Cultivate Calm Yoga

Cultivate Calm Yoga Relax your body, calm your mind, soothe your soul. We specialise in yoga and meditation for stress

Cultivate Calm Yoga is a small, community yoga studio in Brisbane which arose from the desire to help people understand and manage the stress in their life. People often become accustomed to stress and anxiety in their life and need help to relax, unwind and de-stress. Cultivate Calm teaches busy people how to use their body as a tool to calm their mind. We offer affordable yoga classes in Brisban

e as we want everyone to enjoy the benefits of yoga. We offer Yin yoga, Vinyasa yoga and meditation classes to suit all ages and levels of fitness from the beginner through to intermediate students of yoga.

THE DOOR'S BEEN SHUT FOR TOO LONG"Who bought the flowers?" a client asked me.I did. I bought them "just because".I was f...
17/08/2026

THE DOOR'S BEEN SHUT FOR TOO LONG

"Who bought the flowers?" a client asked me.

I did. I bought them "just because".

I was flossing after dinner (the dance, not my teeth), when my daughter asked: "Mummy, why are you dancing?"

I said, "Just because".

It's the same reason I look for the moon when I take the bins out, just because.

The relentlessness of life, bills, and chores can leave us stuck in a grind.

We spend so much precious energy on maintaining our homes, our careers, our relationships, our bodies, our finances that we can get stuck in maintenance mode, forever fixing and optimising.

But life isn't a never-ending project to be managed.

It's meant to be experienced.

That's why I smile when I see the dandelion growing through the cracks in the concrete.

Or the bougainvillea that colours the whole street.

One minute you're 22 and can take on the world. Then the next minute you know it's going to rain soon because your knee hurts.

I had a client tell me she looked in the mirror and said: "Who is this old person looking back at me?" I was just thinking the same thing that morning.

It wasn't that long ago that I got my first pair of reading glasses. Now I have a pair in each room.

We're getting a puppy soon. It will be chaos, and the house will be full of fur again. But I'm already feeling the anticipatory joy of the wagging tail and the unbridled enthusiasm for life.

Enthusiasm is contagious, and I'm hoping to catch it.

Joy doesn't wait until things are perfect.

Sometimes it takes us by surprise, taps us on the shoulder and says "here I am".

But more often than not, especially when we've experienced long stretches of joylessness, we need to open the door for joy to find us.

And the key to opening that door, that may have been shut for some time, is to take our attention away from ourselves for a moment and notice the world around us.

Joy is in the mess, in the chaos, in the mundane.

It's always there; we just forgot how to look because we've been scrolling for so long we no longer know how to be in awe of life.

Sometimes I'm teaching a yoga class, and everyone is moving and breathing as one.

It feels more than a shared moment in time; it feels like we're holding hands and going through this crazy life together.

We move and breathe together for an hour, then go about our day.

We often think about the big, defining moments of our lives, but in reality, it's a bunch of small moments strung together that form the fabric of our existence.

And we come together for an hour or two a week to share that existence, to weave that fabric and to create a positive ripple in our little pocket of the world.

The reason I dance after dinner, smile at strangers, or buy pretty flowers is because every time I look in the mirror, mortality slaps me in the face and reminds me of the times when there was no joy.

It wasn't that long ago I was in a deep pit of despair, and now I'm so grateful I'm not there anymore.

If this has made you think about joy, or how to open the door to it, then yoga might be on your list.

Most of our clients start yoga with us to get more flexible.

But they keep coming back (many of them for over a decade) because yoga makes them feel so much better.

In one week, a study of over 300 yoga practitioners* recorded a 13% increase in positive affect and a 47% decrease in negative affect (negative affect is a psychological term for a range of emotions, including anxiety, stress, irritability, tension, and fear).

Yoga is proven to help with stress, anxiety and depression. That's why the Commonwealth Government has reinstated private health insurance rebates for yoga - it works!

And if you're looking for a down-to-earth studio without the mirrors, selfies and fancy clothes, come find us.

We can help you get your joy back.

