Happy Sunday People

Taking the plunge

We’re beavering away this Sunday morning after taking a plunge off Tauranga’s waterfront wharf alongside Angela Wallace the leader behind Women Who Get Shit Done Unconference in Bay of Plenty, and Natasha Lucas from Tauranga Community Co-op, followed up by a Cacao Coconut Smoothie from Vitality Organics.

Timetable

As you’ve probably seen our timetable is now available and we’ve been getting oodles of warm feedback about how abundant it is, and how inspiring the weekend is for people already. On facebook the organic reach within 2-3 days was 2000 people. Interesting huh, the work sells the work. The things sells the thing. The reality of a being speaks more than the talk of it.

Can we Yoga?

Here in HQ it’s now the continued challenge or invitation can we yoga through the next 4-5 festival weeks, including pre, during and post to live the message we are cultivating.

Staying with our breath, accepting where we’re at, meeting it, living with imperfection, embracing the shadow, remaining open to possibility, observing, listening, being with empathy.

Given – the movie 

The most exciting thing we’re excited about – yup we’re still excited, is Night Owl Cinema screening Given on the Saturday night of our 3 day festival.
For those of you you haven’t seen Given yet, you’re in for a soul treat.
It’s a story about a surfing couple who are Mum and Dad to a brand new baby, and Given baby’s older brother (who narrates the film). The family take to the road, to surf, adventure and experience this one wild and precious life we’ve been given.
It’s a poignant tale the follows the bond between father and son, about living in the moment, about choosing life over work, about travel, about culture, about the wild, about love, and about being uniquely YOU.
It exemplifies the quality of our festival and we are whole-heartedly grateful for Jess Bianchi, Paige Livingstone and the people that make decisions, for giving us the generous green-light to share this film with you.

Wim Hof Breathing Technique

Nigel Beach is the only (soon to be officially accredited) Wim Hof Technique Teacher in NZ. His workshop has been in the making since LYF 2015, when we’d heard he was learning Wim’s techniques…Nigel is doing great work alongside Waikato University around applying Wim’s practices to women with endometriosis, in an initiative called EndEndo. Wim Hof is a Dutch daredevil, commonly nicknamed “The Iceman” for his ability to withstand extreme cold, which he attributes to exposure to cold, meditation and breathing techniques. As you have read, Wim’s all about the cold, he would have approved at our taking the plunge this morning. Here’s a link to Wim: https://www.wimhofmethod.com/

How does the ticket work?

If you’re confused about what your ticket gets you OR whether you have to register etc, go to our FAQs here OR look on our facebook page for 2 minute videos ‘making things clearer’ here.

Last little snippets…

Co-op Shop

Thanks to Jenni Werth from Herbal Potential, we’ve got a holistic bunch of businesses and products who’ve come together for the co-op shop, within our vendors at the festival. This co-op shop features Paper Plane, Saucha Soul, Boomerang Bags, Gilly’s Eczema Cream, Remmady Upcycled, Epiphany Toys among others.

Sponsors

We feel all warm and filled-up when people behind businesses contribute to our little YOGA festival, Aotearoa’s most hand-made and whole-hearted weekend.

It takes courage to stand in the face of no (sometimes felt as rejection) but ask anyway AND ALSO it takes heart to say no, when we half want to say yes and also half need to say no. Both positions have challenges.

Back to the people in business who’ve said yes:

We’ll make an edible (in the metaphoric sense of the word) list of all our sponsors before the festival opening but for now, kia ora Epiphany Toys for donating handfuls of giant Lyra pencils to our Makers’ Space. These German made coloured pencils leave all others behind. Vibrant in colour, oozy-glidey on the paper, and organic in the hand, they add another dimension to creativity. Epiphany Toys sells them in packs of 6 or 12 here.
Combibo water filters are kindly donating a water filter to our hose system, so you & we can re-fill our re-suable drink bottles with sweet-tasting-and-life-giving H2O. If you need one of these filters you can find them here: https://www.combibo.co.nz/
UNO Magazine have popped us in their August issue, and probably, maybe, surely in their September issue too – thanks for spreading the love and word UNO. We love your beautiful photography, the fact you help us feel proud to live in the Bay, and your helpful pointers of what’s hot and helpful in our region of Plenty of good times to be found and experienced.

Gratitude

We appreciate all those humans getting behind, in front, around our grassroots festival. We acknowledge it takes creative or economical risk and generosity when collaborating with a fledgling. Tuakana Teina is a nourishing dynamic. Let us all look for the opportunity to give to each other, to help,  and to build stronger communities and industries.

Future Opportunities for Business Alignment

If you own a business and would like to ‘share our audience’ because you feel your product or service aligns with our sustainable values, our vision for a more empathetic, courageous and authentic way of being, get in touch: emily@wildandgrace.co.nz.

We’ll leave you with this…

Take the Plunge

We’re interested in all things wild, here at wild & grace events and media (responsible for bringing little YOGA festival to life). We’re drawn to tales of people living wild some with and without death e.g. Into the Wild, Miriam Lancewood, the family from Given – The Movie, Ocean Family Road Trip, The Horse Boy – The Film, This Way of Life – The Film, Chef’s Table set in Paraguay (some feature below).

GIVEN Trailer from Jess Bianchi on Vimeo.

Apart from wild, or adventure we’re drawn to inviting the uncomfortable, which reminds us of a conversation we had with a local Ashtanga Teacher recently.
He suggested:
Yoga is not about the stretches, about the body. If you’re enjoying Yoga you’ve probably or possibly missed the point. Yoga is about much much more. 
He said:
I’m interested in meeting what’s not comfortable. In what doesn’t feel pleasant. This can be what Yoga is.

During the plunge this morning Ange, talked about Brad Dixon and the Wednesday Without Wetsuit Ocean Wwim she does with the aforementioned. One idea is:

the more comfortable we get with the uncomfortable the better we are at it – being in pain, being with suffering, accepting what is, rather than striving for the pleasant in every moment.

Without further ado, taking the plunge…

One with sound and one without depending if you’re in a yin or a yang mood/mode.

Sound

Silence