Off The Mat, Voice and Community

The year is flying by and I’ve been diving into my work with the organisation ‘Off the Mat into the World’ Australia/New Zealand.

Since working with Off The Mat this year, we’ve held a teacher gathering in Newcastle where local Aboriginal Elder, Di Langham ‘Welcomed us to Country’.  Di does wonderful work in the community as well as holding down a full-time job working with the guys in the local prison.  I’m hoping to work with her on a couple of projects this year, stay tuned!

I’m also co-organising an upcoming Yogathon for Newcastle and the Hunter – this will be part of a nation-wide series of Yogathon’s held on 22nd May in Newcastle. It’s going to be a fantastic day and I’ll be gathering local ambassadors and support for the event.  

One of my mentors Suzanne Sterling, a singer and co-founder of OTM is coming back to Australia! She’s only in Sydney on March 19th, with a Voice of Change workshop at Mosman Village Yoga centre (+ an evening of Kirtan at InYoga).  Voice of Change explores hidden trauma within the voice, personal expression and finding your voice.  It’s very aligned with the direction I’m moving in and I’m really excited to be co-organising and going to this.  

The power of OM.  One of my one-to-one clients who has Down Syndrome and sensory challenges used the OM chant to good effect the other week when his support worker got a bit frustrated with someone who cut across her in traffic (we’ve all been there) – my client turned to her with a big grin and chanted OM at her, his timing was perfect!

To explore a little more about the sound OM or AUM here’s a link to an article I really like about how it can affect our limbic system.  My personal yoga practice includes alot of sound and mantra. It usually helps me feel centered, calm and diffuses strong feelings or reactions, so if you’ve been sitting out the OM’s at the end of class, give it whirl, don’t worry about the sound you make, start quietly and focus on sensing the vibrations.

http://sequencewiz.org/2015/12/09/how-chanting-om-affects-your-physiology/

Love and Peace

Nicky xx