"There is a false belief that sleep is a waste of time and that we can get away with less than we need, but truth is people who cut corners with their sleep, function below their best”, stated by Director of the Sleep Health Foundation, Dr David Hillman. Did you know that adults who have poor sleep patterns are more likely to be overweight and obese? Those who sleep around six hours a night are found to have a waist measurement that is 3cm greater than individuals who were getting nine hours of sleep a night.

If you’re thinking you need high energy activities to lose weight, then think again. Here are 5 steps to get you towards juicier Z’s and might as well be the start towards losing weight: stress free!

Step 1: cut sugar & alcohol. Sweets affect your sleeping hormones. The more sugar you eat during the day, the more you wake at night.

Step 2: revisit your ambitions. Why do you need to get that seven-figure salary? Is it to get happy? Happiness can only be found in the here and now. Where can you alter your expectations?

Step 3: Create an exercise regime for balance. If you have stress at work, running up the hill will cause more stress on the body. Choose something calming such as yoga to get the balance right.

Step 4: create an evening ritual. Screen time induces dopamine, your natural high. Cut out screens at least 30-60 minutes before lights off. World leading yoga teachers recommend taking an Epsom salt bath, writing your to- do list down and keeping the list and your phone outside of the bedroom.

Step 5: Lay on your back with your legs up the wall; a powerful way of reversing blood flow, inducing calming hormones, and stretching out sore muscles. Use this time to exhale and let things go. Crawl into bed with a clear mind and relaxed body.

More interesting facts about sleep:

A study in 2017 showed that sleep problems cost Australia $66.3 billion and lead to over 3000 deaths.

Just like obesity, smoking, drinking too much and not exercising enough, sleep problems cause real harm in our community.

Alcohol has harming effects on your sleep. Even though it might help you fall asleep to have a glass or two, the quality of sleep is much poorer and makes you wake up feeling less rested than if you sleep alcohol free.

Yoga postures can help your body detox and release calming hormones. It also helps you clear your mind.

1. The winter yoga glow – skin renewal

The skin is the largest organ of the body and contributes significantly to the detoxifying process in conjunction with other internal organs. In winter, being indoors and cool winds tend to cause the skin to become dry and dehydrated. Movement combined with increased awareness of breath will take pressure of your skin and help the detoxing!

2. Winter Blues or SAD- yoga elevates the mood

The pineal gland in the brain produces a hormone called melatonin, responsible for balancing the sleep/wake cycles during seasonal changes and stimulated by darkness, and may lead to a condition known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD). This condition carries symptoms specific to winter, such as low mood, tiredness not alleviated by rest, need for more sleep, low energy and a significantly increased appetite. Surya Namaskar- Sun Salutations- have a counter effect on SAD by lifting the mood, increasing metabolism, and energizing body, mind and spirit!

3.Yoga, stress and immunity Research consistently identifies exactly how chronic stress contributes significantly to disease. High levels of cortisol, triggered by stress, when present in the blood over a prolonged period of time suppress the immune system, thereby compromising the body’s natural ability to ward off disease. Restorative yoga reduces cortisol levels in the blood and therefore restores the immune system.

4. Pranayama (breath work) for the lungs protects the respiratory system

One of the most natural ways to protect the lower respiratory system is to consistently breath via the nose. The various breath practices in most yoga classes reduce the constriction of the lungs. Secondly, the groove-like passage in the nasal airway swirl and filter air, thus protecting the respiratory system from potential allergens that may irritate the lungs.

5. Yoga reduces chronic joint pain and inflammation

It is well known that chronically inflamed joints flare up from cold weather. this is even more reason to warm these aching joints up through gentle movement. Restorative Yoga, Hatha and/Or Vinyasa 1 are great classes to ease in to.

6. Yoga boosts your circulation

If you have cold feet and hands in winter, movement and awareness of breath will help.

7. Boost your immune system

Yoga helps the body cleanse the kidneys and liver and lowers our stress level; all of which provide an immune boost.

8. Pranayama (breath work) soothes asthma symptoms

Most of our classes include breath work and will help bring awareness to breath and get your lungs working at full capacity.

