Wild cactus yoga, South Perth (2025)

24/04/2023

"All is flux, nothing stays still. Everything flows and nothing abides; everything gives way and nothing stays fixed... Cool things become warm, the warm grows cool, the moist dries, the parched becomes moist... It is in changing that things find repose (rest)." - Heraclitus.

The time for change and rest is here. See you later South Perth; goodbye beautiful space.

We lead our final classes this Saturday 29 April in this amazing and welcoming home for the last two years. Thank you to every person who has gathered in this community through the last two challenging but rewarding years - for your friendship, love, support, kindness and lessons. We could not have done this without you.

Onwards and upwards as we soar into our next adventure. Stay tuned via our socials where we land next.

[Image descriptions: 1. view of Perth City from the South Perth foreshore at sunset, with a flying bird; 2. wild cactus yoga South Perth studio with view of mats, bolsters, Buddha statue, drawers, blocks and salt lamp].

23/01/2023

🙏🏼 4 week Yoga Beginner Course.

Curious about yoga or keen to revisit foundations?

Let’s breathe and move together, and be guided in the foundations of this beautiful practice through 4 classes over 4 weeks.

You will be supported as you feel your way in the shapes, ask questions and learn in small classes with others. You will learn mindfulness, breathing, guided movement and so much more.

We have two courses starting soon:
🌵 Tuesday evenings 6pm from 31 January (with Ling) - starts next week!
🌵 Sunday mornings 10.30am from 5 February (with Shallen)

If life gets in the way, there are options to make up classes.

Learn more or register by clicking link in bio

[Image description: Ling kneeling (vajrasana)on a mat in the wild cactus yoga studio with hands on knees].

31/12/2022

Happy new year everyone!

It might say 1 January on the calendar, a start of a new year, a time supposedly for change, new goals, new beginnings.

Yes perhaps but in reality, 1 January is a moment in time. A moment like all other moments through the year. Every moment presents an opportunity for change, goals, affirmations, reflections. Or simply to be present in that moment. Stillness as things move and change around you.

We hope you have been able to or are having a chance to slow down and find stillness and enjoy the present moment.

And that 2023 will be full of meaningful moments!

[Video description: Derbarl Yerrigan (Swan River) at sunset.]

16/12/2022

Happy holidays everyone!

It has been another adventurous year and we hope you all find many moments to rest, restore and pause for quiet and reflection in this holiday period as we move into 2023.

Thank you all for all the support and love this year as we settled into our second year of holding space with our amazing teachers.

We will be closed during the next few weeks as we all at wild cactus yoga also take pause to rest and restore.

We hope to see you all soon!

Thank you
Shallen and Ling.

[Images: Festive tree graphic.]

14/11/2022

Honouring World Kindness Day yesterday and World Tolerance Day on Wednesday…

May you be filled with loving kindness
May you be safe from inner and outer danger
May you be well in body and mind
May you be at ease and happy
- Jack Kornfield

Pause for a moment for loving kindness towards yourself, or perhaps to others with this little Metta mantra.

Even better, if you can find more than just a quiet moment during the day, week and as we ride out another interesting year, recite this with the flow of the breath and feel into it.

[Image description: Taj Mahal, a symbol often associated with love.]

10/10/2022

Say hello to our newest teacher… Teresa 🤩

Teresa has been covering some of our Sunday Yin + Meditation classes, and will lead this class on an ongoing basis from this Sunday 16 October onwards.

A snapshot on Teresa and her yoga journey:

I started my yoga journey in 2017 in Singapore after feeling burnt out from work and just needed something to get my body moving. Little did I know that I would fall in love with this practice.

My practice started out very physical, where I would "chase" after poses and obsessively record my practice. I told myself that it was for my own good, but I was lying to myself as I used that as an excuse to achieve "perfection" in my poses. It took me a while, but I've learnt that yoga is not about perfection, it's about being kind to yourself.