Image credit: Pure Dog and Cat Photography

*Reference - Narasimhan L, Nagarathna R, Nagendra H. Effect of integrated yogic practices on positive and negative emotions in healthy adults. Int J Yoga. 2011 Jan;4(1):13-9.

My daughter was scootering down the hill when she had a spectacular stack.I awkwardly ran to her (if you know me, you kn...
13/08/2026

My daughter was scootering down the hill when she had a spectacular stack.

I awkwardly ran to her (if you know me, you know I can't run, it was more of a bear shuffle).

Miraculously, she got up with a smile on her face and no tears.

Until she looked at her favourite pants and the hole in the knee.

She wailed, and just to be clear, the pants had spared her knee of any graze.

I said, "Aren't you lucky your favourite pants protected you?"

I gave her a hug and expected her to get back on her scooter.

She was still crying.

We were about 3kms from home, and I didn't fancy piggybacking her the whole way.

I said, "What's wrong?"

She looked down and said, "What will everyone think of me?"

My heart sank for her.

She named the thing I always struggled with as a kid (even as an adult).

That horrible self-censoring, not doing the things we want to do out of fear of what others thought.

So I pulled her in close and said, "Can I tell you a secret?"

Her eyes widened; she LOVES secrets.

I said, "Have a look around, all these kids here, they're not thinking about you. They're thinking about whether they'll get ice cream for dessert or what they want for their birthday."

She smiled a little.

I added, "All the grown-ups are far too caught up in their own thoughts and worries to even notice you."

I said, "Look around, no one is watching."

She smiled, got back on her scooter, and we zoomed home.

I wish I knew this secret when I was five.

The fear of judgement is what makes us conform to what we think is "normal".

It's what silently drains the spark from our soul, until we wake up at 40 and realise we don't even know what we want in life because we've always based our decisions on what others will think of us.

So let me remind you: when you're at yoga, no one is watching you and no one cares what you're wearing or if your bum looks big.

Seriously, people fart in class and no one cares.

It doesn't matter if you're a bit wobbly and need the wall for support.

It doesn't matter if you mix up your left and your right.

If you enjoy something, go do it.

It doesn't have to be yoga: go dancing, sing out of tune, pick up the paintbrush, take a chance and do something that makes your soul sparkle again.

Life's too short to worry about what others think of us.

And if you've been putting off yoga because you're worried you're not good enough, this is your sign.

Come join us at Cultivate Calm.

No one is watching, promise.

People often ask me about the best yoga poses for chronic muscle tension.But chronic muscle tension is not caused by a l...
11/08/2026

People often ask me about the best yoga poses for chronic muscle tension.

But chronic muscle tension is not caused by a lack of stretching.

The real cause is stress, and that stress is often emotional
Every time we bottle up our anger, suppress our resentment, or tell ourselves we're "fine" when we're not, we store tension in the body.

Those unfelt emotions don't go away.

They show up as aches and pains that no amount of stretching fixes.

They ruin our sleep.

They keep the mind churning with rumination and endless thought spirals.

They make us impatient and easily frustrated.

Don't ask me how I know...

Over time, they drain our vitality, and we feel restless, edgy and unable to sleep.

Yoga has a unique way of dealing with the emotional stress behind all that tension.

We use specific movements and breathing patterns to clear the stuck emotions from the body, so you feel lighter, calmer and more yourself again.

You don't need to "explore your feelings" or analyse why you feel the way you do.

The movement and the breath do the work.

If you're curious about clearing stuck emotions, or you're just sick and tired of feeling uptight and anxious, you'll love the Energy Spring Clean workshop TOMORROW (Wednesday, public holiday).

We'll release the pent-up stress and tension of the year, so the winter heaviness and sluggishness can dissipate too.

You'll leave feeling calmer, clearer and more grounded, with the mental space to connect back with what actually matters to you.

It's beginner-friendly, and there are no down dogs or planks.

Just moving, breathing, and plenty of rest.

Link in comments

We’ve all heard of time management and the endless hacks to squeeze more into our day.But something I’ve been experiment...
04/08/2026

We’ve all heard of time management and the endless hacks to squeeze more into our day.
But something I’ve been experimenting with is energy management.

And no, I don’t mean coffee, supplements or going to bed early.