9. Yoga helps avoid winter weight gain

One study that surveyed 15,500 people found that those aged 45 to 55 who did regular yoga over a four year period gained on average three pounds less than non yogis. (Overweight people in the same group actually lost an average of five pounds over a decade while non-yoga practitioners put on 14.)

10. Yoga gives you a much needed break

While you are more likely to go for a walk in summer or go to the beach, yoga in our cozy warm studio will give you just that: the opportunity to take a breath and focus on the good things in your life.

Do you find it hard to keep up with the school notes from your kids? Are you overwhelmed with work commitments? Are your house chores seemingly never ending? How many friends have you not caught up with in ages? Do you feel like whatever you do, it just doesn’t seem to be enough!?

If that’s you, then you are prone to adrenal fatigue: It’s a naturopathic term for people experiencing tiredness caused by stress. Your adrenal glands producing cortisol struggle to supply the body with the demand during prolonged periods of stress. Some of the symptoms include mild depression or anxiety, putting on belly fat and not getting it off, and lack of energy.

If you suffer extreme fatigue, go and seek help from a local natural health practitioner. For milder symptoms, consider learning how to deal with your stresses. Let’s face it, we live in a fast-paced world: it’s not going to change. But you have the power to change how you respond to the stress triggers around you.

Yoga and meditation, helps you learn how your stress is triggered and develops alternate neural pathways gearing your mind towards more useful responses to stress. Most people who practice yoga find an instant calm after a class. Yoga is also commonly prescribed by psychologists for having the same effects on depression and anxiety as medicine. Apart from giving health, strength and flexibility, yoga gives you a more fulfilling outlook on life where you- after all- feel that you are enough.

This article can be found in the next Focus Magazine published December 2.

The other day I heard a 24 year old woman refer to herself as old. I snickered and remembered my oath to self when I was about the same age. I recall thinking: "If I'm saying I'm old now, what am I when 34? And when 44? I may as well say I am young and always compare with the ones 15 years my senior regardless of my age. That way I will walk through life feeling young".

Why is getting old such a tabu thing for women? I wonder what the fuss is about? I seriously don't get it. Here are our top 20 reasons why old(er) women ROCK:

1. You no longer take crap from others

2. You are more confident

3. You look at your naked body thinking: It's not going to get any prettier, I may as well love my body as it is

4. You have a better job

5. Your bank likes lending you money

6. You have the whole "what shall I do before having kids" stress behind you

7. You have made some mistakes and come to terms with them

8. You know what to do with your clitoris

9. You love learning about who you are

10. You no longer are afraid of being alone but rather love that time spent with self

11. You forgive mistakes

12. You no longer worry about what your boobs look like when being on top!

13. You value time with friends and family

14. Grey hair is sexy

15. You have seen more countries than youngsters

16. You have seen more changes and know how to deal with them

17. You have wisdom

18. You know how much you can love and you know its power

19. You know how to dress the body you have been given

20. You remember to breathe

Being young rocks, too. Just for different reasons. I suppose the key message is as long as you love and embrace yourself for who you are, you ROCK. Sending you all our love XXX

Guess what: I have insecurities. Since the day my daughter was born, I have doubted my mothering. I have felt guilty. For all sorts of things and reasons. I have struggled with little details on how to say no, when to say no or even whether or not to say no to her. Sometimes I would say no too much just because I thought that's what I should do, and sometimes I wouldn't say no at all and let her rule me. The first 2 years of her life were exhausting. Mainly because of all the stories and insecurities I had created in my head.

I want to share this insecurity with you because I know there are those who look at my life thinking its perfect. Just like I look at other mothers and their families and think their lives are perfect. I have an admiration for mothers, there even is a tad of envy at times for mothers who have several children, not just one like me. I look up to mothers and how they interact with their children confidently. It's only been about 6 or 10 months since I can say wholeheartedly that I love being a mum, that I love and adore my time with my girl. I have learned to deal with those insecurities of mine, it took 7 years.

I learned that having insecurities does not make you worth less. It does not make you a failure or a lesser person. It makes you human. And in fact, it is the actual thing that makes you unique and beautiful. Being vulnerable, as Brene Brown states in her book Daring Greatly; that vulnerability is the actual birthplace of connection and love to others. All you need to do is allow that insecurity to be there. Once you stop trying to avoid it emotionally or hide it from others, you learn to be okay with those insecurities. Instead of trying to run away from them, you learn to embrace them and accept them. And once you learn that, that's when you learn to love yourself full full-heartedly and completely.

