It was our first meeting of the year last Friday (22nd January) and, as the moon is going to be our next theme, we were especially excited to meet our guest speaker, Ingvild Skodvin Prestegard, all the way from her home in Norway. Ingvild is a fellow Dru Yoga teacher as well as being a Social Anthropologist and writer of the Moon Journal so she really knows her stuff. Ingvild outlined how she came to produce the Moon Journal, told us a bit about her relationship with the moon and why it has always fascinated her so much and kindly stayed for Q&A afterwards. Ingvild explained how the Moon Journal began as a way to theme her own yoga classes and provide her students with materials to follow outside her class. She spoke a lot about light affects us and how we have lost that awareness living, as we do in a constant blaze of artificial light. What struck me the most was her assertion that "sensitivity is our super power". Having thought of sensitivity as a negative quality as in "don't be over-sensitive" thinking of sensitivity as a super power sets that completely on its head! But with sensitivity to the light we start to notice things and we become present in the moment rather than constantly living in the past or the future. She urged us to become more aware of the seasons and to accept, rather than struggle against, the seasons - especially important now as we are in the depths of winter. It was also interesting to think of the moon and its relationship to the sun. While we can't look directly at the sun we can look at the moon. In that sense it is the sacred made visible! There was a discussion about whether the moon is male or female. I was surprised that in Norse mythology the moon is seen as masculine rather than feminine. I have been using the Moon Journal in my class theme setting for some time. The journal focuses on the moon cycles and the different seasons. Each moon phase has a meditation and an affirmation in the journal and there is space to write personal experience and reflections. The idea is to use the journal as a record you can look back on and reflect on how the moon has affected you. Ingvild has a website and Facebook Community with additional resources to be used with the journal. This year the journal AND the resources are all available for free download from her website. This actually makes them even more interactive because you can print them as and when you want them and build your own journal into a year of personal reflections powerfully connecting you to the moon cycles. We decided to use the resources this month and discuss our experiences at our next meeting on 19th February. Join Ingvild's Facebook group for regular moon updates: www.facebook.com/moonjournalcommunity Download the 2021 Moon Journal and additional resources from: www.allmenningen.org/moon-journal-2021-online/?fbclid=IwAR3QHQVzh_HcPXn1QOetgwJqqqdm9oS3bWaSWF-I1nEx5A8Qppltfv67Iyc Next Book Club Meeting: 19th February 7.00 to 8.30pm (UK Time) Please use Yoga Book Club facebook group or the comments section here to share your reflections and experiences of using the Moon Journal.
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MARY GRIFFITHSI qualified to teach in 2015 but my yoga journey started much earlier, way back in the 1970s. Here I share my experiences and passion about everything yoga. Archives
May 2021
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