Nadine Fawell

So, my friend Han stayed with me this week. It made me very happy. We hung out, strolled the city, and ate lots and lots of cupcakes.

I tried some new stuff, too: bubble tea (it’s AWESOME. Am now addicted), also, Japanese breakfast. Ok, that was after Han left, but I was a little trepidatious about it. It was also awesome, and yes, I think I might need to do that again.

Add to that spending a great day with the lovely Miss Hayley today: we did yoga together, she bought me chai and lunch, and then she gave me a pedicure! Heaven! A Very Good Week, all around.

The week in pictures (all images courtesy of Han Yu and badded up by me using Poladroid):

Day One: Han's first taste of Little Cupcakes

Not mine, though. Eating like an expert.

Delicious summer pasta, made by moi, and eaten al fresco

Following our pasta up with Pimms at Mme Brussels (don't you just love how my eyes are closed in almost every pic?)

Back where we started. Best cupcakes in Melbourne, if not the world

Not ALL for me, I promise. I do appreciate how Poladroid can bad photos up. In the original of this, I had a head.

*heart*

More honourable mentions on the Happy List:

• Getting stacks of magazines out of my local library. Especially Frankie. I love that mag, enough to actually buy it most months. But I haven’t yet read all the back issues
• Setting a budget and actually sticking to it. The sense of achievement is immeasurable
• Cherries+mangoes+peaches+nectarines, bought and the Victoria Market. Summer fruit, yummmm
• Spending a weekend at home. And I mean, really at home. I didn’t even go out on Saturday. I am going out tonight though
• Strutting around town in my favourite boots and hot hand-me-down jeans
• People who know the difference between ‘your’ and you’re’. They are rather rare these days. Also, ‘lose’ and ‘loose’. Seriously, one is a verb, the other an adjective. Very big difference. I am glad there are a few nerds out there who still care about these things. It makes me feel less alone
• Dating hiatus. Yes, I am on one. You know how I was dating? It Didn’t Go Well, and I got tired. So, until the New Year, there will be no dating for me. It’s kinda fun, actually, just as the dating was at the beginning. But it begins to wear, going on lots of first or second dates and always having to be groomed. When the time is right, and I feel ready, the opportunity will present. and the guy will be an apostrophe nerd, like me. This is how these things go. Until then, it’s fun being free & single
• Being the person people call when they need cheering up
• Having several people say to me this week, “I want your life’. Believe me, you don’t, but it’s great that you think I am happy enough to warrant life envy!

Summer Fun

It’s coming into Birthday Season for me – most of my friends and family have their birthdays in the three months from November to January. It’s crazy and super-festive! Except, of course, that my family are all in South Africa, I am in Australia. Ditto my oldest friends. So Item One on this week’s list is Skype. Thank goodness for Skype: I can see and talk to my loved ones. Even when they are on the other side of the world…

• Item Two: Pretty Summer Dresses. It’s so easy to get dressed in the morning when all you have to do is toss on a one item. Also, much less laundry at the end of the week. And I just feel so…pretty in a dress!
• Yoga in the park. I did my yoga in the park one night this week, in between classes. It was wonderful
• Speaking of parks, lying in the park, soaking up the sun-shade (because full sun in Australia in Summer is a bad idea, even with factor 30+ sunblock on)
• Buying a new fridge. It’s so exciting! More space for my leafy greens, since that is just about all I want to eat in this heat
• Having a lovely friend come to visit for almost a whole week – it’s a small world. I know her from yoga class in South Africa, and now she lives in Canberra. Yes, you heard right, Canberra. And she says it’s not as bad as everyone says
• Still standing. This year has seen a litany of Unfortunate Events in my life, some of them very recent, and yet I am still here, still standing, still fairly ok. For that, I thank Source, and yoga. It would have been a much harder year if it weren’t for my yoga practice
• Being able to get all my material needs met without ever setting foot in a shopping mall. High streets are so much more pleasant, gritty, human somehow
• Hot hot heat. Reminds me of home (by which I mean Africa, at this moment)
• Drinks on the rooftops of Melbourne, and the fabulousness that is Mme Brussels
• Seeing Tori Amos perform live. It was like being bathed in the voice of God, and I really felt that if I died that night, if would have been ok. I was complete. Slightly melodramatic, I know, but also true. Her music is what sees me through hard times, and in person she is even more powerful
• Getting through the first first. In this case, the first time I have spent my exes birthday apart from him in a decade. There will be many other firsts like this: the first Christmas ever spent away from family (this one coming), the first of my birthdays spent alone etc, but this was the first
• Looking forward to Fiji (just three weeks now) and my yoga Christmas party – also three weeks. Fun fun fun!
• Being a grownup. As mentioned last week, I went to the dentist. I also got my eyes tested. Great news! I can still see without glasses
• Getting an email from my dad with my horoscope for the week. Here’s what it says:

Capricorn (Dec 22 – Jan 19) Yes, you’re maxed out, but there’s method to your madness. Keeping your eye on the target will help maintain focus. By the end of the week, you’ll be returning to an (almost) normal pace. You won’t really see the results of all the hard work until next year, so be patient – and have some mindless fun.