So here is the thing. We think that reality looks a certain way and because we are the lead character in our own Hollywood play called life, we tend to forget that reality is shaped purely by our perception. Thinking that there is no set reality, feels incredibly scary to me at times. To those feeling like you are running in a hamster wheel which never stops. To those feeling like the world is on your shoulders and people depend on you. To those feeling like whatever you do, you can't seem to shake the weight off your body. To those who feel panic at the thought that something might happen to your children. You are not alone.

Now the good news are, that the gooey stuff between our ears is soft. It's made up of fat and it never sees the light. It's our brain that fires over 400 billion impressions per second. I can't even comprehend that high figure, 400 billion impressions! Per second! No wonder we shape our realities through our eyes, send these signals to our brain, which then attaches meaning to it based on our own experiences and energetic composition. Being told you are cynic can be a massive compliment to one while being told the same thing can seem like an incredible insult to another person.

What to do with this? You can choose.

You can't choose the stuff that happens to you. Death, illness, abuse. But you can choose how to respond to it. You can choose whether you want to keep putting up with abuse or whether you believe you deserve to be treated with love and respect. You can choose to cling on to the loss of a loved one and let the grief turn into bitterness against whoever you want to blame. Or you can choose to thank the person you have lost. Cherish the moments you shared, and marvel at the miracle of life.

I know. It's too simple of a recipe. With 400 billion impressions. Per second. That's a lot of choices to be made. And when you are deep down in the midst of your harrowing emotions, making choices does not always feel empowering but rather depleting. What horrifying thought, that we are responsible for all these choices! Ha! Well, there is only one way to sort that stuff out, and that is to make time and sit. On your bottom. And breathe. Then let all those billion impressions race through your mind while you stop stimulating more impressions and shift into observing what is going on. Your brain is like on autopilot. It will never stop. But you can stop. When you let those harrowing emotions race through your system and stop trying to avoid them, you will notice that it's not so bad. You notice that they are just emotions, feelings, belief systems that you have bought into at some stage when it made sense. And now, you can choose. Or breathe. Or both.

To those feeling like you are running in a hamster wheel which never stops. To those feeling like the world is on your shoulders and people depend on you. To those feeling like whatever you do, you can't seem to shake the weight off your body. To those who feel panic at the thought that something might happen to your children. You are not alone. You have a choice. Breathe.

At two points in recent times I have been asked what I truly, deeply burn and desire for the betterment of this world. Those of you who know me might think this would be about helping people find their love for their bodies, or realising healthy lifestyle choices. But when asked, I dug a little bit deeper and surprised myself with what bubbled to the surface. A clump formed in my throat as I tapped into this truth, and I answered the person asking me: "I want fathers to recognise exactly how important they are for their children. I want mothers to allow fathers to be fathers." Tears poured out of my soul as I felt my own longing for my own father and the raw pain from raising my daughter at 50% care with her father…

When I worked at the aquatic centre I would see many mothers roll their eyes at their children's father. "He is useless", they would say. We are now above the 50% divorce rate and our children are being raised in a war zone between genders. Separation brings out the worst in people, trust me- I know... When are we going to learn to accept one another? I have no doubt that there are those fathers being "useless". My own father was one of them. Being labelled useless is not helping. What needs to happen is to dig in to what is causing the uselessness. As for my own father, he felt pushed aside and not qualified enough to parent his 3 daughters. He had not been equipped with a vocabulary to connect with us, and fear, guilt and shame got the better of him. In the end he felt it was easier to stay away and just pay the child support. Our society expects men to be strong, in control, achievers and providers. And then there is parenthood, which pretty much brings out the exact opposite: it's messy, it's exhausting, it's flaring up childhood wounds and insecurities. And early on there is no sex, and I am certain that's not helping! All my life I have carried this innate fear of not being loved by a man. And as life happens, this fear has manifested itself into a series of broken relationships. I have turned needy, I have turned bossy, I have craved and felt an unease when getting close. Yet, I welcome these lessons. I am learning to completely embrace this shit. To love me with all of that hard and soft and messy stuff. If I don't love me, who else will? Somehow, I think the answer to many of our societal problems lie in men not being loved and respected. In men not being taught the tools to face their pain and insecurities. Because we all have them. In women recognising that their power lies in them. Women need to stop blaming their partners or exes of their failures. I dream of a society where fathers can be fathers. Where men can be messy, insecure, and be okay with it. Where real connection between genders are based on allowing one another to be vulnerable and cliché gender roles become obsolete. I dream of every child knowing their dad. And I dream of every dad being accepted for who he is. This is personal. Namaste.

