The post KoAlign ™ launches New Cork Alignment Yoga Mat appeared first on Yoga Collective Paremata.

Highlights

• Cauliflower and almond salad
• Cork yoga mat
• Timetable Change
• Simple meditation guide

Roast Cauliflower & Almond Salad Recipe

This recipe is one of my ‘go to’ recipes for a quick, nutritious, and yummy salad.

The bonus is my kids love it too.

Salad Ingredients

• 1 small head of cauliflower, chopped into pieces
• ½ red onion, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 Tbsp bacon fat (or other fat or oil), melted
• 1/3 cup chopped almonds
• Salt to taste

Salad Instructions

• Mix ingredients together and toss with fat
• Spread on a baking tray and bake at 180° for ~ 25-30 minutes. 

Tahini Dressing Ingredients

• 2 tbsp tahini 
• 2 tbsp lemon juice 
• 1/4 cup water (or less)
• 1 tsp cumin 
• 1/2 tsp salt
• parsley chopped

Tahini Dressing Instructions

• Whisk all dressing ingredients together adding the water a little at a time to get the right consitency.
• Toss the Roast Cauliflower mixture in the dressing, and serve.

Cork Yoga Mats(Pre-Order Special)

Our first shipment is due to arrive at the end of October.

These will retail at $95 per mat. However, if you pre-order now, you can get your mat for just $60 ($35 off).

==> Pre-order your cork yoga mat, and receive $35-off, here

Timetable Change

With daylight savings, the days are getting longer.

I know many would prefer to practice yoga a little later in the evening.

I’m considering removing all of the 6:15pm classes and adding another 7:30pm class on Wednesday.

Before I make any changes, I’d love to get your thoughts.

What do you think? How would this affect you?

    
Simple Meditation Guide

People often start doing yoga to improve their flexibility and mobility.

But, it’s the de-stressing, ‘me time’, and lasting sense of calm, that keeps people coming back, again and again.

You can meditate for as little or as long as you like. Even if you only have a spare 5 minutes each day, that’s fine. Don’t judge yourself.

Probably, the biggest misconception around meditation is this idea, you have to ’empty your mind’, and try and resist the thoughts that come up. This is not the case – it’s about consciously directing your awareness to an intended target, and practicing keeping it there.

Simply make a start and practice regularly.

With practice, as with any skill, you’ll improve and receive the many benefits of meditation.

Today, I’m going to share a really simple method with you…

Method
Sit in a comfortable position, relaxed and upright, so you remain alert, and don’t drift off.

I recommend you use some kind of timer and set the desired time to sit. I use an application on my Android phone, called Meditation Helper.

There’s lots of other good, free ones you can get on Android and Google app store.

Close your eyes, or adopt a soft defocused gaze.

Take 5 or 10 deep breaths, and breathe out slowly and audibly.

Then, breathe normally.

At first, you need to give your active ‘Monkey Mind’ space to gently settle and cease bouncing around.

With your eyes closed, allow your awareness to drift from one thing to another – birds chirping… the low hum of nearby traffic … the breeze in the trees… the warmth of the Sun… or the cool of the breeze on your skin.

All you’re trying to do here, is observe without turning what you observe into a story.

But when you find yourself imagining the future, dwelling on the past, or thinking about what’s happening, without judgment, gently guide your awareness back to the present moment.

You might spend the entire alloted time this way. That’s totally OK.

Or, if you feel your mind becoming calmer, now constrain your awareness to things happening just around your body. It could be the feel of the chair you’re sitting on… the warmth of the Sun on your skin. Or, some other sensation.

There’s no prize for forcing things. Just enjoy the process and relax.

Now, constrain your mind to just the sensations related to your breathing – that is, your chest rising and falling… air coming in and leaving your throat… your nostrils flaring in and out… the warmth and cool of the breath passing over your lips.

If you find your mind drifting, gently return to awareness of your breath. The tendancy for your mind to wander is normal, especially as learn how to sustain your focus.

You’re teaching your mind a new skill, and with practice, it will grow stronger and stronger.

If you need to, at any stage of the meditation, widen your field of awareness, until your mind settles down again.

Sustain this effort until your timer goes off.

