Important inspirational quote from our 6 year old daughter, written by herself on an old typewriter Tim was gifted – she could go professional with this!
Inspiration
Month: August 2017
Volunteering at Riverslea school
Last week I have been invited to teach the the 30 children at Riverslea school some yoga and how to do a handmassage with therapeutic essential oils. It was such a touching and beautiful experience, reminding me why I am doing what I am doing. So beautiful to see the kids enjoy the smell of the oils, learn how they can nurture each-other and themselves.
So grateful that I am able to share what I know.
Thank you to Jenny for inviting me to come and thank you to the principal and teachers at the school to be open-minded to concepts like yoga and therapeutic essential oils in their school.
Crack 15th August 2017
Crack – 15th August 2017
Today I feel like I am cracking – I am not strong. I feel like sitting in the corner and crying. I try to be strong mostly, because I have to hold things together for my family, for our businesses, with my community work.
Sometimes I just want to tell people to f… off and get lost, but I can’t either because we need their money to pay our mortgage or because that’s not kind, or because you just can’t do that sort of thing – or can I? I guess there are always 2 sides to the story and most of the time the upset isn’t worth it on reflection.
Then there are the times that because of all the external crap I am also becoming a crap mother and partner, because I have this bottled up stuff inside me and the only safe place to let it out is at home or when I am by myself. I am not very often by myself, especially not when I most need it, so my family is absorbing my moods and emotions and then I feel guilty about that.
Sometimes everything is just too much and it takes only a little thing to take me over the edge. I think it’s time I created better boundaries for myself, do more dancing or perhaps tell people to f…. off.
I am teaching 3 yoga sessions today and I am feeling like I am fake. How can I teach yoga when I am so weak myself. How can I sit in front of people trying to help them feel better when I feel like sitting in the corner and crying?
A friend told me today it’s good to see that I am not always strong, that I am human. I guess that’s a lesson. I am human and today I am weak and vulnerable.
I have written this first in a word documents, pondering if I can really post officially that I want to tell people to f…. off and that I am weak and vulnerable. Can I publish this and still sit in front of my students – what are they going to think of me?
Yes I can – I can show its o.k. to feel vulnerable and talk about it. We have to invite conversation and make it o.k. to show more emotion, I don’t always have to have it together. Because of all this bottled up stuff, not being able to speak our truth for whatever reason and holding it together there is suffering. I have put on some nice essential oils and I have cried – so I already feel better.
And then I guess through the cracks comes in light in the end.
Throat relief for clients
Easy air clear drops / on guard throat drops / easy air vapour stick
Just wanted to let you know that there is a bag each and one vapour stick in the first round shelf in the studio free for everyone to use. In the last few weeks I often hear people struggling with coughs or itchy throats, so you are welcome to have a drop before you come into session to soothe your throats, clear your airways or use the vapour stick to help you with breathing. Might also help with allergy related airway problems.
Easy Air drops ingredients:
Organic evaporated cane juice, Organic brown rice syrup, Lemon, Peppermint, Cardamom, Eucalyptus, Thyme & Melissa essential oils
On Guard Throat drops ingredients:
Evaporated cane juice, brown rice syrup, Wild Orange, Clove, Cinnamon, Rosemary & Myrrh essential oils
I also have one each for sale in the studio if you would like to purchase one for home.
Or you can purchase online through heartspace.nz
Fascia & Life
As most of you know in yin yoga especially we work intensively on the fascia, one of the most prominent tissues in our body. Its a bit like a spiderweb holding our whole body together. It encases organs, muscles, its around joints, bones etc. Through the fascia go water-rich channels and most of those channels match with energy meridians that are stimulated in Acupuncture or Acupressure.
If we stimulate the Fascia in one place, it has follow on effects throughout the whole body, because the Fascia is connected throughout the body.
We need to stimulate those tissues, because if there is too little stimulation then the tissue degenerates and if we stimulate it too much (over-exercising, repetitive movements for example) then there is deterioration, so we need to find balance as to how much is a good stimulation.
When I was flying back yesterday from the course I had the thought, that we really not only have a body fascia, but also an energetic fascia that connects us all to all that is. Every decision in our life, every move has a flow on effect for us and others. If we don’t stimulate ourselves intellectually, spiritually, creatively, then there is degeneration of that area, if we are overstimulated, then there is deterioration. Sometimes we need to contact, sometimes we need to stretch and sometimes we just need to stay in neutral. It is also a fun thing to reflect how everything you do, say and even think has a flow on effect for others.
I really feel like I have stimulated and stretched not only my bodily fascia but also my energetic fascia over the last week, learning lots of new things, meeting new people, being inspired, being out of my comfort. Now I am slowly contracting again, back in my comfort to digest the information and experiences until I am ready to stretch and stimulate again.
