Citrus Poppyseed Buttons

Enjoy these light and delicious biscuits from our President, Astrid Pickup – perfect for an end of class sweet treat!
Ingredients
200g butter
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 3/4 cup plain flour
2 teaspoons poppyseeds
1 teaspoon grated rind of any citrus fruit
Icing:
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 tablespoon citrus juice
Method:
  • Beat margarine, sugar, rind and egg until very light in colour.
  • Add flour in batches then stir in poppyseeds.
  • Refrigerate covered mixture for 1/2 hour or so.
  • Place balls of mixture on baking paper, flatten slightly.
  • Bake in 180C over for 8-12 minutes until very lightly browned.
  • When cool drizzle icing across biscuits in thin lines and allow to set.
  • Dust with icing sugar to finish (optional).

What’s Your Pranayama Practice?

Most of us do daily asanas, meditations and perhaps a regular Yoga Nidra – but how regular is your pranayama practice?

It’s an aspect of yoga that can be overlooked or taken for granted and as time goes by we tend to stick to the same old breathing practices.

But like asana, we should be constantly refining and exploring our pranayama practice. And to help you do just that the IYTA is running the workshop: Power through Pranayama & Bandhas on Saturday, November 7 at Crows Nest, NSW.

Gyan Morrison is running this 3.5 hour workshop and will be focusing on specific pranayama techniques and introducing how to integrate bandhas (energy locks) with a couple of the practices.

Some of the practices being covered include Bhastrika, Nadi Shodhana, Bharamari and the cooling breaths: Sheetali, sheetkari and kaki.

Gyan says: “Utilising the bandhas makes the pranayama practice more potent.”

This workshop follows on from the previous two IYTA Pranayama workshops run by Gyan and Alana, although the content will be different. So, it is open to all: people who have attended the earlier workshops will learn new techniques and if you haven’t yet attended one of these sessions – it will be a great introduction!

Gyan stresses these workshops are interactive – everyone learns from one another. He explains that like asana practice, not everyone experiences the same effect from each pranayama. He adds: “We might be doing a cooling practice, such as Sheetkari – and for some people they are experiencing the cooling effect quite tangibly but others might not be feeling very much at all.”

So Gyan helps to make subtle changes to enhance each individual’s experience.

It’s a workshop which many students have lightbulb or “aha” moments when a pranayama practice they may have been doing for years can become more potent by making incremental adjustments.

Not only will your personal practice benefit, but you will also enhance your teaching of pranayama.

This workshop is not just for yoga teachers, but for anyone wishing to experience an afternoon connecting with others and focusing and developing their pranayama practice using the bandhas.

To book click HERE

 

Meet Deb Collie – Our new DYT Course Manager

Deb’s first experience of yoga was while she was working as a Qantas flight attendant and living the seemingly glamorous life of attending yoga classes in Singapore, Perth and Japan.
She says: “I had friends in Sydney who encouraged me to attend a yoga class in Sydney and I loved it. At the time I was travelling to Singapore regularly and I was fed up with shopping – so I would go to yoga studios instead.  I also attended a studio in Perth where I lived at that time. I loved how yoga was not just a physical practice, but focused on breathing, philosophy and meditation. I would feel lighter after attending a class.”
Deb’s passion for yoga continued after she left Qantas, moved to Camden in NSW, married Tim and became a mum to Jack (now ten). And about five years ago she was chatting to her good friend Amy Seal about how she dreamed of becoming a yoga teacher. 
The duo researched courses and both attended an IYTA Open Day. They were struck by how comprehensive and inclusive the course was and so they both signed up to the 2015 Diploma. 
Deb says: “I really enjoyed the course. It was much more involved than I thought it would be. At the time Jack was five years old and it was a bit of a challenge working part-time in an office, caring for Jack and keeping up-to-date with my assignments! But I loved it.”
Deb was taken on as a yoga teacher just before she graduated by another IYTA teacher – Angela Baker at her Campbelltown Yoga Studio. 
Deb adds: “It was great to have the experience of teaching my own general class.” Deb adds that doing the IYTA Diploma of Yoga Teaching course was wonderful preparation for teaching.
She says: “If I had done a shorter course then I don’t think I would have been able to cope. I had students coming up to me with bad backs, sore knees and even PTSD. But I was able to handle it and come up with options because the IYTA course had been so thorough. It really sets you up with the confidence to teach.”
Deb now teaches two classes a week, has a one-day a week office job AND is managing the IYTA’s DYT course. She teaches a private class from home and an over-55s class.  
And she manages to weave in walking her two boxer dogs early every morning.


As for her personal practice, Deb fits in yoga when she can she has a daily meditation practice and does pranayama and asana with her husband Tim and son Jack whenever she can persuade them!  
Deb’s role on the IYTA’s DYT and Foundation Studies course includes managing the course, communicating with current and prospective students, ensuring the online course runs smoothly, communicating with the 22 lecturers regarding marking assignments and attending study weekends and representing the IYTA at Open Days.
Deb works with Amy Seal who has stepped down as Course Manager but is working as an IT coordinator with IYTA