Don’t get up right away. Take a few moments to appreciate how you feel… your body… the sense of calm… the sense of ‘flow’.

Set an intention to take this feeling into the rest of your day.

Finally, gently open your eyes. Take in the view… the sounds… the smells, and other sensations, as you move back into your day.
    

The post Yoga Collective Newsletter #5 appeared first on Yoga Collective Paremata.

Highlights…

• Kombucha recipe
• Cork yoga mats on the way (pre-order special)
• What I’m reading at the moment
• School holiday schedule
• Final week for kids yoga
• Ideas for kids holiday activities
• Quote of the week

Kombucha Recipe

Lots of people have been asking me how to brew Kombucha.

My family and I drink quite a bit of it, and when you do what’s known as a second ferment, with squeezed lemon and fresh ginger, it tastes delicious.

The kids love it, and it makes a healthy, non-alcoholic substitute for wine.

Here’s how to make it…

Ingredients

• 1 Kombucha Scoby
• 3 or 4  tea bags or 4 teaspoons of eta (green, black, or rooibos)
• 3/4 of a cup of white sugar
• 2 litres of hot water
• 200 ml of kombucha from a previous batch as a starter. Or 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar if you don’t have any kombucha.

(Or 3 litres or water, 5 tea bags and 225g sugar)

• Optional ingredients, for second brew
• Freshly ground ginger
• Turmeric
• Lemon zest

Equipment

• Glass jar for first brew – I use a 5L jar with a tap on it
• Glass bottles – you can use brewers bottles or you can use wine bottles with screw top caps.

  Initially, you will want to sterialise them, but after that, I recommend you just rinse them with hot water, between re-uses.

What is a Scoby and Where to Get It
A Scoby is a symbiotic organism that looks like a tan coloured Jelly Fish.

It’s not pretty, but it is harmless (as long as you don’t eat it).

You’ll find a Scoby will grow and divide regularly, with the new Daughter plant forming on the top of your Kombucha jar, with the Mother towards the bottom.

In order to make space, you’ll often have to peel the daughter layer off, and discard it in your compost, or give it to a friend.

If you know someone who’s making Kombucha, just ask them for the Daughter layer, when they peel it off.

You can a Scoby in a glass jar, with a lid, and enough Kombucha to keep it covered. It can happily live dormant in the fridge, like this, for months.

Brew

• Take tea bags and brew in a pot of hot water, for 15 minutes.
• Strain to remove tea leaves (or remove tea bags)
• In another jug, stir sugar with approximately 1 cup of hot water, until sugar has dissolved, to make sugar water
• Combine the brewed tea, sugar water, and starter Kombucha tea, and top up with water to a total of 2 litres
• Add Scoby
• Now add the Scooby – I normally just pick it up with clean hands or tongs.
• It will probably float but sometimes it sinks. It will make no difference if it floats or sinks, so don’t worry about it. If the Scoby has a ‘dirty’ side where it’s darker in colour, and has beard like brown bits sticking to it, then put that side facing down into the tea. The brown bits are yeast.
• Add muslin cloth, to keep bugs from contaminating the mixture, and keep in place with elastic band
• Store out of direct sunlight, in a moderate temperature. I keep mine on a shelf in the Kitchen.
• Allow to brew, testing every few days
• When most of the sweetness has gone, but it hasn’t yet begun to taste sour, it’s ready to be bottled

First Ferment

• The fermentation will take 5-14 days depending on the temperature and the vitality of your Scoby
• If you check your brew after 2 or 3 days, you’ll notice a scum forming on the surface. It’s not scum at all; it’s the first thin membrane of your new Daughter Kombucha.
• Start tasting the brew after 4 or 5 days.
• Gently move the scoby aside and dip a spoon into the liquid.
• When the kombucha is ready it should be neither too sweet nor too sour.
• This is rather a personal taste and will depend on how much sugar you want left in the brew. Some like it sweet ,but others prefer it sour. It’s up to you, so test it every day until its the way you like it.

