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...

Good Morning/Afternoon! 

Over the weekend I did the thing that I would usually be very passionate about advising against...

I went to a shopping mall during the "Black Friday" weekend.

It was just me and the girlies. I was keen to get out of the house and channel their energy somewhere that wouldn't involve picking up the pieces for 3 days after (plus I needed to get the 1-year-old to sleep, the car always works)

It was raining so I took them to Blacktown shops. Not totally my local but it's weirdly the shopping mall I feel most comfortable at.

Countless rounds of eye spy with my little eye later, we were still stuck in traffic. We didn't mind though. I was kind of expecting it and I could hear the 1 year old snoring in her car seat.

Eventually...  we got there.

After spending an hour at a new playland (it is this one and it's one of those better ones, plus the green Macha latte rocks) and a quick run through the new time zone to see if I could find any old ...

Hey Hey 

There is something that I feel really guilty of admitting...

Relaxing is so very often...REALLY REALLY HARD.

I was reminded of this over the weekend. Baby daddy took both kiddies out of the house Sunday to try and give me some rest time. 

He looked me in the eye as he piled the girls in the car and told me to "please use this time to rest", which is his way of also saying, "Try not to work".

The family had left and I had the house and a Sunday to myself 

I laid in bed for a long moment, overwhelmed with the choice... and after a solid wander around a very well-lived-in house (which involved picking up toys, putting nappies in the dryer, and un-packing then re-packing the dishwasher), I then jumped on the computer and stayed there, because that's what felt comfortable. (We also had a Black Friday sale and the backend process needed some serious tending too... thank you to everyone who purchased by the way! We can't wait to meet your loved ones!)

When...

Happy Tuesday Friends 

I was watching over some pre-recorded video content from a couple of years back, in particular a Yin Yang Class I filmed for our online platform and Youtube channel.

I was sharing it with one of our recent graduates who actually taught a class at the St Marys studio on Saturday (thank you Larissa!) as she was interested in learning more about the Yoga Style "Yin Yang Yoga. This is a style we have at the studio (and actually my personal favorite one to teach) that combines and focuses on the duality of Vinyasa Flow Yoga with the Introspective Yin/Restorative Yoga, both together, in the same class.

Anyway, this recording shares a poem at the end that I would love to share again.

It reflects back on pandemic days, but it STILL feels so relevant today...

Hello,

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,

it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,

it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,

it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness,

it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair."

- Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

I read the above and it makes me think a lot about what's going on at the moment.

I was not sure how to share my thoughts on this matter, as it's so present and huge and feels almost out of body to consider it with my privilege.

I am thankful for all the best of times in my own personal life, but sometimes I lay in bed and wonder, why me?

What is going on for humans who are also mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers, sounds too horrendous, almost fiction, when we read about it on our smartphones...

What makes these innocent lives so different from ours?

And how do we now have the privilege to be here now, to be in this sa...

Hello Caroline,

I remember one of my teachers once said something to me that I always reflect back on...

"If you think you got this yoga thing figured out, see how you feel after a weekend with your parents" 

I feel this way also about printing (but also, the parent thing checks out often )

I spent the first chuck of my working life in management. So I was constantly printing out reports, rosters, and statements. 

I would be printing up a storm, always needing the documents 30 minutes ago.. but then of course the thing would have a hissy fit.

I would go on to spend the next long while sorting it out.

Which to be honest, on someone else's time, was kind of fine I guess. I liked hanging out in the office. It was quiet (I worked in a video game arcade, and it was loud), and no one was looking to redeem any prizes in there.

Fast forward 8 years later, however, me trying to print thousands of pages for a teacher training manual with a battered old printer, yo...

Hey Hey,

It's 36 degrees today (in case you didn't already know ).

If you haven't already, please be sure to fill up all your bird baths and put out some ice water for your dear fur babies.

Some (not all, some) of our class teachers will start using the air-conditioning in the studios (and we are getting the aircon fixed at the Penrith studio this Wednesday, yay!).

Moving and grooving in class with some natural heat is wonderful for heart health, stress management, or if you are keen on feeling that little bit extra limber.

In a Vinyasa class we are always working to create heat in the body, it might just mean we will get there a lil faster some days as we head into the Australian summer.

In other news at Nin Yoga, we have two FREE classes this weekend at our studios. 

On Saturday, one of our recent teacher training graduates will be teaching her class to our community (hopefully that includes you!).

I've experienced Emily's classes before and they are beaut...

Hey Hey,

For starters, I just wanted to say a big old thank you to everyone who reached out after last week's newsletter.

Before sending, I was literally thinking "This thing makes no sense but my gut is telling me to hit send so here it goes".

It's been quite the learning curve showing up here every single week. Other than figuring out what to write about every 7 days (I'm coming to realise there is always lots to talk about!), can we also be that consistent? And what does consistency look like as we serve this community?

As someone who has a couple of real-life human babies at home, hanging out in the studio each weeknight like I used to is no longer sustainable.

This has bothered me for quite some time. I felt like an imposter because I couldn't show up on the teacher's mat like I used to.

After a short-lived emo moment about it, because 1) the teachers we do have rock and we are so lucky to have them, and 2) coming to the realization you can't be everywhere ...

Hey Beautiful,

I was dwelling on the weekend about a comment my baby daddy made to me last week in regard to the last newsletter.

We were sitting in our spare room (also known as the room we dump all of our laundry in) ... folding laundry, and I was talking to him about how I have been feeling overwhelmed (I try not to use the world busy, but life is full at the moment, and sometimes it overflows).

He then went on to mention how he listened to a podcast earlier in the day about 4 ways to relax 

It took me a moment (as it usually does with his witty one-liners), to notice that he was talking about the studio "podcast" (the one where I read out this newsletter) and how last week was about four different ways to take mini-meditations throughout the day (if you missed it, you can read it on our studio blog).

At that moment I felt a lil silly. Who am I to give advice on how to be chill?!

Hence the inspo for this week's edition 

A reminder that we are all just fig...

Hey, There,

I taught a Yin Yang Yoga Class (this is flow yoga and chill yoga together btw) yesterday morning for the public holiday and shared a poem on meditation. 

In a world where we are constantly distracted, with everything trying to grab our attention, it's no wonder we find being still such a challenge. We feel restless and impatient with our overactive minds and expectations for the practice, as well as ourselves. 

Maybe it's just physically uncomfortable to sit still (tight hips and sore back anyone?), or you lack the time to be consistent with the practice in the first place.

Whatever it may be, know that you are not alone.

We are living in a modern world that more often than not doesn't serve our nervous system.

Everyone is yelling at us (well at least this is how I felt when I went on TikTok for the first time last week)

They all want our attention.

So I challenge you with this:

Next time you have that pulling urge to reach for your phone, can you sit with that fee...