Howdy everyone 👋 Happy last week of November! Happy Sagittarius Season!

Welcome to all new comers and first time Yin class go-ers. I write once a month to loop you in on what’s happening in the yiniverse ~

How have you fared in this recent cosmic weather?

I’ve been feeling pretty solid & steady mostly. Maybe a bit stuck though. I have a handful of projects I’m trying to birth, plus dozens of useful things I am eager to share with you. However, to avoid a dizzy mess, I’ve culled back to just 8 things.

These newsletters are also a nice place to share personal musings and/or anything you are experiencing in your mind-body-spirit. We never know what might be helpful to someone else or light a spark. Feel free also to drop me a comment or question at the end.

Here we go – this month’s Yiniverse happenings:

#1 – Mondays in Willy

Just as 9:30am sessions @ The Healing Garden (THG) finally picked up, they have wrapped up!! 😂 😭 It’s such a shame as I have loved beginning my week with you all.

To all the Monday yinsters: can you please text/email or comment below – what other mornings work for you going into the new year? Options are Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. For now, I’ll add 9:30am on Fridays starting next week.

For anyone needing Monday TLC – Claudia Korepta-Sienko has joined The Healing Garden! Claudia is a channelled writer, energy healer and yoga teacher and will be offering 1:1 healings and channelled writing readings. You can find out more here.

#2 – Altona Meadows

When one door closes, another opens. The most kismet thing happened.. when I announced the end of Monday classes – an opportunity popped up out of thin air a little over an hour later!

I’ll be joining the wonderful Care Team at Altona Meadows Osteopathy & Healthcare Clinic, providing group Yin Yoga Classes. Would love you to join me for a 75 min Yin & Pin (acupuncture) experience alongside Dr Jodie Ellen McEwan – a Traditional Chinese Medicine Doctor and Acupuncturist.

Sessions are an introductory $30 – 60 minutes of restorative Yin with acupuncture during an extended 15-20 minute savasana (deep rest in ‘corspe pose’).

Available every Monday @ 9:30 am until December 22. Bookings are open ~ click on the “Group Sessions” tab to find Yin & Pin. Classes are capped at 10 participants. Come along! 🤗

Our first session was fully booked – so get in and reserve your spot before the year’s out ✨

#3 – the return of religion

Without the dogma. Revised, renewed, refined, revamped, and rejuvenated – to suit the self. Do you feel it too?

I have been feeling this deeply all year. Maybe I am yearning a return of sacred/sacredness and holy/holiness. I have consciously slowed down even more as the year tapers off. Embracing Wood Snake energetics – this year’s Chinese Zodiac.

Slowing right down has allowed me to experience everything in so much detail – making my days feel precious. Taking my time… I can’t help but see the divine/source/universe/god in everything.

When we acknowledge that the teachings of Yoga are over 4000 years old, it’s an appreciation of all the iterations and manifested versions that have appeared at times they were needed… Hot Yoga (formerly Bikram), Vinyasa, Hatha, Iyengar, Ashtanga, Kundalini, Acroyoga, Yogalates and on and on… my favourite Yin Yoga, spawned only in the last 45-50 years or so.

Yin Yoga is growing in popularity just in time for these next generations. Our bodies are begging us (via digestive issues, anxiety, disease, chronic pain, chronic stress, chronic fatigue etcetera) to slow down and answer the call. To come back to ourselves in a world that increasingly pulls our attention and energy away from self.

Even Puppy Yoga is in abundant supply – which personally I would never!! I suppose I shouldn’t knock it until I have tried it at least once. (You can even try it @ The Healing Garden!)

I feel similarly for classic(?) religion – Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddism, Hinduism, Sikhism…. all making a come-back but in a Gen-Z way. Any Gen-Zs reading this who can comment?

I always go back to the attitude of – if it works for you then it’s just right. What is working for me is borrowing and blending Religions. Borrowing sentiment, borrowing ritual and borrowing language. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. Is that sacrilegious?

I also cannot help but feel it in my heart space that you are holy! I look at each of you in class and that’s what I feel. I need know nothing about you. Your mere existence makes you holy to me.

>> Let’s explore the occult next month – the current zeitgeist

#4 – the return of ritual

An extension of the religion/occult thing. I have many rituals, here are a few on high rotation:

✨ Writing everyday even when there is nothing to write about. Putting pen to paper. Creating a channel for something interesting to travel through me.

🕯️ Living by candlelight (strictly beeswax!) after sunset makes for the most soothing evenings. Nothing like bathing or reading by candlelight… instant peace.

🙏 Saying grace to myself before eating anything. Giving gratitude to food makes it taste sooooo good. How can you not be satiated when you clock the whole ordeal! Perfect temperatures for a seed to germinate, enough sunshine, water, happy soils and then the many miles and hands it passed to get to you. I will often eat alone in complete silence (no phone or book) and it adds to the nourishing quality. Not all of us digest best this way though – check your Human Design 😉

🙇🏻‍♀️ Here is a poetically simple meditation talk I love from the heavenly Thich Nhat Hanh about honouring our food.

🌸 Setting up for class ~ honouring the space, lighting incense, candles, arranging flowers I’ve cut from my garden and making tea.

I have been loving rituals because of their repetitive nature. They are habit building things. Filling your day with so many moments you enjoy, drown out the things that you don’t. Nothing else to it.

What are your rituals?

#5 – Buckwheat HULL Pillows!!

Nothing new, but it case you haven’t heard of them. Give them a go 🤗

#6 – Nature’s bottomless pockets

Mother Nature reminds us scarcity is human made 😂 A lot of lack mindset & NPC behaviour. Abundance is everywhere if you stop to notice. If you’re a gardener, you will know this truth in your bones!

I love getting free lemons on my walks when people share their excess. I’ve been doing the same with rosemary from my garden! The box is empty by the end of the day.

If you’ve got something extra, take the time to share it! It’s a wonderful feeling to give and receive in this way 🥰

#7 – Yumi Sakugawa

All hail Yumi! An artist from California who just pumps out bangers. Explore her Instagram if you need a little wind under your wings. I think her work can be so nicely applied to Yin Yoga…

#8 – The Joanne Avison Podcast

I first discovered Joanne via her book YOGA Fascia Anatomy and Movement. For a textbook – it’s one of my favourite reads and one I reference often.

If you want to know more about the fascia matrix – Joanne’s world is a fun place to begin. Her podcast features 171 episodes since 2020. Another released just the other week.

The series journeys into Spiritual Science, examining the sacred geometry of human form and motion and how the Fascia Matrix changes all we thought we knew about human bodies. hehe

Time for bed!

See you on the mat,
Hong xoxo

Yin Yoga, like any good thing is best practiced consistently. Practicing often will guarantee needle moving positive change and healing.

Remember ~ Yin is the balance to Yang. Yang is sweaty exercise, busy lifestyles, power, building, growing, going-going-going. Yin is slow and steady, quiet, internal, softness, cultivating, repairing, enjoying-enjoying-enjoying. You need both!

Spread the wonderful practice of Yin Yoga and forward this on to a loved one, colleague, neighbour or friend. 🧘‍♀️✨