In Yoga, our “energy body” includes our breath, nervous system, emotions, and vitality.

It’s the layer between our mind and body that determines whether we feel calm and alive, or flat and frazzled.

You know that feeling, good mood, good energy, optimistic, ready for anything, and you’ve probably felt the opposite too, bad mood, low energy, when even small things feel hard.

Energy management is focused on transforming our inner state so that we have the motivation, confidence and energy to tackle any challenge.

Energy is never created or destroyed, only changed, and in Yoga, that’s prana, our life-force energy, always present, just shifting form.

When we feel anxious, down, exhausted or flat, it’s not that our energy has disappeared; it’s simply become stuck, blocked, or misdirected.

I’ve had my fair share of challenges over the last 18 months since my breast cancer recurrence, and I’ve had PLENTY of opportunity to experiment with my energy (I felt sh*tty for a long time, and nothing was working).

I’ve been using breathwork, movement and meditative practices to transform my energy, and it’s been working.

Suppressed emotions are often the root cause of our low moods.

But the emotions that we don’t want to feel don’t go anywhere; they remain trapped in the body, and we feel it as muscle tension, fatigue, anxiety and insomnia.

When we don’t allow ourselves to feel, we get uptight, rigid, controlling, prioritising work, bills, and productivity over pleasure, play, and creativity.

And all work and no play doesn’t make a good life.
If you want to learn how to work with your energy body to clear the heaviness and lethargy of winter and create space and lightness for spring, then join me for my Energy Spring Clean on the Ekka Holiday.
It’s beginner-friendly, no planks or downdogs.
Just dynamic movement, powerful breathwork, lots of rest and visualisation.
Join me next Wednesday on the Public Holiday
👇
Comment ENERGY and I’ll send you the link

We've all heard of time management and the endless hacks to squeeze more into our day.But something I've been experiment...
03/08/2026

We've all heard of time management and the endless hacks to squeeze more into our day.

But something I've been experimenting with is energy management.

And no, I don't mean coffee, supplements or going to bed early.

In Yoga, our "energy body" includes our breath, nervous system, emotions, and vitality.

It's the layer between our mind and body that determines whether we feel calm and alive, or flat and frazzled.

So when I talk about energy management, what I really mean is managing my inner state.

You know that feeling when you're in a good mood and have good energy, you feel optimistic and that you can tackle any challenge.

And you've probably also experienced the opposite, when you're in a bad mood and low on energy, even the smallest things feel hard.

Energy management is focused on transforming our inner state so that we have the motivation, confidence and energy to tackle any challenge.

We know from physics that energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only change form.

Well, from the Yoga perspective, prana, or life-force energy, is always present; it just moves, shifts, and changes form.

When we feel anxious, down, exhausted or flat, it's not that our energy has disappeared; it's simply become stuck, blocked, or misdirected.

I've had my fair share of challenges over the last 18 months since my breast cancer recurrence, and I've had PLENTY of opportunity to experiment with my energy (I felt sh*tty for a long time, and nothing was working).

I've been using breathwork, movement and meditative practices to transform my energy, and it's been working.

Suppressed emotions are often the root cause of our low moods.

But the emotions that we don't want to feel don't go anywhere; they remain trapped in the body, and we feel it as muscle tension, fatigue, anxiety and insomnia.

When we don't allow ourselves to feel our emotions, we can end up becoming uptight, rigid, and controlling.

We tend to prioritise work, bills, and productivity over pleasure, play, and creativity.

And all work and no play doesn't make a good life.

If you want to learn how to work with your energy body to clear the heaviness and lethargy of winter and create space and lightness for spring, then join me for my Energy Spring Clean on the Ekka Holiday.

It's beginner-friendly.

There'll be no planks or downdogs.

Just dynamic movement, powerful breathwork, loss of rest and visualisation.

Join me next Wednesday on the Public Holiday

👇

https://www.facebook.com/share/1BrZAM112C/

One of our members recently received a few hundred dollars back from her health fund for her yoga membership.That’s righ...
30/07/2026

One of our members recently received a few hundred dollars back from her health fund for her yoga membership.

That’s right.

