Lotus Bay Yoga at Driftwood Living is a Covid-Safe registered Indoor Recreation Facility

Lotus Bay Yoga has proactively registered as a Covid-Safe Business - Indoor Recreation Facility.

What this means for our community, is that we practice physical distancing, we practice appropriate hygiene and cleaning at Driftwood Living, we keep records of attendance, we cap our attendance numbers and we train our yoga teachers in covid-safe practices.

From the beginning of the pandemic, we have offered zoom with the Lotus Bay Yoga team, as an option for practicing yoga and meditation. We continue to offer live online, and additional ‘practice any time’ options, which we have worked hard to create, because we believe passionately that right now, we all could do with more space to access self care practices.

As many of you would have experienced, we have minimised prop use, created more than 24 hours time difference in the use of props and created hygienic practices to ensure our safe practice.

Lotus Bay Yoga at Driftwood Living is always committed to caring for our community. We will continue over the pandemic period, to make decisions - that at times, will vary the patterns of our practice offering. We will for some days or week periods, switch classes back to zoom only and at other times we’ll continue both our zoom along with live practices safely. This is because we will either be responding to NSW lock downs and additionally making sensible decisions based on our local context and the health and wellbeing of our team.

Our perspective at Lotus Bay Yoga is that we’d rather our community be safe, then to be trading at any cost, and we are extremely grateful to our partners Driftwood Living to be able to provide that flexibility, which is how we be a safe yoga practice..

We appreciate your support to our shared responsibilities in this area. We appreciate that you will not come to class if you or a close family member of yours is feeling unwell. We are also grateful that you continue to support our local business, as we strive to support your wellness.

Welcoming You Back - Saturday 13th June to 5th August

Lotus Bay Yoga welcomes you back in studio at Driftwood Living in Little Bay. We are delighted to continue to offer Zoom for each class upon request, simply make that selection upon booking.

A Message from Lotus Bay Yoga Founder - Amy Weidlich: We are sending love, light and best wishes to you and your family and all of those especially vulnerable in our community and around the world right now. We were grateful that Australians had worked together and were at a stage to reopen from Saturday 13th June in NSW. Following this, we continue to closely monitor the advice and may make a call to revert back to zoom only, if this becomes appropriate. Our in person classes will continue to observe the latest health guidelines and we recommend either bringing your own mat and props you particularly need, or purchasing a clean second hand mat with us upon arrival and of course, we are grateful that our students select the zoom option and stay at home as necessary #civicduty.

A Special Message in support of The Arts in Australia

We have a special offering to support practitioners in The ARTS in Australia - if you are in the arts and wish to practice yoga with us please get in touch amy@lotusbayyoga.com

Our Latest Lotus Bay Yoga Podcast - Creating Space and a chat with Veronica Hegedus

Lotus Bay Yoga Podcast Episode 7 - Creating Space

Click here to play on Anchor FM, Spotify or Apple Podcasts

This week The Lotus Bay Yoga Podcast is all about creating space. Amy Weidlich and Abigail Poulton, talk about what a bit of blue sky can mean for us all. We bring you an interview with Veronica Hegedus midwife, yoga teacher, mother of two grown up kids and all round soulful lady who is also our lead pregnancy yoga practice teacher with us a Lotus Bay Yoga. www.lotusbayyoga.com

Our Rumi quote of wisdom that we are discussing is: Fling me across the fabric of time and seas of space, make me nothing and from nothing - everything.  - Rumi

Veronica Hegedus, Lotus Bay Yoga’s head of pregnancy yoga practice and practicing senior midwife. 

Mother’s Day portraits with Jolanta Morgan - a little Bay Collab

This is a gorgeous gift for Mother’s Day and it’s an exciting community collaboration 🌸

• Jolanta Morgan portrait http://jolantamorgan.com

• Driftwood Living voucher

• PHD Pamper package

• Lotus Bay Yoga 2 weeks unlimited

• Piccola Baia voucher
  

http://jolantamorgan.com/current-promotion

Community is at the Heart of Everything We Share

We’re continuing to align with the very latest guidances from our guild Yoga Alliance, so an update for our LBY yogis is that since last Monday (16th March) we immediately followed our guild’s directive and stopped offering in person studio classes, this will continue until a time when that’s sensible to do so. 

As community is always at the heart of everything we do, we’ve decided to offer a few of your favourite classes to you at home via live video conference webinar. All you will need is a phone, tablet or computer and some where you can lay down for savasana.

At this stage the following classes are currently what we will explore sharing via zoom and we feel honoured to share this experimental journey with our LBY friends:

Monday Evening 7.15pm Pregnancy Meet Up, Yoga Movement, Discussion

Tuesday Evening 7.15pm Gentle Flow Yoga

Thursday Evening 7.15pm Yin Yoga

Saturday Morning 7.15pm Gentle Flow Yoga (Join our WhatsApp Group by emailing Amy on amy@lotusbayyoga.com 0425332490)

Check in regularly at our website schedule each week, as from time to time, we may need to take a class or week off at times, as our team all balance our various life commitments as people, parents and partners too. 

