Happy Sunday fellow, magical, humans.

I spent a big chunk of this week boiling hot (whilst repeatedly boiling the kettle) and feeling smelly. Not the best combination. Not at all. Something curious involving a valve happened to the boiler and the central heating got stuck ON very very high whilst no hot water would emerge from the taps at all. For several long, hot, sweaty days, until we could finally get a hold of someone wonderful and clever to come and fix it for us. That wasn’t too fun, and I believe by the end of my evening class this week, having demonstrated quite a few postures with a strong Breath of Fire, I really was as red as a giant overripe tomato.

But, alas, the feeling of my hot shower when it was fixed was PURE JOY. And I won’t be taking my access to hot water for granted any time soon.

I am, by the way, a huge advocate for cold showers. I use them a lot. I did have a long period where I had one every single morning but, through the Autumn and Winter, in the interests of being kind to myself, I tend to do it only a few mornings a week when I really need the reset of the stress system on waking. When I need the jolt. When I have the courage to really embrace it (always use oil on your skin before, it really helps) it makes an absolutely huge difference to my day. To my life. I recommend spending the first 30 seconds really swearing a lot. It’s interesting to see quite how extreme your language can become. Then you can switch to breathing exercises that make the experience even more magical.

Golden Silence

For me, this week has been about exploring where I am HONESTLY at with my relationship to the stillness and to silence. To safety.

I took a break from social media. A partial one, at least. I cut down my time spent on social media platforms by 95%, in fact. And it made a huge different to the behaviour of my mind. Fascinatingly, though, the apps themselves were quick to notice my change in behaviour and rolled out all the stops to try and get me back. Pro tip: make sure, if you do want to really cut back your social media activity, that ALL notifications are switched off. I have found, this week, that they can be extremely triggering.

I really relished the time I took to sit in silence this week. As I said in my last post, I am making a commitment to find at least 30 minutes of silence a day. For me this is most easily achieved, in my status as a very early riser, at dawn as I light my candles and roll out my mat for daily practise. I must admit that I did find that I really needed my music some of the mornings. I can find it so very soothing and heart opening and just lovely. I couldn’t deny myself it entirely. But I have taken the time to rest afterwards in silence every day and what I found was that silence really does speak to me. And in a big way. So much, in fact, that silence has to say to me that I need a lot longer to reflect on all that has come.

Classes this week

A few important things for me to mention here about classes.

Bantock Park

In person classes at Bantock House have been officially declared safe to go ahead as Tier 2 restrictions continue to be in place, and I will be at Bantock House Museum and Gardens for my usual class on Tuesday morning at 10:15am. However, following this coming week I will be taking off a week from in-person classes for half term.

After half term I am going to be introducing that in person classes must be paid for in advance. I am hesitant to do this, as I realise that often people are unable to come after booking for reasons beyond their control, and my cancellation policy will be as fair as is possible. However, the number of cancellations that have come in the day before or day of classes in recent weeks mean that the only way I can continue is with the current payment options being reviewed.

So, this week is as normal, spaces are still available, and do book online if you’d like to come this Tuesday. If you have any questions about any of this do get in touch and I look forward to seeing some of your beautiful places on the mat there very soon.

Online – New Timetable On The Way

Regarding my online classes, Wednesday morning’s class at 10.00am, via Zoom, is going ahead as normal this week and beyond (no break planned for half term). However, after this week’s class (which is going ahead as normal, tomorrow at 7pm), Monday evening at 7.00pm is going to be changing to Thursdays at 7pm. This is for a whole host of ‘life’ reasons involving parental spinning of plates (plates everywhere much smashing). I am also considering adding a new daytime class on Friday mornings from early November. If this is something you’d be interested in do let me know.

As always I could write for a year. I have had a very magical weekend this weekend, learning a lot of amazing things, as always, from Carolyn Cowan. I want to tell you more about that and will be updating my blog again soon. So look out for that. In the meantime do book a class. The first one is free for everyone. And have the most magical week.

With all the love

Sara-Jayne xxx