Setting an intention for the month ahead, as well as daily, allows us to stay focused on our own personal life goals and plans.  Not disregarding what is going on around us, merely incorporating and not getting distracted by what is outside our influence.  Daily or monthly intention setting is also a beautiful practice to bring us into the present moment.  As that is where life happens.  It’s opening ourselves up to our fullest potential.  And it eliminates self-doubt long term.

At the beginning of 2021, I have set the intention for you, my clients, to hold space for you throughout 2021, and to remind you that you are allowed to feel good.  Here is a little help with that.

My personal intention for July is ‘true-heartedness’.

How to:

Bring yourself into a comfortable position.  Sitting, standing, lying down.  Your choice.

Bring one hand onto your heart and one hand onto your belly.  Or, like in the image, bring your hands into Mudra of Knowledge.  Start to notice your breath.

On your inhalation say to yourself “I am worthy”

On your exhalation say to yourself “I feel good”.

Say this with the whole-hearted intention of allowing yourself to feel good inside and out.

Do this for a couple of minutes.

Watch yourself calm, relax, and feel good.

Option:

You have the option to do this with a 3 Fold Breath – Dirga Pranayama.

The three parts are the abdomen, the ribcage and the chest.

On your inhale, take a long deep breath in completely filling your lungs in a 3 fold way.  First inhale into your belly, then move breath into your ribs, then into the chest.

On your exhale do the reverse.  Completely empty the chest, ribcage and belly.

Notice how you feel.  Allow yourself to feel good.  Notice that even after only 2 minutes there is a shift.  Let me know how it goes for you.  Happy practicing.

If you’d like to experience more of this, consider joining us in our morning meditation & pranayama journey held every month.  Next one starts on July5th.  Email to book

Much love

All our yoga and meditation classes incorporate pranayama, breathing exercises.  Our buzzing breath is particularly calming to the nervous system, as we extend our exhalation by aiming to mimic a buzzing bee sound.

Sit comfortably and allow your jaw to soften.  Allow your eyes to soften and invite in a relaxed and comfortable attitude.

Now allow your inhale to enter through your nose.  Allow your exhale to exit through your nose while you make a gentle buzzing sound.  Like the sound of the bees.  Aim to allow this gentle vibration that is created to be felt in your forehead, your sinuses and the area between your eyebrows.

Breathe in that soothing and joyful way for a few minutes. Let your feeling sense decide when its time to stop.

Enjoy the feeling of calm and peace it brings.

As the world transforms into a new state of being (you could call it transforming to the new vibrations of the 5^th Dimension), we as individuals and a community are feeling and being impacted by the effects.  There is certainly a new sense of wisdom and enlightenment occurring on our planet.  5^th Dimension commonly refers to a more spiritual way of being, or an awareness that we exist within a spiritual reality, as opposed to 3D, a more outward and physically orientated way of being.

With the Corona Virus Global Pandemic, myself, as a healer and conscious leader have been feeling that my time to shine had come and I was called to tap into this responsibility of guiding my students within to allow them to recognise this 5D higher perspective with our practice of yoga and meditation.  I felt for a long time that the connection between head and heart had to be made possible and would be a life-changing and enhancing practice.  In fact, traditionally yoga fosters the balance between our mind and our heart, our thinking and our feeling.  It is when our logic, our thinking, looks effortlessly after our feeling, our heart, that we can be most happy, balanced, content and fulfilled for long periods of time.  Crisis or not.

Let me recap the events:

On March 24^th the studio was forced to close.

What followed were daily live check in sessions for a week, asking ourselves connecting questions and finding 3 things we were grateful for, until we opened our online studio on 30/3 with interactive Zoom yoga classes.  They have evolved into daily (some days 2 x daily) ways to connect to other members of the yoga community and to self.  This has proven to be the best way forward to keep our yoga and meditation practice alive and keep a sense of company, foster a sense of gratitude, and with that resilience to navigate calmly the crisis challenge at hand.  Mental, spiritual and physical health plays a vital role in our overall well feeling.  Even more so during a crisis.

Fast forward to today being the winter solstice (hello winter), I’m respectfully excited about in person face to face classes starting next week.  All classes will still be livestreamed on Zoom.  As some Zoom classes were recorded, we now have over 60 yoga classes and meditations on our YouTube channel.  I suggest you check it out and subscribe.  No fee, all joy and freedom to practice with me at any time anywhere.  Go move, breathe and be still with me.