Nowadays, my yoga practice comes from a place of kindness, and honouring how my physical body and mental state feel like. I especially love a yin yang class as I love the combination of active and passive energy.

Drop by and say hi!👋🏼👋🏼

[Image description: photo of Teresa].

09/10/2022

We’ve all been through a lot—either together as a community, with others, or alone. As the pandemic continues to linger, the effects are very visible and felt in the stories, hurt and bruises in each of us.

Pressures continue to mount as we all adapt—uncertainty is a certainty.

Ahimsa (non-violence) never rang so true as it does now. Observations of others and what is happening in the world is felt at an individual, community, local and global level.

Today is a poignant reminder for kindness. To yourself, and to others. A reminder that it’s OK to not be OK, and that OK/not OK looks different on all of us.

[Image description: a photo of a person on the beach amongst receding water as the sun sets.]

16/09/2022

Coming out of Winter invites a time to pause and reflect.

It’s true, ‘winter blues’ do happen to some people and the warmness of the sunshine in Spring may help shake it off. For some it’s persistent and it’s always a good time (like every other time) to pause and check in on yourself and others… because sometimes others or even yourself don’t realise it’s persisted until someone checks in. Or it manifests in an unexpected (often unpleasant) way.

balanced health = body + mind + spirit

The critical balance of health is a culmination of ingredients that need to be adjusted. Not set and forget.

[Image description: lotus flowers in a pond, about to bloom.]

06/09/2022

The moon will shine full and bright this coming Saturday, marking the autumnal equinox in
the northern hemisphere. It is also a time where the moon is honoured by the Northern and South-East Asian region as they celebrate the mid-autumn (or moon) festival.

A time for reunion, connection and for giving thanks, often in coming together and exchanging a Chinese Moon Cake under the moonlight.

Honour your mind, body and spirit with the earth and nature on this day. Take time for stillness, gratitude and quiet, perhaps even under the glow of the moon.

We resonate these themes of reunion and connection in our grounding 9am slow flow this coming Saturday. Join us and stay for chai tea and mooncake. Pass holders and members welcome 💛

Photo credit:

[Image description: full moon against a dark sky with shadows of the forest.]

29/08/2022

There was a new moon on the weekend. These times of the month are typically associated with rejuvenation and new beginnings, with new intentions and manifestations encouraged. Particularly with things you have held back.

This can often seem like encouragement to go after better or bigger. As if what you have today isn’t enough.

What if it is enough? That you are enough. That instead of striving for bigger or better, that we instead practice santosha (contentment).

Consider instead, cultivating intentions around acceptance. That you have enough, and you are enough... or that there are some things that you cannot change.

And perhaps, the new beginning is in new perspectives. Leaning in with a different lens. Deepening our practice of svadhyaya (self-study). Changing the journey. Or perhaps accepting the destination could be more than one, and that it might change too.

Or, right here, right now is perfect as it is.

[Image description: Ling sitting on a rock next to a large creek in a forest.]

21/08/2022

Taking the next step can feel really hard on those days where it might feel particularly overwhelming. Maybe it’s health, bad news, life event or just a particularly active monkey mind.

Trying to get through it all, to the ‘end’, feels sometimes like there is no end or out.

Much like our yoga practice. There may be days where getting on the ‘mat’ feels hard. Particularly as your life and circumstances change. The version it looked like years, days and sometimes even hours ago looks different. Shifting and changing as you shift and change.

Perhaps the next step starts with kindness to yourself, muting that ego or thought that says you always have to be at your best, that 40%, 60% or even 99% isn’t good enough.

Taking the next step could be the tiniest of movements. A breath to still the thoughts, a kind word to yourself, really listening to what your body is saying, screaming into a pillow or …

On the ‘mat’, maybe it’s simply just getting there.

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together” - Vincent Van Gogh.

[Image description: Shallen at the foot of a canyon looking up, wondering how she will get out.]