Bottling & Second Ferment

• When the kombucha is ready, with clean hands gently lift the mother culture and it’s offspring onto a clean plate.
• Strain the kombucha into your measuring jug leaving behind about 200ml in the bowl, as a starter for the next batch.
• Now, fill your clean bottles with the kombucha, and add flavouring if you like. I use grated ginger, turmeric, and lemon zest, with a little bit of honey.
• Label them and store them in a cupboard.
• After bottling your kombucha make up a second batch of tea for the culture and set your second brew to ferment.
• Kombucha is ready to drink immediately, but storing the bottled kombucha for a while will help it to get fizzy.
• The kombucha will often grow little scobys on the top of the liquid in the bottles. This is perfectly normal and nothing to worry about, but look out for them when you take your first mouthful!

Need a Scoby?
Either me, or one of the other Kombucha enthusiasts, at the studio, will have a spare Scoby we can give you.

Just give me a bell.

Cork Yoga Mats Are On Their Way (Pre-Order Special)

Our first shipment is due to arrive at the end of October.

These will retail at $95 per mat. However, if you pre-order now, you can get your mat for just $60 ($35 off).

==> Pre-order your cork yoga mat, and receive $35-off, here

What I’m Reading at the Moment

This is a riveting and interesting story about the network of women spies, during World War II.

It’s a great read!

School Holiday schedule

I’m looking at taking a couple of days off, during the holidays.

Weather permitting, I’ll probably go on mini road trip with my family, in the campervan 🙂

I’ll let you know in the next few days, which classes are running.

Final Week for Kids Yoga

This is the final week of kids yoga.

Thanks to all the parents who supported Kids Yoga, this term.

It was an interesting experiment. We’ve concluded, in order to make kids yoga work properly, we need to run two separate classes – one for younger kids and one for older kids.

However, we don’t have the resource to do that, at the moment.

So, we won’t be running Kids Yoga next term.

Ideas for Kids Holiday Activities

I’ve been looking around for ideas for stimulating activities, for my kids, during the next school holidays.

Many of you have kids, or grand kids, so I thought this info might be useful. Here are some of the more interesting events:

• Pauatahanui School Lamb & Calf Day (look out for Rachel Ireland and her pet lambs!)
• Scene of crime workshop
• Weta holiday workshop (Isaac did one of these last holidays, and loved it!)
• Kids theatre puppet shows & workshop
• Craig Smith Wonky Donkey show

If you see other interesting ones, feel free to share them in the comments section on the blog page.

Quote of the Week

A year from now you may wish you had started today

~ Karen Lamb

If  you have any questions, please drop them in the comments, on this page (or reply to this email).

Otherwise, have a beautiful week ahead 🙂

Cheers,
Lauren McKee

P.S. – Invite your friends for a Free Week of Yoga, and receive some cool rewards yogacollective.nz/rewards

The post Yoga Collective Newsletter#4 appeared first on Yoga Collective Paremata.

So, I thought I’d turn this into a newsletter-style post.

Highlights…

1. Nut slice recipe
2. Chair yoga, starting Monday (tomorrow)
3. Libertine Tea available in shop
4. New Yoga Collective mats are coming
5. Earning free gifts from the shop
6. Poem – “She Let Go”

Nut Slice Recipe

This slice is healthy, delicious, and gives you lots of energy to kick-start your day.

In fact, I love having this slice every morning, for breakfast, because it’s so quick to eat.

When you’re making this slice, the entire house is filled with an amazing aroma!

Here’s how to make it…

Nuts & Seeds
Mix the following nuts, seeds, and coconut, together:

• 2 cups of nuts (almonds, cashews, brazil, any mixture)
• 1 cup of shredded coconut
• ½ cup of fine coconut
• ¾ cup of pumpkin seeds
• ¾ cup of sunflower seeds
• ½ cup sesame seeds (or chia, or flaxseeds)

Mash Ingredietns

In a pot add the following ingredients:

• 2 cups (280g) dates
• 3 tbsp (60g) honey
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup water

Simmer, with a lid on, for about 10 minute, until dates are soft.

Then mix in coconut oil and salt:

• ½ cup (120g) coconut oil
• pinch salt

Now, mash together, using a fork.

Finally… 
Add the nuts & seeds into the mash, and press into a tin.

Refrigerate overnight.

Once set, slice into smaller bars, ready to eat, when you’re on the run.

