We love yoga. Our main thang will always be yoga (hence the name "Nin Yoga").

But also, it's not the be-all and end-all.

Unlike the infamous "yoga" documentaries on Netflix (the Bikram one was exceptionally hard for me to watch because I started in Bikram yoga, but I thoroughly enjoyed Wild Wild Country because the 1970s have always been so fascinating to me), there are more layers to life than just having a hardcore and inflexible yoga only practice.

Yoga is an exceptional foundation, a home to return to within ourselves. It's been that way for me personally for nearly a decade. But what if we have a sore lower back from a weak core or our pelvic floor needs some attention from pushing out those huge things known as babies (fun fact: 50% of women have a weak pelvic floor).

Some exercises complement our foundational yoga practice, and one of them is Pilates.

So, how Pilates...

Slow Dance

"Have you ever watched kids
On a merry-go-round?

Or listened to the rain
Slapping the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?

You better slow down
Don’t dance so fast.

Time is short.
The music won’t last.

Do you run through each day
On the fly?

When you ask: How are you?
Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done,
Do you lie in your bed

With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?

You’d better slow down.
Don’t dance so fast.

Time is short.
The music won’t last.

Ever told your child,
We’ll do it tomorrow?

And in your haste,
Not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die

Cause you never had time
To call and say, “Hi”?

You’d better slow down
Don’t dance so fast.

Time is short.
The music won’t last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.

When you worry and hurry through the day,
It is like an unopened...

Trigger warning: the following email speaks about domestic and family violence, and also a little bit about having a 5-year-old.

To listen to this newsletter instead, click here.

We snuck into your inbox each week for the month of May to talk about domestic violence in Western Sydney and how local women and children's shelter The Haven needed your help.

And because of exceptionally generous humans in our community, we raised this much...

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 1 in 6 women experience physical violence, 1 in 4 women experience emotional abuse, 1 in 6 women experience economic abuse, and 1 in 5 women experience sexual violence.

Looking up and then rewriting these statistics puts my heartbeat in my throat. I am not ready to share my own personal experience in this area (as I was planning to do initially), but I do feel ok to at least continue to bring it to light.

So,...

Trigger warning, the following email speaks about domestic and family violence.

Over the weekend we hosted workshop number two to raise money for domestic and family violence prevention appeal month.

We are also thrilled to thank you for your generosity and support; we have raised $1286.90 so far!

If you have already donated or attended one of the workshops, your contribution has made a meaningful impact on the survivors of domestic and family violence in our community. Together, we have helped to provide vital resources and support to women and children in need within our community, giving them the possibility for a future without abuse.

Being a victim of this kind of stuff is just straight-up awful and horrible and never ok. I have seen some of my closest friends and family be victims for what is, more often than not, YEARS.

This is not to say these women are not resilient and brave, but it is to say that...

Last Friday, we had the first out of the four workshops we have set up at the studio to raise much-needed funds for The Haven.

Kai showed up for the community and hosted meridian-based yoga, followed by a dreamy yoga nidra (yogic sleep), all supported by heaters, blankets, and candlelight.

Thankful for all the yoga teachers who used their time and creativity to put something together at our studios for this exceptionally worthy cause.

As we continue to support The Haven (Nepean Woman Shelter) for May, I want to take a moment to explain why your support is so crucial.

Domestic and family violence remains a pervasive issue in our community and as a society as a whole, affecting individuals and whole families from all different walks of life. The Haven provides a lifeline for women and children, offering shelter, casework, advocacy, and resources to help them rebuild their lives.

Your donation, no...

Its crucial that the woman in our community know that there are options if they are in an relationship that is psychologically, financially, verbally, emotionally, and/or physically abusive.

Domestic and family violence still remains a hidden secret to many. Its a silent epidemic that often goes noticed until it is way too late, with one woman killed every single week.

Behind every single nightmare of a headline, there are thousand of incidents of domestic and family violence that still goes unreported, which in turn impacts lives in way we often can not even imagine.

This is why we are reaching out to the community today, as this month is Domestic & Family Violence awareness month.

We have partnered with our beautiful friends at The Haven, a woman's and children's shelter in Penrith, to raise funds for all those who are impacted and seek refuge there.

It provides crisis accommodation and support for women and children escaping domestic and...

Trigger warning: This newsletter discusses a conversation with someone after loosing their child. Please be mindful if you continue to read the words below.

Three weeks ago I had an exceptionally difficult conversation. One that I only feel ready to write about now.

My partner and I took our two daughters to their first celebration of life, for their second cousin, just shy of two years old.

Amidst the heavy sorrow as we listened to all of her favourite Emma Wiggle songs, I knew I would eventually need to have my turn to give my love and support to the parents in person too.

And I will admit something I am not super proud of. I was avoiding them. Knowing that when our paths crossed at the wake, I would just burst into tears yet again. I felt selfish. "Did they really need to see another person crying to them about their own incredible loss? Did I just not want to see them because I just couldn't handle the conversation? What would they say? What does...

Messenger

"My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird—
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever."

- Mary Oliver

Learning why Denmark is one of the happiest countries in the world, as well as watching the latest episode of Bluey (they didn't sell, PHEW!), brought me back to this poem 

Let us remember...

I'll be completely honest with you...

When I first decided I wanted to enter the realm of teaching, I assumed that all teachers were masters of what they shared with their students, effortlessly guiding others with the wisdom and grace that I so badly wanted to embody myself.

My sudden and random passion for circus arts began in my early twenties.

Despite never setting foot on the stage within any kind of big top, I emptied my wallet for the thrill of learning these new skills. Night after night, I attended classes and workshops across Sydney, eagerly soaking up as much as I could, determined to embody these teachers and performers I so adored and looked up to.

Eventually, I mustered up the courage to share my skills with others, assuming this would be a shortcut to joining some sort of circus troupe one day. I vividly remember sitting in the office of my management job, scrolling on Gumtree, and coming across a wanted ad for flying...

I once handed a DL Flyer for a voluntourism trip to Ghana to give to my dad while I was in my first year of uni.

The pamphlet, however, was a total fake, designed just so I could get over in a way that seemed legit, when really I was going to meet a guy I have only ever chatted with via email.

Who I was chatting to was an orphan himself, wanting to now start a foundation in his local village. Foreigners would be invited (and I assumed picked at random?) to come over to lend a hand.

I got my flight sponsored to get me there (which I later found out was booked with stolen credit card details, ahhhhhhhh I promise I had no idea), and flew in alone.

Armed with nothing but melting Tim Tams and a whole lot of stationary to donate to the community, I set off on a journey that would change my life forever. I flew halfway across the world to a place that seemed almost unreal until I touched down.

I was on a mission to find a "Jamal". As I...