I don't know how many times I have cried in my bedroom feeling like a failure. Do you? There was the time when I had to jump off my dancer's degree at the Stockholm Ballet Academy in the 90-ies. How hard I had worked to get in, and then an injury caused me to leave. I found myself feeling way too old to start a new career, way too heartbroken to motivate myself to dream up something new. Instead I stood in a convenience store working night shifts serving grilled sausages on a bun to drunken party goers after they had been kicked out of the nightclub.

So the opposite of failure is success, right? What exactly do we want to be successful at? For me when leaving school, career choice was more about enjoying what I do than making money or job security. And yet I found myself comparing with my smart sisters, with friends from school who managed to land cool jobs while I was serving sausages to drunks making nothing. No wonder I was a sobbing mess feeling like I had failed at life.

In school we only learn for careers, but not for life. Life is so much bigger than that, don't you think? Well, for me life is about growing and learning who I really am. Looking back I notice that the moments of deep despair are the ones that helped me grow the most. The moments of bliss and happiness are just as fleeting as the ones of suffering. So what's the point of labeling happy moments "good" and suffering "bad" when most of our growth and learning comes from the suffering?

Try letting go of that belief and those labels around suffering and happiness and see what happens. Fear of failure drifts off with your next out breath. And in comes courage... Because taking risks means you never really have anything to loose. You either succeed with your project or you learn.

In the western world we are taught that there is a pill for everything. If we just pay the price, there is an instant fix. And now look at us and what we have created: pollution and overflowing landfills, a society that is obese and addicted, and we institutionalise our grandparents instead of honoring and learning from their life lessons. I'm getting off track here... What I want to get at is that it's not working. Instead we have to learn to become comfortable with the uncomfortable. What if we stop being so scared of failure? What if we instead learn to forgive ourselves? We can't change the world, but we can change what's in our hearts. Take a breath and learn to love perfectly imperfect you. Learn to love the lessons you are given. Learn to accept that life sometimes sucks and sometimes it's just so brilliant you could burst. Remember in it all, in all that messy mix of beauty and fear there is your breath. Constant. With you. Giving you the miracle called life.

Namaste.

So here is another confession: Christmas Eve I finally told my father that I had opened up a yoga studio. The reason for this was that when I saw him in July this year, he expressed his disgust for yoga because his church believes that it is a satanist cult and doing any yoga postures might call some "ungodly" spirits to his soul. We only had a few days together and the time we spent should be about him and not about me. So I didn't end up telling him about my plans. And when the planning was underway I got too busy, or maybe I procrastinated. He ended up hearing about it from my sister and was not surprised once he heard it from me.

My father turned "born again Christian" when I was 18, and his faith has certainly impaired our relationship throughout the years. Early on I came along and even went to bible school straight after high school. This is not something I like to talk about. During this time I found myself pressured into doing things against my will. For example, I dropped contact to friends out of fear of not fitting in and out of fear of being led to sin. More of that in another blog.