A huge thank you to our team Abi, Veronica, Megan and Lola who would like to give this a go and our associate teachers Robi and Karen who will be with us here, along the way too I’m sure. Our team with LBY founder Amy Weidlich are committed to holding space and offering the “soul-ace” yoga can bring in our community. We think it’s vital in times such as these, so for a time we’re doing this as a gift, because that’s who we are and the right thing to do. Down the track, we’ll look towards a small donation to return care for our teachers but we are excited to explore how it will work with you all.

So dig on the Soul Ace and shortly we’ll be sharing some other digital community connections we have and think could be useful at this time,

Best Wishes to you,

Amy Weidlich YT500+ YIN100+ Yoga Alliance Member and founder of Lotus Bay Yoga

We paused on person to person studio classes - We are here for you digitally

A Message from Lotus Bay Yoga Founder - Amy Weidlich - 16th March 2020:

In light of the latest advice from Yoga Alliance - 16th March 2020

(16th March 2020)

We’re going to offer digital/video conference classes and pause on our studio class gatherings.

We are sending so much love and care to you, your families and all of the vulnerable people in our community right now, as we all navigate COVID-19.

Lotus Bay Yoga feels that maintaining those social connections we have in our community is vital, as we need ways to shake off stress, move our body and create calm. So we will experiment with an interactive video conference class which you can do from your home.

We recommend you can buy mats online at Rebel Sports, or we are happy to lend mats to existing ten class pass holders.

To join us in our virtual class, simply sign up with your email address in our class timetable and we’ll shortly add you to our video conference - you’ll see a calendar invite and full instructions once you sign in.

At this stage, we’d like to offer this service for free for the first couple of weeks, while we experiment with the groups. We know that you will want to support our yoga teachers and so we’ll all discuss moving to a sustainable model for this, together.

EXISTING CLASS PASS HOLDERS: We’d like to invite you to hold your class pass, as they won’t expire. As soon as our guild Yoga Alliance and/or the Australian Chief Medical Officer, provides guidance and our Insurances allow, we’ll be back home at Driftwood Living. Your support in this time is much appreciated.

Our own gratitude and love for Driftwood Living in Little Bay must be said. We are so endlessly grateful to Shanny and her team and we are honestly going to count the days till we are all back together for yoga.

Driftwood Living will still be open for some time and we encourage you to shop local and support our community.

It’s never been more important to take regular breaks from reading/watching the news. It’s time to schedule in time to decompress. Try out meditation, yoga or qi gong movement with your loved ones at home. Play board games, read a good book, have a dance party in your lounge room. Go for a walk around your neighbourhood, check on a more vulnerable neighbour and perhaps be of service. Watch the trees in the wind, look out at the rain and notice when the the blue sky appears.

Further more - stay in regular digital contact with your family, your friends and know that you are not alone, we are all doing this together and at times we’ll have to coach each other to stay calm or seek help.

In our community there are little havens on Facebook such as Little Bay Mumma’s and Pappas, Little Bay Business and Community, Little Bay Residents Group and so many other groups of digital connection and support, along with Lotus Bay Yoga.

Follow us on Facebook with this link: https://www.facebook.com/LotusBayYoga/

If you or any one you are in communication with, are feeling overwhelmed and need to talk it through with trained counsellors, there is also the following services:

Lifeline Australia - 13 11 14 - Crisis Support

Kids Helpline | Phone Counselling Service | 1800 55 1800

Much Love, Amy Weidlich and Lotus Bay Yoga Team.

Summer 2020 - Yoga Highlights with Lotus Bay Yoga at Driftwood Living in Little Bay

It’s been a life changing start to this decade for most residents of NSW and Australia. We’ve had an unprecedented experience in our home state with all of us feeling connected to the result of climate change in our country - the bush fires have been extremely tragic and continue to shock most of us as each day goes on, with more smoke obscuring the sun.

It’s a long march and we’re going to have to continue supporting communities for a long time as they rebuild lives. Lotus Bay Yoga have been doing our humble bit, in early December we were one of the first to start fundraising and donating practices to the NSWRFS with our Yin Workshop lead by Robi. We’ll continue to do more - we always fundraise and give back here at Lotus Bay Yoga and in the coming weeks our little yoga community will fundraise for WIRES as we care for the wildlife too.

Upcoming workshops here at Lotus Bay Yoga at Driftwood Living include a January 2020 Yoga Challenge where yogis can track progress and start creating for your own wellbeing a yoga pattern in your life. For that we’ll support WIRES with some fundraising and we’ll be sharing the knitting pattern links as guided by the Australian Rescue Craft Guild. From Tuesday 21st January yogis can purchase knitting looms from LBY / Driftwood Living as Amy Weidlich will collect a bunch from Spotlight, as we craft to help. Take a look at their facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/arfsncrafts/

We are also looking forward in February once school is back in action, for Karen Dargan’s Yoga Skills - Summer Workshop in February, where we can come back to the basics and recalibrate our practice. Karen is really looking forwards to sharing that with you all on Wednesday 12th Feb.

As 2020 commences, we are sending you, your family and friends, our communities we are connected to across NSW and Victoria our best wishes, together we can support each other now and always, as we know that we are not alone. We must also send local friend Dee and her Yaven Creek Bush Fire Support our admiration and support. High five Dee and all the community that supported her. If you have items or support you can offer please take a look at her link on facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/helpyavencreek/

Raising Funds for the NSWRFS

A big thank you to Roberta Pantarelli who shared a beautiful yin yoga practice to raise funds for the NSW RFS.

