What makes Amy Masters Yoga different? 

Amy is a down-to-earth yoga teacher and spiritual guide who combines yoga with ancient practices such as aromatherapy, astrology and spiritual awareness to aid you on your journey towards your best self.  You can immerse yourself in her intuitive, inspirational, power and healing, and discover your inner goddess. 
Healing is in Amy’s soul.  From finding the practice of yoga as a teenager to working as a paediatric nurse, her natural empathy and a powerful connection with an inbuilt spirituality drives a strong urge to enlighten others -  like a ‘cosmic mother’ nurturing personal growth.
Amy has been a qualified yoga instructor for four years but has held her own routine practice close for fifteen years.  As well as being a reiki practitioner she is also a qualified astrologer and feels drawn to use these skills more to help people on their life journey.  Uniquely Amy is interested in astrological yoga, a bespoke yoga session designed particularly to meet the needs of a person’s own individual needs:
 
“An astrological natal chart is a snapshot of the sky at the moment you were born. In essence, at the moment of your first breath is when you come into accord with the energies of the universe. That remains fixed throughout your lifetime. Your natal chart gives clues to your major life lessons, shows your destiny, reveals your personality traits and hidden desires, as well as points the way to your soul’s purpose".

With a growing knowledge of the ancient Indian science of Ayurvedic healing (bringing harmony through all aspects of life being in balance) involving the use of essential oils, natural treatments like oil hair masks, medicated oils, and foot massages, Amy offers powerful health benefits to your mind, body and spirit.
Amy’s personal experience of parenting has given her insight and understanding into the needs of mothers and babies as they adjust to their new and growing relationship.  Her insight from her own experience as well as that of being a paediatric nurse means Amy has unique skills from which to offer holistic care and attention to new Mums.  Weekly yoga classes for post-natal mums and new babies cover physical movement for the post-natal body, stretches to relieve aches and pains, baby massage techniques, as well as take home tools to help adjust to changes brought about by motherhood that will help support body and soul.
Amy runs hatha and yin yoga sessions in Levin and Palmerston North.  Aside from offering the restorative benefits of yoga, the new mums and bubs sessions offer valuable social interactions between new mums.  Using aromatherapy oils to infuse her yoga sessions with extra benefits offers divine invigoration for the senses.
Amy wants to embrace other women who have a thirst for their own fountain of love and happiness, helping them to honour themselves by giving them space and time to explore new methods of self-care, allowing them to take a breath from everyday life, and find the rejuvenating power within.   Amy guides women to explore previously unchartered territory aiming to achieve healing, wellness, and relief from the rigours of life by enhancing and expanding their inner dialogue.  She hopes that, like her, women will be ‘forever practising’ and learn to master these skills themselves. 
Workshops designed to help women reconnect with their femininity in a healthy, safe and embracing environment happen throughout the year, and helps to awaken their inner goddess.  Positive self-talk and self-love lead to female empowerment as Amy assists an awakening to women’s spiritual femininity and helps form deeper connections with ‘soul sisters’ within the workshops.  Other workshops focus on aromatherapy, meditation, yoga, and pampering, as well as ‘make and take’ workshops using special aromatherapy oils.  A red tent group focusing on uplifting and building emotional villages for women is also in the ideas stage.
You can focus your ‘inner eye’ on Amy’s yoga sessions and workshops by following her facebook page ‘Amy Masters Yoga’, her skills may be the answer you’ve been searching for.   

Norm Foster’s
The Love List
Centrepoint Theatre
Palmerston North
Director: Dan Pengelly
 
