Hello friends. It’s been a long while.
What’s occurring?
📆Happy 1st of the month!
♊️ Happy Gemini season!
🧝♀️🧝♀️Happy Birthday fellow Geminis!
🌝 Happy Sagittarius Blue Full Moon!
I’m sorry I missed April & May’s newsletter.
I haven’t managed to herd the cats of my mind. Every time I come back to write, more cats join and I get lost in enjoying the company. It’s just the way it goes sometimes being human.
I stop to moon bathe, I allow my mind to meander and contemplate out into deep space. Gifts I do not take for granted.
I hope deep Autumn invited a slower pace for you. Winter is here now. It’s in our nature to move with the changing seasons. I hope you allow yourself a change of pace 🧣
#1. Cosmic Weather Forecast.
We’ve been showered with the kind of cosmic weather that can’t be ignored. The kind that if resisted – life will feel uphill. The universe is constantly nudging us into alignment. Lately it’s been more like a hurtle – would you agree?
Big energy shifts, of this momentum and frequency is unprecedented. Many of these planetary shifts won’t happen again in our human lifetime (unless we live to 200+). There is also more to come. The paradigm shift will be more obvious in a couple of years 🙂↕️
How is this relevant to Yoga & Yin? Fascia of course! We are bioelectric beings. Not just chemical and mechanical. We are a walking antenna to the cosmos. Receiving and transmitting. Fascia is also intimately intertwined with our nervous system and brain function, playing a key role in emotional processing.
So, has April and May felt like a push and shove? I hope you know this is a blessing. A nudge off a path that was a loop in disguise.
The point of our time here on Earth is to reach full self-expression. Become a fully expressed human. So where, when and why do you pacify? With what? These are clues to your shadow work, or where you are best to be curious and loving towards something about yourself.
What do you practice Yin Yoga for? Is it rest, quiet, strengthening, flexibility, healing, repair, space, movement and/or self-soothing?
Yin is a great and safe space to let it all hang out. Yin helps develop the skill and ability to reset better:
Bad conversation? Breathe and softly move on.
Bad day? Feel it all the way through and notice it dissipate. Making space to start fresh tomorrow.
Poor decision? Recognise, learn and gently adjust.
You can’t always control what happens to you, but you can control how it affects you.
My current favourite resource for Astrology if you are interested in how it intersects with being – Embodied Astrology.
#2. Vale Williamstown.
My first class @ The Healing Garden was January 29th of 2025 – Wood Snake Lunar New Year’s Day!
A special space where I facilitated 60 – 120 min Yin Yoga, Oracle Card sharing circles, Moon Classes, Yin & Sound bathing and even a silent retreat.
It is really sad to see places like this disappear.
Keep frequenting all the little places you love, and take others along with you. I don’t want to live in a homogenised world. I love and want to see more beauty, unusual, considered and experimental. We deserve so much more than convenient and digestible. Not everything has to be broad spectrum and appealing to the masses.
#3. 33 Challis Street, Newport.
Thank you to everyone who has made it to classes at the new studio Think.Focus.Act. Classes are now every Monday 9.30am and Wednesday 7pm.
I hope to add more classes in a few months’ time and eventually transfer us to the larger or new Yoga room that’s being built in the back. Plus add monthly extended classes – but all that hinges on numbers. So, if I haven’t seen you in a while, come in for some TLC!
#4. Core Plus.
If you are a member, I am now teaching every Thursday evening.
45 min Warm Yin Yoga @ the Essendon Studio. You might also find me popping up at their other studios guiding Hot Yoga Flows and Warm Slow Flows. Consider joining if you like heated workout spaces and sweaty group classes. It’s so much fun!
#5. Green Monday Studios.
I used to live in Carlton, and I still have a little community out that way. It’s so nice spending time there again. Currently only teaching every Tuesday at GMS, but more to come.
Green Monday Studios is also home to creative dance, Japanese ink painting and calligraphy, queer meditation, yoga of all kinds, soma practices and breathwork. Link here to check it out.
#6. Meta Cognition.
I’ve talked about this a bit in class, because Yin Yoga sharpens it. Meta cognition is roughly an awareness of thought processes. Thinking about thinking if you will.
I believe this helps Janusian thinking – thinking that allows simultaneous conceptualisation of opposites which enhances creativity. It is an ability to hold or construct two opposing ideas in the mind without letting either of them upset you or rather threaten your ability to think clearly. Many of us avoid sitting within the discomfort of the not-knowing and feeling a need to close a gap.
Cognitive flexibility does not rush to certainty; it can hold and consider nuance. We can then tolerate ambiguity without becoming destabilised by it or immediately rejecting it.
I think it is intelligent to tolerate uncertainty. Ambiguity can feel uncomfortable I know, but if you can allow yourself the space to process, feel and construct a thought before reacting to it… let a pause be enjoyed.
For example – silence between conversations, not needing an immediate opinion, being able to say “I don’t know yet, let me think about it.”
Practice this in your next difficult conversation. Instead of rushing to defend, fix or conclude, allow a few extra seconds to observe what is happening internally first. This will start to feel spacious. Nice even!
This practice will strengthen the prefrontal cortex involved in reflection, regulation, and perspective-taking so you can become less driven by automatic emotional reactions and more capable of responding intentionally.
Don’t rush to conclusion 🧠
Sit in the discomfort. Rest in the synapse. Observe yourself. All the things you have trained in for the yummiest kind of Yin.
Current fave resource is Nicole Vignola – ww.nicolesneuroscience.com/
#7. Frog @ Home.
There is nothing like a Yin Class in the flesh. Human to human interactions in an intimacy starved world is nourishing. But at the same time, there is nothing like practicing Yin in your comfy bed and falling asleep right after.
Join me for a fun experiment. For the next 28 days – pick a shape that is your least favourite. Do it at the same time each day. Start with 1 minute and at the end of the challenge maybe you have increased it to a 10 or 15 minute passive hold.
Notice what changes and meet me here next month. I’ll be joining you on this journey with Frog – a strong and deep hip and groin opener that targets the inner thighs too. This shape ain’t easy and it’s why you rarely experience it in my general classes. But I will be sprinkling it into June classes! Let me know if you have any questions ☺️
Tips for a good froggy here.
#8. How do you like your Yin?
Speaking of practicing in the comfort of your own home..
Yin is low hanging fruit, yet powerful – currently beyond measure. So, I often wonder why it doesn’t hit for everyone.
In an effort to encourage you to try again, here are other Yin Yogis that might be more your cup of tea. Or your loved one’s cup of tea! Spread the good stuff. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it consistently for 3 months. Trust me on this.
All the following teachers have quite different styles and language. I hope you find something that works for you!
Share below any other Yin Yoga teachers online or in Studio that you are currently loving. There are teachers and spaces out there that suit you! Don’t give it up ❣️
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. 🧘♀️✨
Leave a Reply