Thank you to Yin Therapy Karin & Markus for the fabulous course and thank you to my fellow yoginis and yogis – so nice to connect with you. Thank you to my family for supporting me to go away and thank you to my students for supporting me to be able to do what I do. Grateful!
Wishing you a good week. x
#heartspace #yoga #fascia #yin #hawkesbay
OBSERVATIONS ON EMOTIONS – OPEN JOURNAL
This week was a really good week – I had time for self-reflection,time to really observe me – a lot less external distraction and I have been observing all the emotions that have come up for me.
Its obviously a real biggie for many people. There is lots of emotion bottled up, because we have been taught to just get on with it – harden up, boys don’t cry, don’t be sad, we have too much in our schedules to deal with emotions, so we just swallow them down and safe them for later – lots of us anyway, until we get sick or the bottle overflows or explodes.
So this week, I was first excited because of the teacher-training, being out of my routine,being in wellington,learning new things, escaping house duties etc..Then I was a bit tired from all the prep and the excitement,then settled in quite nicely and today I felt really emotional and low and tomorrow I am probably excited again to get big hugs and licks (dog) from my family. So emotions are pretty much constantly moving for all of us and if we don’t learn how to manage them it can be a pretty exhausting process to deal with everything that comes up. And of course I am not even going through any major life changes / events at the moment, which would magnify the situation immensely.
I think it is really interesting when we are undistracted we have to face ourselves. This week I did a lot more meditation when usually, a lot more yoga than usually (opening hips – emotional storage cupboard), a lot more contemplating, a lot more looking inside. And not everything I like when I reflect and look inside. It can be hard work facing myself, holding the mirror up and really thinking about what I do , why I do it, how I act, how often I actually react, rather than acting, watching my thoughts (I am so glad no one knows whats going on up in there!!!!).
On top of that I am showing first signs of menopause – REALLY I am not that old…. Earlier in the week my breasts felt like balloons, so much that I thought I might be pregnant, next moment they are back normal, period is a bit unpredictable – so I think the mood swings might be related to hormonal fluctuations too.
I am really fascinated by the world of emotions at the moment. The just recently published statistics of suicide rates in NZ have very deeply shocked me.Of course there is a multitude of reasons why people become suicidal, but I think one really important skill to teach our kids and ourselves is how to negotiate our emotional roller coaster, which is pretty much present some times more, sometimes less throughout our life. And it is so essential how to express them and making it o.k. to express them.
One yoga teacher I listened to described life as being on a big ocean in a boat.There is the weather that can change (external influences) and then there is the boat that you are in (might be conditioning, family history, etc). If you are in a big oceanliner, you feel the weather less and can stay quite steady, but if you are in a little sailboat and have no idea how to handle a sailboat you would be pretty much pushed around by waves. Some people are in big boats and some in smaller ones and way too many people get shipwrecked. So if we are in a sailboat we have to learn the skills to negotiate the weather with the equipment with have.
When I look back at my life I was in a dingy for quite some time being pushed around by the weather with no idea where I was heading or how to handle the boat. My boating skills where limited, I didn’t have metservice or a GPS or a skipper or any formal education as to how to handle the fricking the boat or where I was in this massive ocean. Over the years I became pretty determined to become a more skilled captain, I learned to read the weather, I upgraded my boat, I found a skipper and a couple of boats mates and a ship dog, which makes it much more merry. My boat still gets rocked, I still face the weather (at the moment its pretty sunny, but I very well know there are storms ahead and then calm again….) but I am a lot more skilled.
My hope is that we can make our children more skilled in negotiating their boats, the ocean and the way more temperamental weather patterns they may face. And my hope is that we all learn to be better captains and that includes telling the boat crew, serviceman, passing ships or the weather god what the f…. you think you think of them when necessary and how they make you feel or sinking on your knees and just weep and be sad and allow your crew to wipe your tears away and comfort you with a bit of rum and dried fish or seaweed (if you are vegetarian that is),celebrate and dance and sing when everything is bloody marvelous and taking care of the ocean of course and do boat maintenance.
I guess its celebrating life with all the good and bad,the up and down, the sad the funny, the hurt, the love, the tears the smiles,the yin, the yang. Without the opposites there wouldn’t be harmony. We need to know hurt to appreciate love, we need to know sickness to appreciate wellness, we need to know war to appreciate peace, we need to know sadness to appreciate joy etc.
And we need yin and yang movement – of course – all ties in with what I heard & leaned this week.
So please, if you feel like you can’t handle your boat or are overwhelmed by the ocean and weathers, get help, express yourself, talk to someone, but please don’t get shipwrecked. There are so many people out there who have felt the same or similar at some stage and got out the other end.
#heartspace #yoga #emotions #hawkesbay