Fun Fact:

Nin Yoga is a yoga studio.

Yoga studios are businesses.

And for a business to do better and be better in this world, we need to listen to those we are trying their best to serve in the first place.

YOU.

And what better way to find out what you think of us than with the classic online feedback form?

Unfortunately, I'm not creative enough to make it sound even remotely exciting.

I can, however, promise you we will do something exciting with the information 

Anyone is welcome to fill in this form.

New, old, or current students.

We would really appreciate it and I personally promise to read every single reply. If we notice trends, we will even start to pivot accordingly.

Change is the essence of life. We need to be open to receiving feedback, for it is through gentle adjustments and shifts that we find balance and growth in this yoga studio, in this yoga practice, and...

One morning
we will wake up
and forget to build
that wall we’ve been building,
the one between us
the one we’ve been building
for years, perhaps
out of some sense
of right and boundary,
perhaps out of habit.
 
One morning
we will wake up
and let our empty hands
hang empty at our sides.
Perhaps they will rise,
as empty things
sometimes do
when blown
by the wind.
Perhaps they simply
will not remember
how to grasp, how to rage.
 
We will wake up
that morning
and we will have
misplaced all our theories
about why and how
and who did what
to whom, we will have mislaid
all our timelines
of when and plans of what
and we will not scramble
to write the plans and theories anew.
 
On that morning,
not much else
will have changed.
Whatever is blooming
will still be in bloom.
Whatever is wilting
will wilt. There will be fields
to plow and trains
to load and children
to feed and work to do.
And in every moment,
in every action, we will
feel the urge to say thank you,
we will follow the urge to bow.

- Rosemerry...

Yoga sometimes gets compared to Pilates.

And Annika we would know. We answer calls about it allllll the time asking to explain the difference (also, literally x5 reformer pilates studios opened up in the area January this year, so I am feeling the refreshed hype around it too!)

I understand the confusion. Both yoga and pilates are low-impact exercises that can be done with minimal equipment (even zero in a lot of cases) and very little, if no guidance at all (that is, if you are self disciplined enough to think of a balanced yoga or pilates class plan off the top of your head).

In 2016, I also compared the two. I was teaching aerial arts for a couple of years and noticed students were getting a whole bunch of injuries and were just, like, not really stretching or doing any recovery (that included me btw!)

I picked yoga over pilates because doing yoga involved learning about its mother land, India, and I've always been drawn...

This could get real sad like, but let's keep the actual subject matter light for this time around, friends.

It's inspired by something that really, just mattered mostly to me.

It was a mural on the corner of Queen Street and Great Western Highway in St Marys.

I knew a real estate was moving in, but for some reason naively assumed that the actual brick wall corner would still be "ours" (I say ours as I organized to get it painted there to brighten up the street, but it was also sort of our way to be like, hey "we are here, and look how fun and colorful and awesome we are and yes you should totally want to hang out with us!")

I was at said intersection and noticed painters prepping. I instantly felt my morning brown (coffee and milo, yes, I am a child, and yes, you are welcome) want to come back up.

The first three stages of what I now realize was grief happened within 20 minutes.

"They aren't prepping to paint over...

You know that feeling of discomfort in the comfort?

I put on my get shit done outfit while it was still dark out (Doc Martens and my bright orange Suk Workwear pants) and headed into the Western Sydney Conference Centre, for my first (but hopefully not last) Yoga & Wellness Festival. 

Disclaimer: I didn't organise the whole thing, gosh no way, massive collaborative effort from lots of people involved, and I was lucky enough to be co-organisers with Hayley from Embodied Breathwork who had already hosted it successfully for the first time the year before.

By 8:30am the vendors had bumped in and set up (thankful for those who showered me with kindness as I continued to realise that you can measure something 3 times and still be totally confused as why the table doesn't fit) and it was time for doors.

Now our guests rolled on in. A few hundred of them 

They breathed in deep,...