SILVER LININGS, or how I spent my time:

YOGA | MEDITATION | PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT | SVADHYAYA – SELFSTUDY

First, it was more work, and physically & mentally challenging, as I had my own practice, then another full practice on Zoom, plus holding space, learning new ways of teaching and connecting, and the uncertainty of the crisis.  Gratitude, mindfulness, meditation and the yoga community gave structure, purpose and stability.  So thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

For a while, I turned to the guidance of my colleague and fellow yogi Ryan who helped me re-ignite my love of ashtanga yoga during our 6am live FB practices.  In my PJs.  My body loved it, as I didn’t experience soreness from extreme physical workouts at the gym (all closed due to corona).

Then I participated in two Pranayama (breathing) Courses with my colleague and fellow yogini Uma to practice 2 x seven days of breath work.  The courses were a lot of fun, reinforcing what I already knew and practice.  A confirmation that the mythology is much less of interest to me than the actual pranayama, breath work, and I will bring even more of that into each class.

For seven Saturday nights I re-connected with my philosophy and meditation teacher Swami Pujan, to learn about yoga philosophy, the workings of the mind etc.  I loved these stimulating discussions and   Sadhana on a Saturday night.

My own personal yoga and meditation practice flourished, meditation has become an easeful daily occurrence again and journaling in bed after savasana with a cup of tea felt like Christmas had come early.

I also continued a weekly, hourly coaching session with my friend Nikk, called mindset gym, a global community of inspired individuals, learning about growth mindset, and basically realising that a lot of concepts are very similar to yoga philosophy.

I’m currently enrolled in a weekly Reflexology course called “Feet Reading – Window to the Soul”.  Highly interesting and useful for both my Reflexology work and yoga and meditation.

FAMILY

Having the kids home for two months meant more conversation, lengthy, deep conversation.  Sometimes quite challenging conversations.  Do you know your children’s/loved ones deepest fears?  More board and card game playing.  More extended meal times.  More home cooking.  Miles really stepped up in the cooking and baking department.  More walking together.  Night walks, walks to the beach and the water reservoir.  Lately, we have started to go for runs together.  I hugely enjoyed the opportunity to mother and nurture the kids while they were home.  Roomservice was my love language.  Breakfast in bed, snack, lunch, have you got enough water.  Let me give your shoulders a massage During remote learning, I enjoyed hearing the kids interact with their teachers and peers and loved how I naturally became more involved in their schooling.  They both thrive in self-organisation and soaked up the freedom of remote learning.  We had a brilliant time together.

CHANGES | AHA MOMENTS | ISHVARA PRANIDHANA – SURRENDER TO THE DIVINE |

The answers to the questions of what is essential and what can I do without were answered more clearly.  I realised there isn’t much in my life that is superfluous.  I do live a conscious and simple life already.  I enjoy the simple pleasures of life.  And that is enough.  My work is important, it is what I have to do.  It is my dharma, my sva-dharma.  My passion, my purpose.  What is yours?

I have also realised that I am proficient in knowing my boundaries, and communicating them, not so good in setting or actioning them.  Work needs to be done here.  My communications skills also require constant refining.  Arrgh… lots of self—improvement on the horizon.

A new favourite place has become the Frankston Nature Conservation Reserve, Jeremy Way, Frankston South.  Pictured above.  If you’re local, check it out.  I have also picked up running again.  It’s surprisingly enjoyable 😊.  My body and mind need physical and mental challenges.  It’s what gives me the chemicals I need to thrive.  So I will return to some extreme physical practices when Parc opens again.

The connection to people is what makes life amazing.  The daily stillness is what makes connecting to self possible.

INDULGENCES

Reading in bed.  Journaling in bed.  Cuppas in bed.  Yoga in PJs.  More time spent with kids.  More time for reflection and contemplation.  Sleep Ins.

LETTING GO OF

Things, people, situations that do not value my time or my energy I’m happy to let go of.  I will continue trusting my heart wisdom.  The balance of Head and Heart continues.

Being mindful of what and who to give our attention and our energy to will be my biggest suggestion to everyone.  As well as connecting to the heart space, to trust inner wisdom and intuition.

I have loved the deeper connection to my yoga students via Zoom and am forever grateful for their trust.

A big heartfelt thank you to the whole yoga community.  To you, for showing up, for navigating this challenging time.  Regardless of whether you came onto Zoom or not.  I appreciate your trust, your resilience and your adaptability to these new ways of being.  You are awesome.  Keep shining your light.