This same weekend, I met a friend whose parents were also religious and we spoke about how their faith created a rip in their relationship. The conversation together with my phone call to my dad got me thinking about this thing called religion. What I love about Yoga is that you can be of any faith, or even an atheist, and you still feel the benefits of yoga. We all have a body. We all breathe. What we believe is what makes us different. And our beliefs are formed through culture, history, family, media, events, zeitgeist.... And the cool thing is that our beliefs can change. This is also the scary thing when you belong to a church or a sect. How do you know if you are on the "right" path? How do you know if all the sacrifices you make are leading you to heaven? How do you know what's right and what's wrong? When leaving the church as a very young adult, I asked myself these questions on a daily basis. I missed feeling connected to a higher power. While in church I had prayed every morning, now I felt lost. Not long after leaving church, I met a friend who was a Reiki practitioner. She performed a healing on me. I felt the same energy I previously knew as "The Holy Spirit". I had to laugh out loud. So here these Christians were thinking they were the only ones benefiting from "God's Spirit" while all this time "God" was seeking any human who was seeking him (it/her)! This opened up my horizon and I started looking into Eastern philosophies. I started teaching Body Balance while working in gyms. And about one and a half decades later I found that Yoga did all of the above. No discrimination against any person or their beliefs. Simply working with the human raising awareness with the aim to seek unison with All That Is. There is no one religion, faith, philosophy that will guaranteed lead you to heaven. Heaven is inside you. Your path, your connection with All That Is, is in your breath. Breathe out the fear of being wrong. Allow yourself to make mistakes. Embrace the opportunity to learn and grow wiser. Forgive those who see things differently to you and trust your core, your heart. When you become still and listen, your voice will guide you. Sometimes it screams at you when you don't make that time to listen. So don't worry, your voice is there. The only way to stay connected is to find a regular practice that fits in with your beliefs and with your life. Checking in daily on what lifts you up and what drags you down will keep you on your path. Daily questions on why you do things, feel things, say things help find out who you really are. As opposed to acting a way you think people expect you to. If you can breathe then you are on the right path.

Namaste. xxx

The week before Christmas, family is gathering and isn't there at least one person in the family getting on your nerves? Old childhood patterns flaring up, that one person making that one statement about your person you completely disagree with. Your battle with the feeling of being labelled, judged, not fitting in, the confusing sensation of wanting to rebel versus wanting to please... My family is on the opposite side of the world. This doesn't mean that we can't fight. I learned that this week. You can have superb arguments via Facebook Messenger! It was a new experience. I did not feel like being the wise and understanding me and left a Facebook group created by my sister. This created all sorts of ruckus with messages flying back and forth across the globe between all us sisters and separately from one to one. All through this process it felt liberating to have my say without fearing to hurt. I love my sisters so much, in the presence of anger there also was the presence of trust. Trust that she could deal with my words, my stance, my view. Trust that even if she is upset now, with time she would come to a place where she can accept. After a day of "Iphone arguing", I took a look at myself, at the whole story around it and decided to call truce. "It's 1-1, we both hurt one another and neither meant to, so I say I'm sorry", I wrote. "I'm sorry I hurt you. I didn't mean to. I hurt you because I was hurting and it's not your fault, the pain is mine. I love you." In the end all the hurt we feel is inflicted by someone else is our own. We can get hurt by a joke or a remark meant with no harm. The hurt stems from our own insecurity, not from the person's words. About 1-2 hours after calling truce with my sister (who was about to go to bed) my day started with a life shifting workshop in the studio. Life shifting in the sense that during one part of the workshop, I learned that peace comes from the knowledge that you are loved for who you are, not for what you do. Yes. There is basically no way you can mess this life up. Even if you end up on drugs and live in crime, you are still loved purely for the fact that you have a beating heart and breathing lungs! You are human, you have life= YOU ARE LOVED.

Most of us have been ingrained with the view that there will be a judging God looking down on us after finishing up our lives and then you are labelled either a good person or a bad one. Believe whatever you want, I choose to believe that God is love. And in the presence of love there is no judgment.

The actions and the choices we make in life are for us. Choosing to care and show compassion ripples out to the people around you and ripples back to you. There is no right or wrong, there purely is the basic law of cause and effect. The physical law that every action has an equal but opposite reaction, translates into our energy we put into everything and anything. So if you pick a fight with your sister, she will fight back...

Let's say you still choose to act out of fear rather than out of love, let's say you attract drama and shortage of money into your life. Well. You are still loved. You might not feel it, because things feel so unfair to you. You may not be able to see how you have caused unwanted events.

Here is the interesting thing, though: Once you open up to see these events as lessons and ask yourself what you can learn, you become empowered. You learn to take charge of your choices. You learn that everything starts in your head. And you are in charge of it! Your mistakes become lessons for yourself and others, and your achievements become events that you and others can enjoy. Done. You basically cannot mess this life up. Remember that shit is the soil in which beautiful flowers grow. Enjoy the journey.

Merry Christmas, big Ohms and Namaste.