Optional
When I’m feeling indulgent, I love to add a few pieces of dark chocolate to the mash.

Chair Yoga, Mondays 11am

Just a quick reminder, regular chair yoga classes start tomorrow:

==> Chair Yoga, Mondays 11am

Don’t forget, if you’ve never been to Yoga Collective before, you can come along for a free week.

Also, if you’ve previously registered for a free week – and you couldn’t make it – you’re welcome to come along and try this class for free.

Libertine Tea is Now Available

Those who arrive a few minutes before class, get to enjoy a nice warm cup of Tea.

Many of you have asked where to get the Libertine Tea – especially the Kapow! – with the Chilly ‘kick’.

It’s now available for purchase at class, and will be added to the shop, in the next few days.

New Yoga Mats

I’m super excited to announce the new Yoga Collective mats, designed by me (and Wynne).

Come and take it for a test drive, next time you come to class.

These mats are made of high quality, soft cork, with a natural rubber base.

The lines are perfect for helping you to align yourself, when doing certain yoga poses.

(I only have the prototype, at the moment. But I’ll be taking pre-orders for them, shortly.)

Earn Free Gifts from the Shop

We’ve got some really cool gifts in the store. For example: salt lamps, oil diffusers, soy candles, teas, and lots more to come.

When your friends register & come along for a free week, you earn points, which can be redeemed at the shop.

More details here:

==> yogacollective.nz/rewards

Poem – “She Let Go”

This is a moving poem I have read in recent classes.

Many of you asked for a copy…

She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go.

“She let go of the fear. She let go of the judgments. She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head. She let go of the committee of indecision within her. She let go of all the ‘right’ reasons. Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go.

She didn’t ask anyone for advice. She didn’t read a book on how to let go. She didn’t search the scriptures. She just let go.  She let go of all of the memories that held her back. She let go of all of the anxiety that kept her from moving forward. She let go of the planning and all of the calculations about how to do it just right.

She didn’t promise to let go. She didn’t journal about it. She didn’t write the projected date in her Day-Timer. She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper. She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope. She just let go.

She didn’t analyze whether she should let go. She didn’t call her friends to discuss the matter. She didn’t do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment. She didn’t call the prayer line. She didn’t utter one word. She just let go.

No one was around when it happened. There was no applause or congratulations. No one thanked her or praised her. No one noticed a thing. Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go.

There was no effort. There was no struggle. It wasn’t good and it wasn’t bad. It was what it was, and it is just that.

In the space of letting go, she let it all be. A small smile came over her face. A light breeze blew through her. And the sun and the moon shone forevermore.”

– Rev. Safire Rose

Have an awesome week!

See you soon, in class.

Cheers,

Lauren

The post Yoga Collective Newsletter #1 appeared first on Yoga Collective Paremata.

Now it’s in place, I am excited to announce the new Rewards Programme.

Just share your unique rewards link with friends on Facebook, Skype, Twitter, Email, Neighbourly, or anywhere you like.

Friends will enjoy a Free Week of Yoga, and you will earn 8 shop credits for every referred person who shows up.

(Each credit is worth $1 in the shop.)

How it Works

Click here to watch a 2 minute video to learn more about:

• earning rewards
• checking credits
• and how to spend them on cool gifts from the shop!

  ==> yogacollective.nz/rewards

The post Announcing Yoga Shop Rewards Programme appeared first on Yoga Collective Paremata.

This is not by accident.

You’ve probably noticed the Himalayan salt lamp and essential oil diffuser, as you come to practice yoga.

Together with the pre-warmed room and hot herbal tea, these help to create a nice cozy atmosphere, to get you in the ‘zone’. 

Since starting this, I’ve received ongoing requests for lamps and diffusers 😉

So, I’ve finally put together an online store.

At the moment, we have a few items to choose from. And, I will be adding more soon 🙂

You can always get to the shop by clicking the “Shop” link, in the top menu of the main website.

(There are currently no deliveries. Purchases can be picked up from class.)

If you have any questions, let me know.

Cheers,
Lauren McKee

P.S. I’ve been thinking of a way of giving away some of these as gifts, or rewards. I’ll share more about this, early next week.

Stay tuned!

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