We managed to raise $200 with gratitude to all our yogis who joined us and Amy Weidlich & the Lotus Bay Yoga team along with Shanny Nichols of Driftwood Living, in Little Bay, our home studio space nestled in the heart of the village in Sydney’s south eastern suburbs, who helped make it happen.

Yin at Lotus Bay Yoga

We made a difference today to both our qi and shared our hearts with the NSWRFS who are helping families and wildlife with the devastating #NSWfires

Meditation at Lotus Bay Yoga - October Events - Free Community Meet Ups

We are so happy to offer Sunday Morning community meditation meet ups, hosted by our friend James at Lotus Bay Yoga. Our first meet up is Sunday 6th October and then again on the 13th October. After this we’ll offer meditation all through November each Sunday morning - all for free.

It’s suitable for experienced meditators, with arrival at 6.15am to get settled and comfortable before the sit will commence at 6.30am until 7am.

September Spring Yoga Challenge

Lotus Bay Yoga is helping you get ready for the season ahead with the chance to give yourself your own “staycation yoga retreat”.

What you do is take up our unbelievable unlimited yoga deal then commit to practicing as much as you like in September.

Its our way of thanking the community who love to practice yoga with us, by giving everyone the chance to discover the benefits of different kinds of yoga.

Click here to catch your spring challenge wave!

It’s Winter in Oz - Yin Water Reflections with Lotus Bay Yoga

Welcoming the winter time is a marvellous way to regain and rest for all of the efforts and ambitions of our modern lives. 

In Australia our winter occurs mid year and in fact we are lucky really, because we do all our summer socialising across Dec/Jan, which genuinely leaves our winters for self reflection, nesting at home and hibernating, having hopefully bedded down the routines of our new year by this stage. 

In the yoga community we definitely see this as the yin of the yin/yang time of year.  

In pure yin yoga terms, it’s all about the water element, which is found in the kidney/urinary bladder systems of the body. The great water regulators of our system.  

Recently during a Northern Hemisphere winter, I was lucky enough to visit Nozawaonsen in Japan with my family. It was really great to drop into a winter moment, in a place that entirely functions around a community living within an echo system who work to regulate the water in their community.

Family Winter Experiences in Nozawa Onsen

With natural hot springs flowing through the village, the elders cook in the hot waters, maintain public bath houses, tend to a huge dam and run a traditional ski field, with families taking their kids to school by community ski chair lift. 

There is a lot of water, flowing, hot, cool, in ice form, in snow form, being dug up, being shovelled from roofs, tended to with salt on roads, cooking foods - being completely revered. 

While completely surrounded by all this water, I was able to consider some of the wisdoms if the water.

The first thing that came to me was dehydration. How the cold is drying for our bodies, but also how really while us Aussies think about hydration in the hot months, do we really across the whole year consistently hydrate enough? Some do, but for me, it’s a struggle that needs constant attention.

I was noticing how without water to cool our bodies and the spleen stories, damp rises and becomes phlegm and drags other pathogens with it around the body, to become polluted forms of water.  

So we must attend to drinking water in the winter months as a way for the body to warm up.  

Our yogis at Lotus Bay Yoga this season are all invited to go on a water challenge, by starting the day with a glass of water. We probably already know we should do this, but it’s profound to take the reminder and turn it into action.

Take a look here at Amy’s video reflecting upon water in winter:

See you in class soon with Yin Yoga on Thursdays and Sundays at Driftwood Living in Little Bay. www.lotusbayyoga.com

Inspiring Summer Holiday Ideas for January

 Watch - Wonder - when Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson and Mandy Patinkin team up in a film, take notice. The story belongs to the young people in the cast and these master actors provide beautiful scaffolding for the film about a child with a rare facial disorder who starts middle school and inspires others to seek kindness. I loved that it was heroic in simple ways. Watch this film, then look around your own world differently. 

Read - Breathe Magazine @breathmagazine_australia - a new kind of magazine. Yes we all like to catch up on Kardashians every now and then, but this read published in the Audrey Daybook stable, seems to get to the point of what matters with sections called Wellbeing, Living, Mindfulness, Creativity and Escaping, it’s an honest read that’s practical and down to earth. So rather than celebrity news that makes you feel “meh”, this magazine makes you feel alive in your own humanity.

Experience - learn to meditate - let the summer holidays be a time to practice making a date with your self. On Sundays from Jan 13th at homewares store Driftwood Living in Sydney’s Little Bay, Enrico Sgarbossa a master pizza maker, offers a meditation class at 5.15pm. Perfect if you’ve always wanted to be guided in meditation with the chance to ask afterwards, questions like “am I doing this right?!” Or - “What did making pizza teach you about meditation!”. For those who already ride the meditation wave, come along and feel the collective hum.

Sign up here  

Stay for More - Explore your qi. Right after meditation, Roberta Pantarelli and Amy Weidlich are your yin yoga guides all through summer. Our Yin program recommences 6th Jan and with class at 6.15pm you can take the Bliss Pass Deal for two classes, or drop in to Driftwood just for yin, as both Enrico’s meditation and yoga are a LBY initiative. 

