Nourish and connect

Enrich your understanding of culture and connection at our upcoming IYTA retreat

We’re delighted to be hosting Jem Stone and Eve White as well as our own Ros Fogg at our annual retreat this October.

The highlight of our Retreat will be the Cultural Awareness training run by Jem and Eve, and there are also a host of other activities including a yoga movie night, yoga nidra session, daily yoga classes, nature walks and swimming and spa time.

The retreat – set amid 60 acres of pristine bushland – includes delicious freshly cooked vegetarian meals and accommodation.

Embracing the Indigenous heritage of our wonderful country and fostering a connection with the earth and nature are ways you can deepen and enhance your and your students yoga experience.

All about Jem and Eve

Jem Stone is First Nations woman, who has been gratefully living on Wurundjeri Country since 2011. She has worked in the wellness industry for more than two decades. Jem is a Yoga teacher, Wayapa Wuurrk Practitioner and Trainer, Rebirthing Breathwork Therapist and Educator, We-Al-Li facilitator, Dadirri and Meditation Teacher, Sound Healer and Cultural Consultant.

She is currently a director of Ngungwulah Aboriginal Corporation and Yaan Circle member.

She says she began the trainings, “To create reciprocity between the wellness industry and first Nations Culture.”

And she stresses the importance of learning directly from First Nations people. She says: “Learn from us not about us.”

Eve White began teaching culture through art at schools whilst also teaching yoga in yoga studios.

She would begin every yoga class with an acknowledgment and share insight into First Nations ways, which she says, “felt like a wonderful connection.”

She is part of the Yaan Circle Family and was keen to offer more in this sacred space of yoga, adding: “It felt only right to connect and honour the sacred land that we practise on.”

Eve founds her work understandably rewarding. expecialliy: “Encouraging others to dig deep and connect with the First Nations ways and witness others finding synchronicity in both these cultures and rediscovering their own unique culture.”

She advises we all embrace cultural awareness in our practice and classes, take time to connect with the land we practise on, slow down to witness nature’s symbols and allow the wisdom to flow through you passing it on to others.

Learn how and delve deeper into this profound teaching by booking into our Annual Retreat

 

Align online

Somatic Yoga lends itself perfectly to online classes – you can be in your own space, yet connected with the teacher – and even wear your Pjs!

There are very few Somatics classes being offered face-to-face in Australia, so having a workshop online is a rare opportunity to experience what it’s all about.

IYTA ACT rep, Katrina Hinton is an expert in Somatic Yoga and will be running two half-day online immersions drawing from Hanna Somatics and the latest work of the brilliant Australian rehabilitation therapist and lecturer, Joanne Elphinstone. The two sessions will be held over two weekends in September.

Katrina says: “Somatics is essentially an internal experience. The practice is all about turning our awareness inwards to our sensations: intéroception as opposed to proprioception; how we experience ourselves in space. We are guided through movements with suggestions and visualisations to help explore and sense, the spaces inside us.”

Katrina adds that the style is perfectly suited to online learning because you are mostly lying down and translating the cues into very subtle movements.

She says: “The movements are performed very slowly in unison with your breath. Everyone moves at their own pace. Unlike a typical yoga class the energy is quite contained with the focus on connecting mind to subtle sensations; so doing it in the comfort and privacy at home is ideal; no distractions and you can even do it in the dark in your pjs if you wish!”

Accessing classes and workshops online has become the new normal since Covid. It keeps us safe and connected and for practices like Somatics it works very well.

Katrina says: “It was a great way to reach out to my students during lockdowns and I’ve retained a hybrid class since in case people are travelling or have a sniffle they don’t want to share.

“Personally, I love the luxury of choosing fabulous learnings online! Ones that I may not have been able to travel to, access or squeezed into schedule are so much more possible when all I have to do is login.

“The beauty of an online workshop is having the recording so you can stop, go back, replay a bit that you need to hear again to fully digest.”

Katrina’s IYTA online workshop is punctuated by opportunities to experience the sensations in your body so you won’t be sitting for hours on end not moving.

She says: “We will embody each concept throughout the two three hour sessions so you will need to be in a space large enough so you can walk around, maybe even dance around and spread out on the floor.

“We will use the technology to breakout into small groups and bounce ideas of each other much as we would face to face. You will need someone to take full length photos of you or master your ability to take a time-delayed shot of yourself. We will be then using these in our own postural assessment.”

  Participants will also:

  •   Learn about the work of Thomas Hanna and Joanne Elphinston
  • Understand how three postural archetypes might relate to your own posture
  • Look at key postural reflexes and the importance of head position
  • Learn a new vocabulary for cueing in your teaching to promote ease and grace
  • Discover a new technique for the functional and easeful head position
  • Explore the importance of reflexes in the feet
  • Experience greater sensor input and sensation in the feet
  • Learn about fascia, promoting postural tone and boosting sensory input and interoception.

To book in click HERE

 

Veggie brekkie boost

Whip up a delicious combo of eggs, fetta and spinach for the perfect way to start the day.

Ingredients

2 eggs

Knob of Butter

30grammes of fetta cheese

Cupful of spinach leaves

Sourdough toast

Optional: Butter for toast

 

Method

Crack eggs into a bowl and whisk

Add knob of butter to a non-stick fry pan

Wash spinach leaves and thinly slice

Crumble fetta cheese

When butter has melted add the eggs and stir with a wooden spoon

After a minute and the eggs are starting to scramble, add the spinach and fetta for around 30 seconds.

Toast the bread and spread butter if desired

Then top with the egg/fetta and spinach mix

Add salt/cracked pepper if desired.

Eat immediately and enjoy