Coming into Christmas our minds get consumed with to do lists, events, expectations and the worry about how to fit it all in. I want to create a memorable Christmas for my daughter. With food, celebrations and presents. I want to relive my own fond childhood memories of Christmas through her. The thought of seeing her widen her eyes when opening a present, seeing her excitement fuels me with joy and anticipation. But then a breath later, my head has started working out what to get, where to get it and whether or not I have time to get it today or later, what to make, how to make it and what I need for making it.... My head starts snowballing into plans of baking, creating, washing, decorating, playing Christmas music, until I catch myself thinking: "I really should learn how to play the guitar, how cool would that be to play live Christmas carols together?" and I am hit with stress and guilt. Then my arguments with myself start: "How silly to make those plans, that's unrealistic, calm down, you are putting too much pressure on yourself", I respond to myself: "well, if you wouldn't work all the time you would be a better mother, other mums are always there for their kids and do crafty things, what are you going to do? Just get something made out of plastic from K-mart?" and my eyes glace over while I continue my argument with myself and the joy of creating stops. Whether it's for the studio, home or for Christmas. Creating is over. Knowing I never win arguments with myself, I stop and I take a breath- my go to place- and feel into it. Where does this pressure come from? There is fear of not being a good parent enough. There is fear of creating traumatic memories of Christmas for my girl. There is homesickness, missing my family.... and the awareness rises that all this stuff I just made up in my head has to do with escaping this pain and fear. Once I learn to get comfortable with it, it's okay. Christmas may have baked cookies or not. We will see. I might not learn how to play the guitar, but maybe someone else can. My daughter may have K-mart presents or not. I might get to write Christmas cards or not. If joy takes me there, it will happen if not then that's okay too. True memories are created through laughter and connection, and not from what toys you get and what food you eat anyway. The joy is back, let's write this down and put it on the blog. Creating has recommenced! What becomes evident is that really, Christmas is not about all that stuff. It's not about the cherries, the presents, the food. All we really need for Christmas is our breath. Namaste!

I had a dream. I dreamed of a place in Forster where people like me could come together in the name of connecting to our spirits, kindness and personal growth. A place to do yoga, receive healing, give hugs, connect with others and together spread kindness and compassion to the people surrounding us. I dreamed that together we can heal our beautiful community where many people struggle with depression, isolation, health and more.

For the last 4 years I have practiced daily meditation. I have diligently exhaled resentments, fears, insecurities and worked on my energy directly with the dream of creating a fulfilling life for myself and the ones around me. When I have been hurt, I have chosen to go within instead of lashing out. Then there have been moments where I have lashed out and hurt others. I have thanked the person raising these conflicts within me and gratefully embraced those lessons after taking them to my practice. I have dreamed up what I would like my life to look like careerwise, socially, financially. I have sat down with my diary, notes and pens and mapped out what I would like to feel like. I have posted affirmations on the bathroom wall, spoken them out loud while having a shower. I have followed teachers that inspire me. I have subscribed to workshops, retreats and courses helping me grow as a human being and as a mother. The bulk of the money I spend for free time activities is on personal growth rather than on fashion or beauty. It is because I desire to feel plugged in to limitless potential all the time! Yet, my head tends to go haywire and shoot projections into the future. It's exhausting at times.

The dream of having a place for healing and getting together in the name of connecting to our spirits has come true. Our Yoga Studio is exactly all that and more. During the process it did not feel as if I was doing much, all things fell into place. All I did was staying true to my core, choosing to believe rather than crumbling under fear.

And how do I feel? I now have different problems to before. Some of them are bigger. When thinking up this dream, it felt amazing. "Wow, imagine having achieved that! How good will I feel?", that's what I was thinking back then. What am I thinking now that the dream has manifested? I critique myself, I worry about the next step, about feedback and opportunities on how to improve. I plan into the future about workshops, courses, retreats, Forster Yoga Festival, and then feel exhausted as a result. Where is that plugged in feeling?

A breath. A check in with the energy inside me. A lump in my throat. Tears streaming out as I realise once again: "I don't feel good enough. I don't feel worthy of success. I don't feel worthy of receiving gratitude and compliments from our members and teachers." I exhale and let go. More tears. Isn't my passion to help others see how worthy they are? And yet here I am with the same struggle!