Hey There Lovely Friends,

Let's not so randomly chat about sitting with what would usually be considered less desirable emotions.

I remember many moons ago inspecting a house I had purchased a few years prior because I wanted to move back in.

• Of course, this house was purchased in 2008, when it was actually possible with six months of savings and a smile.

(finally, a reason to share this cartoon I adore ).

I saw the state of the bedroom. The whole room was FULL of beds. Literally, a queen bed, a single bed next to it and another single at the bottom placed longways.

I went straight into "Annika in her early twenties judgment mode. " How ridiculous for a family to put all the beds together in one room. You cannot physically open the door to the en suite.

I obviously didn't understand the concept of having dependants at the time.

Fast-forward over a decade, and here I am, moving another bed into the main bedroom so four humans can...

How's it hanging?

Over the weekend, I got a little bit unintentionally dramatic.

Many of the Nin Yoga teachers and I went out for dinner for Indian food (Masala Kitchen at Neapean River because we are fancy and sometimes we like gin). 

It was Saturday night, and if you had found some of us over a decade ago, we would probably have located some sort of a dance floor. Instead, we hunted down some hot chai at 8 p.m. (harder than you think) and found a solid spot to sit next to at the river.

For nine of us, that's the floor #standardyogateacherthings

After removing a massive splinter from the knee and spilling chai on my favorite skirt, we did what any gathering of yoga teachers would do.

A sharing circle.

Just speaking for myself, small talk can be tricky...

Talking about feelings, however? Bring it on.

It was simple. Share something you are grateful for from 2023 and your intention for 2024.

...

Hey hey Friends,

I sit here in the St Mary's studio reception, staring at the blinking cursor, wondering... oh gosh, what the freak am I going to write about this week?

I'll let you in on a little secret... this happens every week (also often happens before I write any class plan!)

I dwell on the subject over the weekend but seem always to be writing this thing at the last minute.

Looking around for inspiration, I start answering emails (not so inspiring), which then remind me to reply to our Google reviews.

We got a bunch last week (thank you, you know who you are!), even though I got the notification to reply immediately. I didn't.

So, I'll let you in on another little secret... I find compliments really uncomfortable.

My partner knows this too. He compliments me all the time cause he's lame and I guess cute like that, and I never know what to say back. I just look at him with a blank and awkward stare like he got some Nori stuck in...

Welcome to story telling time,

Six years ago, I put together a business plan, which was six lines long.

A few weeks back, I sought somewhere to take notes in my still-in-process conversion of the Art Studio at Penrith, which is also becoming the main Nin Yoga HQ.

When I first inspected the Penrith Studio almost three years ago, my intention was either to live there or set up my office there. Considering that the first option is technically "illegal", we purchased some Acacia Timer benchtops from Bunnings, screwed on some Ikea legs, and turned the massive room next to the yoga studio floor into an art studio slash collaborative workspace. A couple years in, I'm heavily pregnant with my 2nd, and the organized chaos needs to move back home for that WFH life.

But heck, she is one now, and enticing at-home distractions such as "What's making the floor sticky", "Why is my neighbor yelling" and "Did I spin that load? I'll just quickly do it again" will be...

Happy 3rd day of the year 

I adore the start of the new year. We can't deny it; it's epic reflection and implementation time.

In the thick of the days and months during the year, sometimes I feel like we are just dancing around in a repetitive circle, but after 365 days, it allows us to have something to measure and look back on and be like, wow, I got through that. Three hundred sixty-five days of learning and growing, moving slowly forward but never backward.

It's not for everyone, but I spent a handful of random moments reflecting on the past year at the start of this week (so if you are sick of the new year stuff, please skip ahead!)

It was initially triggered a few days earlier when my brother over Christmas asked me what my favorite moment of 2023 was.

This wasn't a serious question around the table; he just asked me randomly, probably when I was holding a very heavy baby and trying to figure out why she was yelling at me.

I...