Sign up for  the bliss pass here 

Whatever your new year’s resolution, it’s worth being playful and breaking the rules of it having to be a ‘new year’ only thing! At any time of the year you feel inspired to readjust your aim and seek out what makes your life meaningful, being amongst stories that nourish and inspire in the most simple of ways, is definitely worth a wander towards.  

Wishing you a happy & inspiring 2019,

Amy Weidlich & the Lotus Bay Yoga Team

LBY offers yoga class all through the week and across the weekend at Driftwood Living, a beach house styled homewares store on the roundabout in Little Bay. Catch our website www.lotusbayyoga.com to sign up or explore more with info about our prenatal classes, vinyasa flow, yin yoga and workshops.

About Amy Weidlich

Amy is the founding yoga teacher of Lotus Bay Yoga. She lives in Little Bay with her husband Oli, son Max and loves to be at the beach. @amyariel @lotusbayyoga @littlebaymummas

Bali Retreat with Jo

One of our team is hosting a yoga retreat in Bali. 

That’s Salamat Yes! 

Pink Ribbon Fundraiser at Driftwood Living Sunday 28th October 2018

Little Bay local Mum Shana Dawson has invited Lotus Bay Yoga’s Amy Weidlich and Driftwood Living Shanny Nichols to support the Pink Ribbon Fundraiser Morning Tea and you’re all invited!

EVENT: Little Bay Mummas Pink Ribbon Fundraiser

WHEN: 8.30am Sunday 28th October 2018

WHERE: Lotus Bay Yoga at Driftwood Living 1403 Anzac Pde Little Bay 2036

HOW TO BOOK IN: CLICK HERE

Shana Dawson is motivated entirely by friendship to raise funds for breast cancer in her own home community, after witnessing the inspiring journeys of five of her dear friends interstate.

Shana says:

Just briefly, I wanted to explain the motivation behind the choice of this charity and event. Very simply put, the answer is – 5 friends, all under 35, all healthy with young families, all diagnosed with breast cancer in the last 18 months. The daily struggle I have seen from these ladies is undeniably heartbreaking, however, it has not been the struggle that stands out, it is their strength, their positive attitude and their motivation to kick cancer in the butt that has been unbelievably inspirational. So when it comes to being there to help my friends, this is the least I can do and I know many other wonderful people who feel the same way!

We chose to start the event with Yoga due to an increasing body of research showing that yoga can help prevent cancer, and help cancer patients and survivors manage risk and side effects after treatment.

Yoga brings balance and alignment to all body parts and systems: muscles, bones, organs, and the mind. It’s a holistic path to wellness that focuses on interconnection.

Here are 5 reasons yoga is being used for cancer prevention and recovery:

• Yoga Strengthens the Immune System

• Yoga Detoxifies the Body

• Yoga Builds Bones

• Yoga Reduces Stress

• Yoga Aids Weight Management

The benefits of yoga for cancer prevention are profound and I am thrilled to have Yoga Instructor Amy Weidlich from Lotus Bay Yoga, agree to hold the session for us in the beautiful environment of Driftwood Living!

- Shana Dawson, Little Bay Mummas Pink Ribbon Fundraiser Event Organiser

“I think what motivates Shana Dawson to bring our community together for Pink Ribbon is definitely at the heart of what I hold dear in my life. Friendship, connection and being there for people means a lot to me and my family,” says Amy Weidlich from Lotus Bay Yoga.

“Breast cancer has unfortunately touched the lives of so many people I care about. I was very moved and inspired by the tenacity of family members and friends I have, who are also survivors. So Shana’s work to raise funds for Pink Ribbon is a wonderful way of celebrating this.”

Lotus Bay Yoga's Long Weekend at Home in Little Bay

Hello Staycationers! Happy October Long Weekend in Little Bay :-)

We have two beautiful offerings for you over the weekend.

On Saturday morning we have Vinyasa Lotus Flow with Amy Weidlich at 7.45am.

Sign ups here: SATURDAY 7.45am at Driftwood Living LOTUS FLOW WITH AMY

On Sunday evening we have relaxing Yin with Robi Pantarelli at 6.15pm.

Sign ups here: SUNDAY 6.15pm at Driftwood Living YIN WITH ROBI

Our Monday classes will be back the week after, so join us on the 8th October for Parents & Bubs Yoga at 9.15am and Pre Natal Yoga at 7.15pm.

Lotus Flow with Amy Weidlich with Lotus Bay Yoga at Driftwood Living 7.45am Saturdays

Sunday Evening Sunset Yin 6.15pm with Roberta Pantarelli at Driftwood Living with Lotus Bay Yoga.

Talking about Parents & Bubs Yoga with Bjorg-Ida & Amy from LBY

Lotus Bay Yoga's Parents and Bubs Yoga teacher Bjorg-Ida Hoyem chats with LBY Founding YT Amy Weidlich about how important a yoga practice can be for all parents but especially for parents with the littlest ones.

Catch Bjorg-Ida at Lotus Bay Yoga at Driftwood Living for Parents and Bubs on Mondays at 9.15am.