Another breath. My passion stems from exactly that pain. There is no such thing as good or bad, right or wrong. Just raising the awareness of what is really going on allows beauty to flow. And that's my confession. I am no better than anyone else. Bliss and that plugged in feeling is only found in the NOW. It's completely irrelevant what you have achieved or not achieved. Comparing takes you away from the NOW. If you find yourself like me, comparing, planning, projecting.... Just breathe and love who you are. Embrace life's lessons about who you really are and let go of who you think you should be. Namaste.

When you start believing this, you shift your attention within you instead of trying to change the outside world and circumstances. You recognise that perhaps that rude person who initially made you feel hurt just had a bad day and you don't need to tell her off (and create more negative vibrations as a result). You learn that you are the source of all abundance, infinite love, gratitude, wisdom and joy. You learn that you also are the one blocking all the goodness when you forget to connect to your source and get your energy rocking. You are the one in the driver's seat! Or like Dr. Seuss put it: " You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose". All the things you need to live your life, you already have: your brain, your dreams, your heart and your breath. All the other stuff is just stuff.

Start living your life looking at the amazing miracle that you are.

Namaste.

One of my favourite teachers, Brene Brown writes in her book "Daring Greatly" how we live in a Not Enough Society. We are bombarded by media telling us that we need a bigger car, a better house, more money, and fitter body and the list goes on. For me, learning this was a big eye opener and changed my life.

Today was another one of those moments for me. I've been dealing with tradies and lawyers for the past few weeks on a daily basis. I have felt at a loss for vocabulary when asking for tools. "Do you have one of those tweezy thingies?" and then waving my hands vigorously has been the usual way I fight my way across the language of trades. And then there are the solicitor's and certification guys. Their language is founded in the ancient greek and latin roots with a twist of boring. They speak and their words go in one ear and seem to come out the other while I smile and nod, until there is an awkward silence and I realise that I was expected to respond to something they said. "This is not the time to think of a play list for Raw Dance, Mia!", I argue with myself.

When starting the project of opening up a Yoga Studio for Forster, I vowed to myself and my higher power to do it with joy. This week the joy has been absent and replaced with.... what? I took a breath, steered my mind away from the long to do list and the "what ifs" and asked myself what I needed to feel joy: "The Beach". Yes.

I took some time out, took the dog to One Mile, and started doing some sun salutations on top of the sand dune. Breath. The stretching sensation of the hip flexor when stepping into a lunge, breath, soften the area between my eye brows, then there it was: While breathing the insight dropped down on me: "I'm not worthy of doing this! I'm afraid I'm not good enough! There is a part of me that wants to fail because I'm afraid of being worthy" . And in the next breath within a millisecond: "If not me then who, if not now then when, I'm just as good as everyone, I'm just here to serve." I breathe out and surrender. Once again. Lightness enters back into my soul, gratitude makes tears well up in my eyes. There are a million questions unanswered, a thousand problems unsolved, and I choose to believe. If the earth was made this beautiful like the beach and the ocean, then life energy is looking out for you. Universe has my back. And that is what I choose to focus on. I am enough. And what I don't know, I can learn, what I can't do myself, I can receive help. I am enough. And so are you, whatever your challenges are right now. Sending you all bucket loads of love and light! Thank you for this space. XXX

It's Sunday, the sun is out and I have just finished stripping out the big items out of the studio (to be). It's noon and I'm hungry. Roxy, the dog and I walk up to Beach Bums where it's far too busy and I realise that I forgot my wallet. On the detour past my home I ask myself: "Now where would I like to have lunch?" and quietly, instantly intuition says: "Kembali at Blueys". I start and argument with myself in my head that it's too far to drive and by the way I am low on petrol, and what am I thinking taking up that much time just to have lunch.... and then I stop. Through my journey of mindful living, I have learned that it pays off listening to that little voice, my intuition, even if it's not making much sense at the time.

I start the car, Roxy snuggles up, music on and we drive. On the way I ponder on how cool our intuition is. With more and more research backing up the concept that humans are energy and that energy vibrates at various frequencies, it's really not that strange that we can receive guidance about things that happen later. Our inner voice is the power point you can plug in to at any time to receive limitless energy from universe/prana/chi/our higher power/call it what you want. Is it really that strange? 400 years ago we believed that the earth was flat. Just because we don't understand exactly how we are all connected doesn't make it "woo-woo" to me.