Happy Week to all of you! May the Universe shower you with deliciousness, and perhaps a pretty dress or two xo

YOGA MASTER CLASS

Creative Vinyasa Sequencing with Nadine Fawell

When :- Sunday 29^th November from 1-5pm

Where:- Moksha Yoga Studio, Bentleigh

Cost:- $85 per person

vinyasa = to place in a special way
vini = special  nyasam = to place

For Moksha’s next Master class we will look at how we can establish a creative way of linking asana and breath in a flowing form (vinyasa krama) to keep our practice alive, vibrant and inspiring.   This workshop is suitable for existing Yoga Teachers and Teacher Trainees as a way of supporting you to keep you inspired in your teaching do deliver new and interesting ways to thread asana, breath and mudra into your class and for Yoga Students who would like to explore ways in which vinyasa can be practised at home or to refresh and deepen their existing home practice.

We will explore:-

Ø     how changing breath, rhythm, Mudra and sequencing can make the same old poses seem fresh using innovative combinations of postures

Ø     the ways in which bandha and breath can work together to support the body in your practice and understand how bandha can be used energetically

Ø     how to utilise innovative ways to work with vinyasa with freedom and confidence

Ø     how different styles of Suriya Namaskar (Sun Salutations) can be practiced in a way that invigorates  and inspires

Ø     how binding can be used in a variety of standing asana

Ø     how to use the postures you may already know in a way that brings you something new to your practice to explore and be playful with

Ø     the ways in which some news postures not commonly taught can be explored with safety and confidence

Places are limited to 10 teachers/students so that we can give our time and attention to each person and registration is essential for this workshop.  To register or find out more, please contact us on 9766-4880 or via email at info@mokshayoga.com.au and we look forward to sharing this workshop with you.

The End is the Beginning by osvaldoeaf

I went away this weekend, to Swami Saraswati’s Melbourne yoga camp with my lovely friend Anna. We had the Full Camp Experience ™: too much sugar, late late nights, un-nutritious food. It was vegetarian food, but no protein all weekend. It was great! Definitely Item One on the Happy List.

So, the rest of my happy list this week:

• Lying on my back staring up at the sky through tree leaves
• Hot weather
• Hanging out with favourite friends
• Feeling like a grown up again. By this I mean feeling that I can stand on my own two feet and take care of myself. I wasn’t feeling that way for a while there
• Hot weather
• Anticipation for the Tori Amos concert on Thursday
• Finally getting a bit of knitting done last night. First time in ages
• Looking forward to Fiji – just a few more weeks now!
• Planning a road trip to Sydney after Christmas. It will involve seeing Giant Rams. Yes, it will. But not a side trip to Canberra, because whenever I express a desire to go there, people say, ‘why?’ I am going to have to go there on my own
• Wearing dresses and not being cold
• Leaving the house without an umbrella or raincoat
• Meeting people who help me move into a different space
• Finally looking at what is going on in the back of my heart. I wouldn’t say this makes me happy, exactly, but it’s certainly cathartic. The end of one time and the beginning of another
• Seeing my kitty again after a weekend away
• The Dandenongs. Really, really beautiful
• Parroty birds, with attitude. Also really, really beautiful
• Going to the dentist. Never thought I would say this, but one of my fillings is chipped and cutting into my tongue. In a few hours, the magical hands of the dentist will have remedied that
• Eating. Which I will be able to do with much greater comfort once my tooth is fixed!
• The beach, and weather to enjoy it, all week. Yesssssss

Do you really understand what that means?

The amazing Kris sent me an email a while ago, talking about how she processed becoming a single woman again, and how, when she fully accepted that status, things just became easier for her. Now I have to tell you, I really don’t want to be single forever. It was not In The Plan.

But you know what? It might just be how things pan out. Who knows what the future holds? I just managed to feel, properly, this week, was the ok-ness of this moment. Because if I spend this moment lamenting my single-ness, I haven’t lived it in full celebration of Life, have I?

Here is the rub: on a deep level, I believe that without a lover, I am neither loved nor lovable. This clearly a ridiculous notion: I look around me and I see many many faces, the faces of those I love, and who love me. Sure, none of them are my lover, but that’s just one kind of love. There are many.

So, just as I am, I am loved. Just as you are, you are loved. No external circumstances need to change. Right now you are loved, I am loved. We are cared for, by the fact that we draw breath. We are special and perfect, because we draw breath. Like grains of sand on the ocean floor, each one necessary and perfect, each one an ineluctable part of the Whole.

What would change if we could really know this, in our bodies and hearts? I would like to be able to hold this knowledge all the time, but it slips and slithers away sometimes. That’s ok, I know where to find it.

On my yoga  mat

Walking in the sun

Behind my eyelids

In the skip of a child

It’s always there, waiting for me to wake up to it again. Waiting for you to wake up to it again.