Click here for more info or to sign up:

SIGN UP LINK

Diary of a Yinning Mum - The Importance of Water in Winter

Rejuvenate your Kidney Jing this winter, by firstly honouring the element of the season - Water. Lotus Bay Yoga's Founding Yoga Teacher Amy Weidlich writes here about how important the element of water is in winter.

Be with the water, drink the water, charge up the kidney Jing with restful practices and relaxation. 

I had the delightful experience of teaching a yin practice to a beautiful couple at lunch time yesterday. They are parents in flow with two amazing daughters and had gifted yoga to each other for their anniversary. I’ve been working with them for a couple of weeks and for this particular practice we were reaching into our Yin side to explore compassion. Hopefully a more still practice was able to offer some of the deep rest they needed to keep on. It was a kidney urinary bladder Meridien practice which was ideal for these two and probably for all of us at this time of year- for so many reasons.

Firstly, it is a compassionate act to work in a Yin way, at 60 to 70% effort. In winter, we can hold off on the overachieving spirit and trust the momentum gathered in Summer and Autumn can carry you through the winter. This winter time is perfect, it demands that we be where we are and allowing for a season of rest and recharge, deeply. 

There’s lots of different choices we make with all our energy but considering the mother influence of Jing formed in the kidneys, is a wonderful reminder to be with the idea of ‘rest’, so natural to this season. 

The kidneys act like a well-spring for our foundation energy known in TCM as Jing. Our prenatal Jing, the energy or life force we are born with, lives in the right kidney. It’s the energy our parents gave us and often relates to the energy our mothers experienced during their pregnancies with us. 

This jing lives is like our energetic pre-disposition, in the Taoist tradition they also believe it defines the anticipated length of our life. The second category of jing is our post-natal jing. This can be found in spleen qi (via food) and lung qi (via air or prana). I think of it being like our foundation nutrition. Winter is definitely a season where we are drawn to eating hearty stews and soups, so keep on with earthed water food.

Now circling back from our spleen and lungs to our kidneys, we also have kidney specific jing found in the left kidney. Kidney jing is the dynamic mixing of the pre and post natal jing, which happens in our kidneys and it’s from this, that our qi grows out of and animates us. This jing energy is like this mother energy that like tapping an aquifer, or the well spring, that our qi or animating energy grows out of.

At Lotus Bay Yoga in Little Bay we’ll be honouring the water element all throughout the winter season, with our Happiness Meditations running through classes June and July- then in August, Amy Weidlich is going to take us on Surfs Up Trip through the history of surfing in Australia, on the yoga mat. Woohoo!  

Drink water, be the water x  

namaste, 

Amy Weidlich

Escaping to the water works too, if you can’t catch a winter break, take one in Little Bay at Lotus Bay Yoga, in August as Amy Weidlich is takes us on a trip through our surfing roots at the yoga mat becomes the surfboard and anything is possible!

Diary of a Yinning Mum Part 2 - Deer Pose

Good morning Yogis. It's Tuesday Yinning time at Lotus Bay Yoga, so this morning I’m sharing a how to do a Yin Yoga styled Deer Pose. 

When I teach yin I often say that the Deer is a friend of the Pigeon - from our more yang yoga practice, though the Deer has lots more Bambi than the stags with big horns.

What I love about Deer Pose is that it's subtle energy is a gentler hip opening pose, then cousin poses Swan/Sleeping Swan. 

Seated on the ground our front foot is curled forward but in Yin, to protect the knee we bring our folded leg’s hip, to the floor. 

The back leg is curled around at the knee, comfortably. Then allow both feet to be soft and unflexed.

We are achieving a mild hip compression here, with the femurs variously rotated in the hip socket,  (external rotation of the femur for the front hip) and (external formation of the femur for the back hip). 

Curl the legs and relax the feet like Bambi taking a warm and 'comfortable seat' in the meadow.

Then orientate the body over the front leg, and come forward either to a bolster, or to the ground. 

With our yin practice we trust that we have put our body into a shape that activates the meridians and crucially we relax our muscles to allow the fascia to open. We are working into the Liver, stomach and spleen channels with this one and there is a sense of rest and digest in it's curled leg approach.

This pose can be held for 5 to 8 mins. Then switch sides.

Amy Weidlich @amyariel is the founder of Lotus Bay Yoga @lotusbayyoga at Driftwood Living @driftwoodliving in the heart of Little Bay’s Village in Sydney’s Eastern Surburbs. Join us for yin infused practices all through the week and a purely yin class on Tuesday mornings at 9.15am.

Amy gratefully acknowledges her own yin teacher Karen Milton and her teachers teacher Melanie McLaughlin. 

namaste  

Diary of a Yinning Mum Part 1 - Yin: Where have you been all my life? By Amy Weidlich YT Lotus Bay Yoga

Yin, where have you been all my life? 

That’s what I felt when I first practiced Yin.  

I was returning to the mat after my three year old settled at his new daycare and I was able to take some precious moments to rest for my self.

At the time, that sentence “rest, for my self” felt like some kind of rebellion. I find motherhood to be so physical. The birth recovery and carrying Bub, the 24/7 timetable, the emotional awakening is so big. Amazing and big. There is a lot of flow in the act of motherhood for me, where I lay my plans aside to take up the opportunity of going with the flow on every level.  