Review Date: 22nd February 2018
 
Thursday night was a chillier night than usual for what I’ve come to think of as a hellish summer, and I was in a low mood as I pulled up to Centrepoint Theatre to see The Love List.  My theatre attending companion furnished me with a glass of rosé to help warm my chilly mood but as we found our way to our seats I commented on how cold it was in there. I leaned forward and nastily whispered ‘this better be funny enough to warm me up’ and then I sat back and looked around the audience for someone new to get angry at.
You know that you’re watching some extremely high quality skills when you forget about everything going on around you and become so intently entrenched in a story that you feel like you’re actually part of what’s happening.  Laughter erupted from my insides, and such was the vigour with which I writhed around in my seat and craned my neck so as to make sure I wouldn’t miss anything, that I gained a body temperature that was no longer angering.
I had no idea what The Love List was about before I saw the show, and I’m glad about that.  It was such a delight to watch it all unfold before me.  However for your benefit I’ll briefly describe the content.  The Love List is a realistic, yet fantasy based comedy exploring the qualities of a perfect woman and more broadly the imperfect qualities of all relationships.  This description does no justice to the show that I saw – sorry, but seeing is believing.
I confess that though Millen Baird (Leon) is of NZ Television fame -having appeared in many an award winning show including 800 words and Shortland Street to name a few recognisable ones
(I only know that because of the programme), seeing him in real life was an absolute treat.  With such a lot riding on delivering snappy and comedic dialogue this play could easily have fallen flat in unskilled hands but Baird really brought the goods with his excellent, incredibly funny depiction of a worldly, lovable, lothario, writer.  Siobhan Marshall (Justine) – also a frequent flyer on our local screens in shows such as Outrageous Fortune, Shortland Street, and The Almighty Johnsons – carried off what must have been a challenging role with an ease that was extremely comforting.  Her ability to multi-task is a skill which should not be overlooked simply because she made it look so easy.  One of the things I really enjoyed about seeing this cast working together was the sense that they were all really enjoying themselves too.   The chemistry between long-time mates Leon and Bill (played by Aaron Ward who most recently portrayed the extremely hateable Adam Ross in Shortland Street) was exactly as you would expect in real life and another reason why everything felt so believable.  The dialogue was slick, with excellent one-liners and a plethora of local references which ensured that you shared every single in-joke on the list!
The Love List has magical qualities to enchant its audience.  How can I begin to separate the parts when they were so seamlessly melded together? The set by Ian Harman was perfect because I forgot I was looking at a set and fully believed I was hanging out in a middle-aged bachelor pad, the lighting by Tayla Pilcher was excellent because I believed that the actors had gone to sleep and woken up in the morning and it wasn’t just a trick of the light.  The direction by Dan Pengelly must have been truly wonderful because that bachelor pad was alive with natural movement and genuine sounding conversations. It was like I was living inside a 3D TV show in which they would need to tone down the audience laughter for fear it would drown out what was happening on stage.  That’s a good point actually, I wasn’t insanely laughing on my own. We were ALL laughing.
I could make a long list of reasons why you should see this show and ultimately I think The Love List should be at the top of your list of things to go see.

Adam Gwon's 
Ordinary Days
Abbey Musical Theatre
Director: Andrea Maxwell

Review Date: 9th February 2018
 
Ordinary Days is a musical which explores the ordinary lives of four ordinary people living in New York.  Written in 2008 by Adam Gwon it is intended to be an intimate production focusing on four people coming to the realisation that meaning and beauty can be found in any ordinary day. 
The set was a pleasure to gaze upon.  While it did scream NEW YORK loudly, it also had a comforting and serene feel to it that made me feel relaxed and intrigued.  I was lucky enough to get my own private art lesson from a theatre companion who had donated one of his pieces of art by artists Craig and Karl to the set, and so I am also slightly smarter now than when I arrived.  I’ll take this moment to also say that the arm rest between seat E28 and E29 needs attention please.
Pianist Bronwyn Boddy brought the show to life when she entered the stage and took up her position at the keyboard for the duration of the play.  The responsibility for keeping the musical score moving along in time was well rested on her shoulders as she did a superb job.
If you’re not a fan of musicals and don’t know the storyline of Ordinary Days this may not be the show for you.  The entire narrative of this production is told through song, so also if you’re of the type that doesn’t listen to the words of songs then you’ll have no clue what is happening.  If you get your hands on a programme though, a thorough synopsis of the story will fill in the gaps.
Tayla Clark’s role as ‘Deb’ the typical, female, New York, grad student was well played.  Tayla brought more than a well practised singing voice to the role, embodying her characters traits in a subtle and believable way as well as having good comedic timing.  
Ordinary days is an intellectual show, there are no dancing numbers or sexual innuendo, that you might find in other more upbeat productions, but a focus on relationships and aspirations of two sets of people living in New York.  Art, relationships, and self discovery are the order of the day in Ordinary Days.