11/07/2022

‘What does it mean to fully experience a moment—any moment? It means to directly experience what is here now without separation from it. It means opening, seeing, listening, feeling, being intimate and at one with what is. While thoughts may appear in the present moment, thoughts do not experience anything. Thoughts do not see, but YOU do’ - Dorothy Hunt

On the mat, it might be noticing and engaging with your breath and letting that guide your movements. Noticing the areas where you meet resistance in your body and watching what comes up in your mind. Or noticing when your mind starts to wander and consciously guiding it back to the breath.

Off the mat, it might just be stopping and taking a full deep breath or enjoying a nice hot cup of tea like it’s the last one you’re having.

Or perhaps it could just be sitting with nature.

[Image description: Ling experiencing a moment with a cow.]

21/06/2022

The winter solstice today - a time where there is the least day light in the Southern Hemisphere - along with International Day of Yoga, today encourages a time to pause and reflect … to honour and appreciate the impact this spiritual practice has had on many people … to honour its traditional origins.

To also recognise that this day, and yoga, through its facilitation, can and also has had the impact of excluding others.

So let us not only honour and appreciate the roots of yoga, but to truly practice yoga—a spiritual practice that encompasses the grounding, reflection and turning inwards as much as the actions we live by moment to moment, and the impact we have on each other and the world.

[Image description: an arti floating on Ganges river, used in Hindu ceremonies to offer light, respect or hope.]

13/06/2022

Mental health is often unnoticed.

Beneath the surface there could be feelings of doubt, questionable self-worth, and general self-consciousness.

Our Western view of male/man/he/him is to be a pillar of physical and mental strength. No matter what. We rarely see what's beneath the surface.

This week, let's help shed those layers to reveal their true self.

Yoga is beneficial to shed those layers by uniting physical movement and mental stillness - a gentle balance of physical and mental therapy.

This coming Sunday (19th June), any pass holder or member who books in for Restorative yoga class with Oliver at 4:00pm, can bring a friend who identifies as male for free. Spaces are limited, so book now and have your friend register using the MENSHEALTH coupon for a free 'Men's Health Drop in’ pass.

[Image description: a black and white image of an individual standing alone, along a shore.]

16/05/2022

A cow in the gate way, taking pause, in amongst the commotion of its environment.

A little inconvenient, you might think.

If you consider the commotion to be like those moments when your mind has felt particularly chaotic, frazzled, busy.. (arguably a lot of the time!) …

where you can’t see the wood for the trees
and every part of you and the world tells you to keep pushing on... that it is inconvenient (like the cow in the gate way) to stop because you ‘don’t have time’ …

even when your heart beats, the clench in your fingers, the strain in your jaw tells you something different …

you taking pause, a seat, a deep breath (like the cow) might be the thing you need. To still the fluctuations in your mind for a moment. Even if it feels counterintuitive, inconvenient … in that moment.

[Image description: a cow sitting down in front of an open gate on a busy street.]

08/05/2022

Today (and every day) we celebrate mothering in all its expressions.

Honouring every one of you who love, care and protect, especially those we cannot see or hold today💛

[Image description: Two hearts beating in sync.]

29/04/2022

“We have calcium in our bones,
iron in our veins,
carbon in our souls,
and nitrogen in our brains.
93 percent stardust,
with souls made of flames,
we are all just stars
that have people names"

These beautiful words from Nikita Gill, the recent cosmic activities and the coming new moon remind us that we are all part of the same fabric and something bigger. That atman (self) is brahman (universe/divine).

We perhaps forget this, covered under ego, distractions (maybe it’s the other 7%). Yoga helps us practice self enquiry to lead us back to this truth.

Photo credit:

[Image description: cluster of stars]

26/04/2022

We’re (almost) ready to welcome everybody back.

From 12.01am this Friday (29 April), waltz into the studio with ease.

Masks and proof of vaccination are not compulsory.

See you all very soon !

[Image description: Ling carrying 6 rolled yoga mats in studio, with 1 mat about to drop.]

Wild cactus yoga