So, when I received the stillness of my first few Yin Yoga practices, I was shocked at the cellular rebuild and recovery of my energy and vitality.  

After class, I felt gently healed and held. I returned more joyful and it came from acknowledging just how much rest I truly needed. But I don’t have two weeks to lay under a palm tree, I have only a few minutes, perhaps an hour and realising that a small yin yoga practice unlocks the equivalent of hours of doona time was absolutely a revolution in my life.

Join us on Tuesday mornings at 9.15am for a purely Yin Yoga Practice at Lotus Bay Yoga 1403 Anzac Pde Little Bay, at Driftwood Living Homewares store, on the roundabout in the heart of Little Bay. Jump over to the website to check our timetable or to pre-book class, dropins on the day are welcome  www.lotusbayyoga.com

For those of you wanting a beautiful first yin pose you can do at home - allow me to introduce Butterfly.

Butterfly 

Sitting on the floor, take the soles of the feet together and move them outwards in front of you, with the pinky sides of the feet resting on the floor. It makes a diamond shape with the legs. 

Then allow your upper body to fold forward. It doesn’t matter how far forward you go.

Now, totally relax all of your muscles. 

From here we just be and find a stillness in the pose.  Remembering to explore it at around 60% to 70% effort, as we're going to aim to hold Butterfly for longer then normal yoga poses. You might like to set a timer for 5 mins, or just hold it for as long as it feels good.

This is a beautiful pose for the reproductive systems, it gets into the Liver and Kidney/ Urinary Bladder meridians. The subtle energy of the heart can be felt along the back body as the thoracic fascia releases. The front body feeling of the heart centre is towards the earth in an inward gesture of self care and healing. 

Butterfly Bub - Max loves to curl up like a cat when I do this pose in the lounge room. I like it because at first, it's the natural sitting on the floor playing with toys pose but then when they get immersed in what they are doing, you can fold forward and let the neck relax to find it's natural curve  with the crown of the head effortlessly extending energetically (not actually) beyond the feet. It's like everyone wants a piece of this peace when you get here, so with Max it's always lovely to share when he climbs into my lap unexpectedly.

In a yin style Butterfly, soles of the feet are towards each other, but we're not worried about them being too connected. The important part is allowing the knees to 'butterfly' open and feel the stretch along the abductors in the legs and the thoraco lumbar fascia softening along the back.

Take it easy or possibly avoid this pose if you are suffering sciatica, definitely avoid forward folds if you have herniated discs. 

In Butterfly, feet are towards each other, but we are wishing to be muscularly soft in yin, so don't use the muscles of the legs to keep the feet together, put your body in this butterfly/diamond shape then relax, allow even the soles of the feet to fall open and allow the fascia of the body to access the stretch. 

In Butterfly, feet are towards each other, but we are wishing to be muscularly soft in yin, so don't use the muscles of the legs to keep the feet together, put your body in this butterfly/diamond shape then relax, allow even the soles of the feet to fall open and let the fascia of the body access the stretch. Trusting that you are doing more than enough by bringing a sense of presence into the pose itself. Feel free to experiment with how far forward the feet are from the body, while still making the diamond shape and feeling into the sitting bones on the earth. A blanket under the seat can be nice, and so can a block or bolster to support the head and third eye when you come forward assist the feeling of letting go and bringing a sense of grounded quiet to the mind.

Then gently come out of the pose and walk your hands back allowing the torso to return upright, before laying back out into savasana and feel the rebound of the pose, the energy moving through the body. This Savasana rebound moment is just as important as the Butterfly.

On Tuesday mornings at 9.15am we offer a 1 hour purely Yin Yoga practice at Lotus Bay Yoga, 1403 Anzac Pde Little Bay, at Driftwood Living homewares store - on the roundabout in the heart of Little Bay village. Jump over to the website to check our timetable or to pre-book class, drop ins (drop in to go deep) are welcome too www.lotusbayyoga.com

Namaste, Amy Weidlich

Founder Lotus Bay Yoga

I am grateful to my yin teacher Karen Milton for her extraordinary way of holding the space and reigniting my love of yoga. 

Arise Sacred Feminine - The Original Impossible Princess - Kylie Minogue is 50!

What a moment this May has been. An Impossible Princess walked herself down the aisle to an audience of billions, re-inspiring and re-writing the rule book. Let it be noted that Meghan Markle is a card carrying yogini no less. Now, if celebrity is a ridiculous thing anyway and monarchies are in 'stay relevant or die' mode, then how fantastic that two crazy kids with a penchant for rebelliousness be given the keys to the kingdom (a platform) to do some good in the world? It's surely more credible then other enfant terribles who apply for trademarks on the name Kylie, without realising that there's been a Kylie before her and a Kylie who is still very much a here and now, thank you very much. Hello echo chamber.

So here's another May 2018 fact... Kylie Minogue celebrated her 50th birthday party this month, according to the copy of Vogue I was reading at my local (cafe, not pub) Piccola Baia, taking a stolen moment in the sun. Far out. How did Kylie arrive at 50?  