Om shanti.  Peace always.  See you on the mat.  Zoom or in person.  It’s all appreciated.

I value your time and energy.

I let go.

I simply let go.

◊

I am not my thoughts.

I am not my fears.

I am not limiting beliefs.

I let them go.

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I am not my stress.

I am not my fears.

I am not my insecurities.

I let them go.

◊

I simply let go.

◊

I feel lighter with every breath.

I feel calmer with every breath.

I let go.

◊

I let go of the tension and I realign with ease.

I let go of worry and I realign with faith.

I let go of doubt and I realign with confidence.

◊

I let go.

I simply let go.

◊

I let go of anger and realign with forgiveness.

I let go of frustration and realign with patience.

I let go of annoyance and realign with compassion.

I let go of guilt and I align with acceptance.

◊

I let go.

I allow.

I align.

◊

I let go.

I simply let go.

♦

May you have the courage to fully let go.

The most important question to ask yourself, for yoga and for life.

Losing motivation, hands up if that has ever happened to you.  Mine is up.  Sometimes, we even lose motivation for the very things we previously had a passion for.  No need to dwell on the fact that it has happened, let’s explore what we can do about it.

Some of us lose our motivation for our yoga practice, not only in winter.  We blame the rain, cold wind, unwellness, colds, stiffness, darkness, sleepiness or other for it.

I’m often asked: “Bettina, how can I keep my motivation for yoga all year round?”.  It’s a valid and important question. How can we keep motivated or even increase our motivation not only for yoga, but for other things in our lives as well.

Let’s de-mystify motivation.  Let’s look at the word :  MOTIVE (ation).

Can we ask ourselves, what is actually our MOTIVE for doing what we are doing.  In case of yoga practice, what is our why for practising yoga in the first place?

Is it the desire to improve your health?  And has that desire perhaps slipped into the background, has the motive (ation) to perfect certain postures moved into the foreground?  And now you realise that this sense of competition is not really in line with your values and why you started yoga in the first place.  Recognise that, become true to your initial motivation and reason for practice, namely your health, and your motivation will come back.

When we know why we do what we do, motivation naturally happens.  Our motivation will be in line with our own values.  It will be in line with what is important to us, what matters to us most.  And if it is not, then we will lack motivation.

So in case of our yoga practice, we need to become clear on why we are stepping on the mat.  Ask yourself, what is your motivation, your reason, for coming to class.  And if you have practiced yoga with me before, you know that I invite you to answer this question several times a year.

Being clear on our reason and motive for doing something is the answer to any lack of motivation.  Yoga, life and all!

Ask yourself here and now, what are your reasons for allowing yoga to be a part of your life?  Or, what is missing when you don’t practice yoga for a while?

Notice, these answers reflect our values in life.

On a personal note.

Each year after I come back from my July holiday in Germany, and from the two week break after Christmas, I ask myself, what is your motive for teaching yoga Bettina?

I aim to answer this question to remain an authentic yoga teacher, and to stay motivated throughout the year for my profession, as well as for my own yoga practice.

Here are my answers:

• Adding value.  I have the desire to add value to my clients’ life.  The value of being of service and do useful work is important to me.  Also, to be adding value to those I encounter, in general.
• Excellence.  Personal and professional excellence.  I do wish to fulfil my fullest potential.  I do realise however, that not everybody strives for that.  Personally I do, and nothing prompts me more to do just that than running my own business in the healing arts.
• Connection.  Connection to myself in a closer and broader sense is essential to me.  I wish to pass on the idea that connection to self fosters a deeper connection to others.  That in turn fosters a sense of peace.  My contribution to world peace.
• Healing.  I do see my work as healing work.  Facilitating healing from physical ailment and / or emotional trauma is my dharma.
• Selfcare and selflove.  Big statements, I know.  I strongly believe that all healing starts with us looking after our needs first.  Not in an arrogant way. In a caring way.  Caring for yourself first.  Selfcare is not selfish, it’s essential.
• Challenge.  I thrive on a physical and mental challenge.  Interacting with humans, running my own business and the physical practice of yoga provides me with plenty of that.

Your turn now to being clear on the motive and meaning for doing something in your life.  It is your answer to any lack of motivation.  ON and OFF the mat!.

Wishing you the courage to ask the question.

See you on the mat.