November 2021

Yoga….life...everything, is beginning again.

It is so good to be back!

This month in yoga we are going to “Keep it Simple & Take it Easy”

It’s been a while since we practiced.

This is maybe something that has been forced into our lives in the last months with our loss of freedom.

I feel so much more settled, calm and content and part of me is reluctant to return to all my commitments and busyness.

I now know that I can live and be happy with a much simpler life and can let things go that I thought were so important.

I do need to stop the internet shopping though...it’s too easy with pay pal!

Our yoga classes this month.

We’ll ease back in with some classical, simple yoga asana.

I've been creating some beautiful 10 minute flow routines with new Sacred Earth CDs. We’ll settle into some deep yin or restorative positions and relieve all the tension, the fear & anxiety which has built up over the last months

….. and all the while we will focus on our breath flowing and free.

Sharing The Wisdom

I attended my first online yoga retreat in October. I found an invitation in my Emails to join the Navaratri Retreat run by Rocklyn Ashram

I must admit that I wasn’t expecting there to be so much chanting, in fact it was almost all chanting and quite difficult but I allowed myself to be open to the experience.

We focused on the teachings of 3 goddesses, which sounds mystical, but they are also very practical teachings.

Lesson 1- Be tidy, throw away your rubbish and this will help clear your mind.

Lesson 2 - Now start to create beauty around you. Your home, garden, office.

Lesson 3 - Now you have created something beautiful you get to live in it and enjoy it

The 3 goddesses were Durga, Lakshmi & Saraswati and we spent 3 days focusing on each of them

They are the teachings of the 3 Guna an important part of yoga philosophy.

1/ Durga is Tamas unknown words maybe but not unknown qualities.

She teaches us to release the rubbish of life, the negative stuff, the lazy things that we know are not good for us, but everyone else does it too, so it’s all ok isn’t it?

To start to clear out your mind. You start to clear out your house or room or space of the things that are no longer needed.

2/ Lakshmi is Rajastic -the second goddess of wealth, fortune, power, beauty and prosperity. Now your room is clear and fresh it is time to make it beautiful. Be careful you know the difference between abundance and material possessions. This is a huge lesson in life.

Start to make changes, bring in the flowers, nourishing food, start creating.

Don’t slip back into laziness. Why miss the best time of day, why miss the sun rise?

Why sit with lights on late at night and watch a false, artificial and often “dark” world on a screen?

3/The last goddess is Saraswati representing sattva. Light, love & “real” life.

Once you have Created the environment you want to live in and Surrounded yourself with beauty you experience more lightness, love, peace and contentment.

Here is a story from the retreat.

“There once was a man who spent years growing a beautiful garden. He invited a priest to come and visit his garden. The priest exclaimed “What a Beautiful garden god has created for you”

The man replied “No, I have planted this garden, I have worked hard and it has taken me many years. I have made it beautiful so god will come to me”

Perhaps God is beauty. Create a garden of your mind also. Fill it with lovely things.

I have a beautiful garden I planted my first lemon tree 20 years ago. I have tended and planted and slowly it has grown into something special and unique. It changes with the seasons, it has a life of it’s own. I am a small part of it and I stopped trying to control it years ago. There’s a water dragon living by the pool, birds in the mulberries, shade and sun. Flowers to fill my vases, the bitterest veggies...unfortunately and all kinds of insects.

It’s a haven, a sanctuary, a retreat. Not just for me, for my family, my friends for the animals and insects that struggle to survive in suburbia. It makes me feel content and happy when I step into it.

I am still working on the garden of my mind….

Keep on learning, keep on enriching your life.

Namaste Julie