A curious bit of trivia that's always stuck in my head /  'Can't Get you Out of My Head' / was that Kylie Minogue had scheduled the release of her landmark album Impossible Princess for mid year of 1997, but held off it's release following the tragic death of Princess Diana in August that same year. All of the artwork, everything was done. What an extraordinary hand of timing that is, to think she could well have been out in the world with that comment like prophecy. In any case from an artful perspective, what followed is a significant bit of cultural pathos anyway. Allow me to, explore...

In 1997 I was writing the national news section of the morning bulletins, for a radio station in my home town of Newcastle (Australia), when Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed had that fatal car accident. So for weeks I wrote and re-wrote the script that tried to make sense of the story, in a sort of haiku 2DayFM commercial radio style. I’m not judging that. I actually really liked the opportunity to catch people where they are, listening to music driving around, delivering snippets of news during their morning commutes.

I remember at the time, a cultural murmur about how little girls could no longer dream of being princesses. That the world's heart break over the loss of Princess Diana was actual, mythical and existential. Watching recent documentaries about the expectations on William and Harry to walk through the streets at their mother’s funeral, actually turn impressions of the Queen on the head. Back then she was seen as distant and disconnected, but now I get her point that she had wanted to protect the children and had wanted to allow a space for their grief. 

Reporting on those times, back then was the beginning of this curious media practitioners phenomenon, of how when you write and re-write and re-work news bulletins from 4am to 9am every day, or monitor breaking news for broadcasters (it comes to mind tears streaming down my face at work, watching the rescue of office workers in the immediate aftermath of the Auckland earthquake)... or simply to, again and again make sense of stories, that those stories become 'nearly' lived experiences.  

I say "nearly lived experiences", to qualify a gap here. It's the way in which some stories even at an apparent distance to our immediate reality are so deeply effecting that we do actually have an experience of the event. Like outward moving ripples on the surface of water, or the question of who's caring for the carer? There are moments when a society shifts culturally. When stories touch our hearts and inspire total strangers to start spontaneously talking and sharing those feelings en masse. In those times, it's actually happening to the observers in these refractive ways, simultaneous to those of you heartbreakingly at ground zero, different but nonetheless effecting. Bless. We are experiencing loss too. Or, we are also experiencing joy. Some moments like Cathy Freeman lighting the flame at the Sydney 2000 Olympics or a couple much like any other - getting married can fill us all with joy.

In yoga or mindful meditation we talk about the role of the witness and the witness perspective, which is supposed to give us an objective, strategic emotional distance from a trip the mind is taking. But in literal proximity as humans, we can bare witness to the life events of others and it deeply touches us. 

For me, this truth, is the promise of the sacred feminine - relatedness. 

Described nicely in We: Understanding the Psychology of Romantic Love by Robert A Johnson, who suggests:

“The feminine, whether in a woman or a man, will usually drop her grudges, and forget the wounds of the past if she is offered genuine relatedness and affection in the present. This is one of the most noble and beautiful instincts in woman, one of the ways that she serves and transforms life. Relatedness is her first principle, the dominant theme of her nature, that for which more than all else, she lives.
So it is with Iseult. When Tristran.... ”

— We: Understanding the Psychology of Romantic Love by Robert A Johnson.

I direct you specifically to 'relatedness' as a terrific summary of what the creator of life, the Shakti, sacred feminine goddess of the Indian tradition, points towards. The interconnected nature of existence, that we are all effected, related and interdependent.

Hence the need for meditation, to systematically unpick ourselves from it all, in order to step back and identify which parts of existence must I really trouble my soul with? What mysteries should I be seeking to unlock and ultimately put down? What do I let go of? Then what am I ready to pick back up, but with a shift in perspective. What is the process for moving through the souls journey to enlightenment, ideally before I've got to race off to pick the kids up from sport and get dinner on!

Back to Kylie / "Step Back in Time" / that's the thing about pop culture and pop music. These little golden 'memes' shared, broadcast (instead of the news), downloaded - contain, the potential for relatedness. In a dissociative / reference to Paul Mac and Daniel Johns / world, pop music returns poetry and allows the soul to speak. And, a lot of people get it, for themselves in rather personal ways at any distance from the specific events that inspired the music. 

This idea is written into smash hit musical Jersey Boys when Frankie Valli makes the comment in one of his reflective soliloquys - everyone loved the beetles, the rolling stones, but our music - our music was the stuff you fell in love to. It was the music real people, your mechanic, the local shop keeper, the average person was humming to.

So a few years ago when Kylie donned the unforgettable golden hot pants then smashed out 5 of the most terrific pop music defining albums (ever?) written, to still understated but steady critical acclaim. More importantly the result was epic fandom bliss even if just for the people truly listening / "Some kind of bliss" /  (thank you very much, yes she did Janet, Madonna, Sia, Justin, Katy, Avalanches et al) we see that Kylie was finally moving beyond the haunting reviews of those asshole critics of the early Stock House and Waterman days, whose ghosts would chase her creatively for years to come and I'd wager still perhaps do now. 

For aren't we all formed by what we've lived? And isn't that worth singing about?