Lately I have become really good at this intuition following business if I may say so myself. My handyman was un-contactable, I needed a ute, and I wanted 2 more 6AM Yoga classes on the timetable. No need to worry when you are plugged in. The worry does in fact just "un-plug" you. Your vibrations change and give you what you worry about instead. The other day I spontaneously decided to drop in at my printer to see how my flyers were coming along. They were just being packed for me as I stepped in! And as I walk out of the printer's, in walks my new handyman Rick! I receive a phone call from a friend who needed someone to listen and was offered to borrow his ute as a thank you. Later that day I receive a message from another ute-owning friend, I can borrow his during the week!

Oh, and the classes? Check out the timetable by clicking here!

As I park the car at Bluey's my beloved friend and her family have just sat down for some lunch. How I've been meaning to catch up with her, and there they all are ready for me to join them! All you need to do is just listen, surrender to the voice inside and watch miracles happen every day.

Namaste!

It was Saturday and the sun was shining. Lil, my 6 year old daughter declared that she wanted to go for a bike ride. We rode into town, had a play and a lovely time until the thing happened: Lil felt the fun was over, she was tired and she stopped to tell me that her legs were sore. Her bike's handlebars turned and I saw as if it was in slow motion. One move to the side and her bike fell over and hit the inside of her leg. The already tired little 6 year old screamed and I watched the frustration build in her little body. She kicked the bike and got even more upset as the kick now hurt her toe. I told her to take a breath and explained: "Problems are best solved with love".

She picked up her bike and between sobs we thanked the bike for the wonderful ride and said sorry for letting go of the handlebars. She then decided that her bike was a horse and its name was "Love". We galloped home on our bikes together, hooting and giggling. Later that day I continued thinking about my statement about problems and love.

A little while ago I realised how wrong it is to view problems as something bad, something unwanted. Where would we be without problems? We would be so bored! Sure, I get you. No doubt problems are really annoying when they pop up when you least expect them. Think about it, though: Once they are overcome, on the other side there is courage, accomplishment, sense of achievement and confidence! All these virtues are born from overcoming difficult problems. The people we tend to look up to and admire are those who have overcome an illness, won a medal, solved a huge and difficult problem. Have a think about the people you admire and why that is... So my question for this space is: What if you get excited when a problem comes your way? What if you say: "Hello courage, welcome life lesson!". The difference is in solving it with love rather than with fear. No doubt your problem will pass. How you respond to it is entirely up to you. XXX

I have asked this question at many presentations, I have asked this to many people when they come in enquiring about gym membership. The answer varies between "I love this bit but I hate this one" to "I hate everything about my body". I have in my 17 year long career only encountered one single person who openly said that she loves her body! Now have a think about this: How do you think this affects how you feel about yourself? And how does this affect your relationships? Then your career? What about your parenting? There is a ripple effect of your critical feelings towards yourself across to the remaining areas of your life.

So let's leave that for a moment and get a bit scientific. Do you know what a mitochondria is? The mitochondria is the powerhouse of your cells. Each cell of your body is packed with mitochondria where the chemical exchange of enzymes, proteins, fats and carbohydrates, water and oxygen create energy for your muscles and brain. With each breath, oxygen is being converted to carbon dioxide via a long chain of chemical reactions in which energy is released called ATP. I won't go into the details of this, as there are plenty of other people specialising in this area. The point I want to make is this:

WITH EACH BREATH YOUR BODY VIBRATES TO CREATE ENERGY FOR YOU

It is doing this without you even knowing! How can you not love it?

So what if there are bits and pieces of your body that don't work the way you think they should? So what if your body doesn't look like the one of a model???

When you feed your body the nutrition it needs, when you give it enough sleep, when you fill your mind and soul up with love to replace your worry and stress, when you give your body balanced movement, then your body will look after you. It will become toned, fit, and flexible and make you beautiful, strong and healthy. That's what is so cool about Yoga, because when practising regularly you notice how you start loving it more and more- breath by breath.

Then watch it transform almost by itself. Promise!

XXXX