THE BREAKDOWN.

Now I’m not talking about some superficial had enough of my job, location, relationship type relocation, I’m talking about the disintegration, the volcano, the collapse of everything to this point that defines me as ME.

I can feel it skirting around my edges.

Can you feel it too?

Right now, the women of Generation X - latch key kids raised by Mum’s who worked fulltime, women who embraced booze, drugs and sex as hard as their male counterparts, women now in their 40s and 50s who experienced sexual assault and trauma as the norm, and who’ve instigated a powerful social narrative around consent, better health, female physical strength and conditions in the workplace that support a female endocrine system - are going through perimenopause. And what I will say is:

LOOK OUT WORLD

The world can be scary but we are already capable - or not capable - of responding in whatever situation we find ourselves in. We are what we are in this present moment and we can make ourselves more capable, in different ways, each and every day. Learning to trust ourselves and our capabilities is a most important first step.

15 years ago, there was no way I could have run a program that started at 6.00am. Not even for one day, let alone 21.

When changing any old behaviour, there is effort in the beginning but all the effort is to make it effortless. And it will.

You try and force or hurry any of these things and frustrations are born and stress in the body begins it’s constrictive dance and we immediately separate from the person, the place, the moment and we miss out on a depth of connection that actually fuels us and restores vitality and passion in the ordinary day to day.

You see, we are so much about patterns, helpful, harmful and indifferent. They feel like EVERYTHING. Yet patterns, because they are of the mind, are only really, just 1% of you. The other 99% is the part of you that’s deeper than the body, breath and mind - it is bliss, it is source, it is all of the vitality and energy of the entire Universe. In. Side. You.

LAND in your body. As you move into each new gesture, take a moment to consciously land in your body.

LISTEN to your body. Am I comfortable? Am I steady? Is my body telling me to shift something? To give more, to give less?

No doubt you've a habit or two that bothers you. You want it to change but the groove you've worn to flow back into it time and time again, runs deep. And the more you focus on tearing yourself away from it, the more your mind digs in.

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If you’re ready for The Master Course on freeing yourself from things that make you suffer.

Maybe it's booze, food, poor relationships, negative thinking, self-doubt, scrolling, rushing, procrastinating, drugs or fear.

Things that may even once have served you but now make you suffer and you'd love to throw that monkey off your back.

Join me for 21 days, in this yoga therapy framework and learn how to rewire your own conditioning, gathering tools of change, for life. The 21-Day ON-DEMAND Dissolving Patterns Program is accessible to anyone in any timezone, on any work roster, within the framework of any other life commitments.

Start your journey of change here.

One of the most crucial parts of change is the simplest one of all - do something different. Whether that’s choosing a different cup for your tea, wearing a colour you normally wouldn’t, trying new foods, new words, new movements, sleeping on the other side of the bed, taking a different mode of transportation, sitting a different seat at the table or going somewhere you’ve never been before to do something you’ve never done before.

Today, I want to acknowledge the honour it is to grow older, and to grow older with others. Whether those others are our friends, family, colleagues or lovers. We can be surrounded by people, but our own obstacles can confine us in a sphere of loneliness.

Shane and I are one messy, joyful, chaotic, cohesive example of relationship as yoga, yoga as relationship. Our relationship reflects us to us.

Life has a funny (and often very unfunny) way of throwing curve balls, ranging from the inconvenient to the utterly devastating. Relationships, of any loving variety, are our buffer, they soothe the hardship of being human and they tell us so much about ourselves.

When you look around at your relationships, what do you see reflected back at you?

When you know where you’re going and you look after the vehicle that’s going to get you there, you’re in with one hell of a good shot at arriving at a place where you have the ability to do whatever you want to do, because what you’re doing is what you love. One step at a time, in the right direction.

It is deeply inspirational to be a part of a community. This one here, Lismore on Bundjalung country. It’s a place where everyone is welcome regardless of age, religious or sexual preferences, skin colour, ability or disability. It’s a real meeting point of togetherness and that is powerful. It’s a brief moment to be a part of everything and free from separation and that is healing.

Our chests become tight with panic and fear, our shoulders lift as we are challenged by our opposers, absent is any space for deep listening. We are living in an age of unprecedented local, national and global trauma. We are living in a time of things - at least on the surface - coming to a head. Fires, floods, melting ice caps, rising sea levels, racism, discrimination, sickness, conflict. But what lies underneath all of this turbulence that is our get out of jail free card in terms of tension? How do we find an attitude of relaxation in a relentlessly challenging world?

Not only is this statement the first step, it is also utterly essential when embarking on a journey of change. This is one of the reasons why no matter how you might try, you cannot change anyone else. If they’re not ready, no amount of push is going to gift them the sheer doggedness that transformation can take.

Visualizing and imagining objects or aspects of nature, remind us of certain qualities that we need to draw from at different times to fuel us, nurture us, to inspire or simply allow ourselves to just be. In nature exists all of the archetypes, in fact, just in the trees alone! Some are so nimble, others so sturdy, some need little soil, others burrow so deep.

Do not dismiss anything as too small.

This little nugget applies to goals as well as obstacles as well as markers of change. So often we’re obsessed with the big things. Big things are great motivators but all big things are propped up by a hundred thousand small things. Once you know and accept that, you’ll understand the power of having tiny achievable goals that you do repetitively, as much as you accept that changing one tiny part of a massive pattern, is what starts to break that pattern apart, as much as you’ll begin to recognize small changes of habit as enormous milestones of progression.

Cleaning your room, or car or office so there is space and order again allows us to feel clear, more available to function better and even empowered and of greater purpose. Clearing the body and mind of some of the debris allows it to function more freely, under less stress or conditioning,

There is an allowance then for us to be empty of stuff and therefore we feel lighter and joyful and more adaptable in each moment. Simple practice. Empty empty, happy happy.

There's a very good reason why gratitude gets so much time in the sun.

Here's three very easy ways to weild the powerful weapon of gratitude, to slay negative thinking:

BUT with love, with genuine kindness in our hearts, we can create so many opportunities to be heard. We can make friends with those who are supposed to be our enemies, we can see beyond the labels and the subcultures and simply see the human underneath. The human that is scared or suffering or simply wanting like almost everyone, to be safe and happy too.