“Makes me that much stronger
Makes me work a little bit harder
It makes me that much wiser
So thanks for making me a fighter
Made me learn a little bit faster
Made my skin a little bit thicker
Makes me that much smarter
So thanks for making me a fighter”

— Christina Aguilera

But before all of that arrival at state sanctioned coolness (when the critics finally graduate from their Communications degrees with a sense of genre theory), Kylie put out an album called Impossible Princess and I was 20 and I was listening. It was moody, soulful, artful, connected, raw and fragile. It revealed too much, it was punchy but paired back and just like the way she performed it in concert. The showgirl wore black with a sleek ponytail, insisting upon singing everything live - and for those irrelevant dicks who were awaiting the next opportunity to froth at the mouth since SH&W left the building, it confused people...

My take on it is, that back then in pop culture, upon the cusp of a pre 9/11 shift, we were still asking artists to say something authentic and real and put their face and name on it. Before Sia and Lady Gaga could hide behind pop performance art (and good on them, that's cool too), this confusing album was wedged in a moment, post nirvana, when it was ok to be sad and lost. Well, so was Kylie. But truthfully I didn't read it as sad, I just read it as soulfully seeking her / "Some Kind of Bliss" /.

It was just simply in the music. Here is a women charting her course, here is a woman seeking... Here's the lyrics on the final track on the album / Dreams (Impossible Princess) / 

“To have every man but to love only one
To wake with the moon and sleep with the sun
To be a sinner, a saint, a lover, a friend
To know a beginning but never and end
To fly in the ocean and swim in the skies
Believer in truth, defendant of lies
To know the purest love, the deepest pain
To be lost and found again, and again, and again
These are the dreams of an Impossible Princess

To know the power of wealth and poverty
To taste every moment and try everything
To be hailed a hero, branded a fool
Believe in the sacred and break every rule
To give into pleasure with no boundaries
Living in chaos and harmony
To feel the touch of a man, a woman’s caress
To know the limit of torture and tenderness
These are the dreams of an Impossible Princess

It’s a way of dealing with all the feeling keep believing in dreams””

— Kylie Minogue - Dreams (Impossible Princess)

The braveness it takes, to share that voice, in the midst of a post grunge, Aussie pub rock halcyon daze, well - seriously. And credit where credit's due, we have the kids from Seattle to thank for some of this. 

For a girl growing up on the beach in a Steel City (Newcastle), as it was known (back when Australian cities had identities based on the dominant work of the men in it) - I was really moved by that album (clearly). I felt like for those times in my life when I was deeply searching for something beyond the suburb, I realised, that out there in the world, others were too. The search for the sacred feminine for me, had commenced. I was just beginning to understand that it even had a name! 

And if you wonder what people connect to Princess Diana about, it was exactly our sense of her humanity, both her empathy and her own crazy search for meaning and connection. A kind of embodiment of being heart led. She made her life and her power meaningful, just like the manifesto/love pact of Harry and Meghan promises to do. 

So, Kylie expressed that album and after that, she kind of honed her craft and did what people do, they get better at the work. I stayed with her during those albums, I think because she was distilling ideas identified earlier in her work but making them slick, palatable and danceable. Hurrah. / "The Disco Needs You" /. 

Somewhere along the way pop music got cool, wanting to dance it out, got cool again and instead of Kylie, Madonna and Janet being lone voices, the next decade saw the rise and fall of the midriff with Brittany, Christina, Destiny's Child, before the leotard and wrecking balls sent everyone back to a girlie kiss with Madonna on stage at the MTV awards. Yes, we'd seen it all before but guess what, newly empowered women were shouting out about it and popular was actually admired under the gaze of 'young, rich and powerful'. It's worth saying that all of this being still about 5 years away from Me To, so please don't hail the rise of sex and honesty with women as this thing that's old hat, nor even fully formed yet. 

Cultural critics like Helen Razor still get panned and I shudder to think about the dystopical promise of The Handmaid's Tale.

So either Australia lost some part of it's national identity when the masculine tall poppy syndrome gave way to the American idea of unapologetic power, or it's potency just got waters down, I'm not sure. For now though, I'm not writing the president's name here but importantly - do you know how many followers Kylie Jenner has on instagram? I don't know, I heard she left it to start her own platform. In the same climate that UEFA is more powerful than the majority of nations, heaven please... arise Sacred Feminine as we need you. So thank God for the music. In a world of crazy we'll perhaps just have to sooth ourselves with Kylie's most recent offering:

“When I go out, I wanna go out dancing”

— Kylie Minogue

Kylie may not be known for her philanthropy or charity work, like Meghan or Diana but she is a consistent and prolific artist (pretty busy surviving breast cancer and touring and creating more music) who is waving the flag for the Sacred Feminine and so is Kylie Jenner. She is a proud lover too and this famous for the art or famous for being a lover is certainly exciting for all young women and others further along their way exploring their ‘own’ adventures.

So happy happy birthday Kylie Minogue. You've been brave, you've been shiny and you continue to be. 

Love Amy Weidlich @amyariel @lotusbayyoga #happybirthdaykylieminogue #lotusbayyoga

This month at Lotus Bay Yoga in Little Bay we've really been catching the confidence to be our authentic selves and for me Elizabeth Gilbert and Kylie Minogue are contemporary trail blazers sharing their path.