And if you can't get to the studio, here is a morning yoga class with one of our Yoga & Pilates Teachers, Mihaela Zotta.

That's all we wanted to share for today.

Each week for December, we will continue to share snippets of yoga or meditation you can do from your home as little pockets of reminders to take it easy.

We will be re-releasing our ONLINE PLATFORM again very soon, too, so stay tuned for that one.

Let us continue to give each other permission to say NO to what doesn't feel good in our bellies, so we can instead say YES to what fills our cup (and might then overflow to those around us anyway).

Annika xx

P.S. To view our full schedule of classes over the holidays, please click here.

P.P.S. If you would like to be the first to know about the re-launch of our online platform, click here.

P.P.P.S. The below photo is of Brittany Kelly. She moved into our Penrith Studio a few months back, and other than holding space for her therapy clients there, she is now offering remedial and pre-natal massage. I got one myself, and it was exactly what I needed. You can learn more about Brittany or book in with her by clicking here.