The soham, the I Am,  that moves each one of us, beats our hearts, breathes us.

Ahhhh, the joy of these lists. I always feel so, um, happy, when I am done writing them. Gratitude and positivity really do breed more of the same.

So, here it is!

• The smell of fresh laundry. Yes, I know it’s getting a little repetitive, but then laundry is a rather repetitive task. A bit like life, really. Imagine we got grumpy about all the breaths we had to take!
• Clammy, humid, hot weather, punctuated by an afternoon thunderstorm. Reminds me of home
• Wearing dresses (and heels, of course)
• New dresses that are actually hand-me-downs or second-hand finds. The best kind of new!
• Afternoon naps
• Free Form Final Friday. How amazing that people are willing to show up, share a room with others, and do unsupervised yoga! And the dinner/party at Mecca Bah afterwards was such fun
• Planet Organic’s Detox Tea
• Chai tea with my housemates. Two of them make truly kick-ass chai. I am going to have to up my game and stop merely dunking tea bags
• New beginnings. Every day
• Disco music! Seriously, I mean disco music, Sister Sledge and the ilk
• Making up silly ‘cult’ names to call my friend, nearly splitting our sides laughing. And then getting an email from her signed off under her new name. Funniest thing of the week
• Lunches and coffees with friends
• Delicious french toast with maple syrup and strawberries
• Anticipation for a whole weekend of yoga this weekend
• And more anticipation for the  Cup Day holiday today – the whole city is in carnival mode for the entire week!
• Learning. Especially the learning I get from students who tell me about their practice, how it feels, what it is like for them to experience breathing or bandha in a certain way, whether they like to chant. Without this, I would not grow as a teacher
• Skyping with my family. They are half a world away and I still get to see them every week
• Doing the best I can. I messed up a bit this week, but you know what? It’s OK. And so am I
• Feeling rested and centred and well
• Being told, and then realising it to be true: I am in a better place than I was last week, last month, this time last year. My life is unfolding just as it should
• Tattoos. The right one, on the right person, is just H-O-T. There is something so primal about marking skin indelibly

Happy Spring Carnival, everyone! All other classes this week will run as normal.

So, I promised to post this – Teresa over at My Embodiment wrote this awesome piece for me, following an email discussion we’d had about how it’s not enough to simply know about the patterns of thinking you hold that may not be so useful, it’s not enough to work through things in your head or talk through things with a therapist. You have to get them out of your body, unwind. Then, you can begin to embody new habits, new samskaras, new patterns. Useful ones.

Yes, we will still go back to the old ones, like a stuck record playing over and over (Kerry wrote a great post about this). But here is the thing: once you start to bring new ways of being into your body, you bring them into your heart, and that, that my dears, is where the deepest intelligence lies. Not the head.

I find this to be particularly true for myself – regular readers will know this! I am a stuck record, but the tune is slowly changing. Yesssssss.

Opening to the New. Photo: Emma-Lou Griffin

So, without further ado, here is what Teresa, who is a psychotherapist, and soon-to-be yoga teacher, has to say on the topic of , um, embodiment.

I always have to remember to breathe.  It is amazing how often such a simple element of bodily functioning can be so difficult to do properly.  As a psychotherapist for trauma survivors I am constantly teaching my clients breathing and relaxation techniques but often with the frenetic pace at which I live my own life I just forget to breathe and release.  For me, that is where yoga comes into play.  It is a mind and body conversation with a focus on remembering to breathe and doing it in synchronicity with your body; it is a dance of breath and motion and it soothes my frenetic soul.  I realized from my own experience at learning to breathe through yoga the potential of this moving art to create a collaboration between mind and body, to calm and pacify, and to be truly healing.

My personal exploration of mind/body healing for self-care has grown into a professional passion for all manner of complimentary and holistic therapies for emotional trauma and overall mental health.  I believe that everything from animal assisted therapies to movement therapies to creative arts therapies has immense potential to help people heal.  These holistic treatment methods are just as the word holistic implies, treat the whole person: mind, body, emotions.   They have the ability to give a person a sense of empowerment for having created something and attunement to oneself wholly.  And gives people a chance to attend to ourselves by using self-soothing methods and creative approaches.  We, so often, forget to take care of ourselves and self-care is a vital element in every life, most especially those that had been touched by emotionally traumatic experiences.

People who have suffered trauma need to reconnect with their own self, inner landscape and outer physicality.  So often trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder leaves people detached: from their emotions, from their bodies, from their mind and memories.  Holistic treatment give back attention to self and in that a sense of wholeness that grows over time.  I think the possibilities for holistic healing and complimentary therapies is endless.  I hope more and more people, from therapists, to yoga teachers, to creative arts professionals, to medical professionals, all begin to explore this vast unending arena of resources and practice.

And if you want to know how you do your yoga so you feel the wisdom in your breath and bones, read Crescence’s advice. If you don’t have someone to sit with you and watch you breathe, it’s the next best thing.

Happy week to you all. Happy List coming, soon.