After several years of being excluded, yoga is now eligible again under many private health insurance extras policies.

And Cultivate Calm Yoga is now an approved provider with most private health funds.

Some insurers may require a referral from your GP if the yoga is being used to support a specific health issue such as stress, anxiety, depression, high blood pressure, back pain, menopause or obesity.

Of course, every fund and policy is different, so it’s worth checking directly with your health insurer to see what you’re entitled to.

If you do have cover that includes yoga, we’re happy to provide a tax receipt with our Yoga Australia number so you can submit a claim.

A nice little bonus for calming your mind.

Sometimes I wake up, and my body feels heavy, like I'm lugging a 20kg backpack. And the energy and motivation that I had...
29/07/2026

Sometimes I wake up, and my body feels heavy, like I'm lugging a 20kg backpack.

And the energy and motivation that I had yesterday have all but vanished.

A low-grade malaise can set in that can last for days if I let it.

And while it's tempting to self-soothe with a Netflix binge, I know that marinating in that heavy feeling only makes it stick around longer.

Yoga has a word for that state - Tamas.

It's an energetic quality associated with winter, heaviness, dullness, lethargy, inertia and low moods.

We may even be tempted to label it the "winter blues" from the short days and long nights.

But yoga views this state as an energetic problem and gives us tools to get our stagnant energy moving again so we can feel back in flow.

Things I do when I'm feeling stuck and heavy:

1. Rhythmic and repetitive spinal movements to open up the energy channels.

2. Powerful breathwork to energise my nervous system and clear the mental fog.

3. Flowing movements in time to my breath to quiet the mind and awaken my energy centres.

4. Rest in stillness and allow any old emotions to surface and be felt.

If this sounds like what you need, then join me on the Ekka Holiday for the Energy Spring Clean.

It's beginner-friendly; there'll be no down dogs or planks, but we will be shaking off the heaviness of winter and clearing the slate for spring.

Comment energy to learn more.

Ekka Holiday Wednesday 12 August
12.30pm-2.30pm

East Brisbane

If you've spent any amount of time in survival mode recently, you'll resonate with what I'm about to say.We can get so g...
22/07/2026

If you've spent any amount of time in survival mode recently, you'll resonate with what I'm about to say.

We can get so good at surviving that we become stuck there.

Here's what I mean: the crisis has long passed, but you still feel like you're just trying to get through everything.

Just getting through the day.

Just getting through the week.

Life feels like something you have to get through.

I get it.

I'm coming out of a long period of survival mode.

And here's what I'm noticing:

Even though things are good for me right now, I'm still waiting for the next bad thing to happen

(I just did a podcast episode where I talk about the feeling of living with the sword of Damocles over your head- comment podcast to get the link).

I still catch myself bracing, just in case.

This shows up as not booking the holiday we've been talking about.

Not doing things, "just for fun".

And I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard my belly hurt.

What I'm finding is that it's taking conscious effort to let myself enjoy life again, instead of just trying to survive.

Something I'm trying at the moment is attention-maxxing: minimising distraction so I can hold my attention on things for longer than 5 seconds.

I was early for a doctor's appointment the other day. So naturally I pulled my phone out for some mindless scrolling, but then I stopped.

I put my phone back in my bag, stared at the wall for a bit and then started noticing my thoughts.

My mind was racing with a long-running list that went like this:

"When I get home, I've gotta do this, then this and don't forget to check this and pay this bill and make this appointment and put the washing on", and it just went on and on and on.

I followed the trail until it finally petered out.

I have this mental habit of getting my knickers in a knot about all the things I have to do, when in reality it's not that much, and if I just relax and breathe, it all gets done with a degree of ease and time to spare.

I know my mind ALWAYS does this.

But if I don't see it when it happens, it keeps me stuck in survival mode and steals my joy.

So I went home and had a nap, then I did the things.

When I picked my daughter up from kindy, there was time to play in the park, pat the local dogs, play a trick on Daddy, dance while cooking dinner, fold and put away the mountain of laundry and share the best bits of our day.

That's yoga, really.

Noticing your mind in the moment and choosing not to believe everything you think.

The mind will keep making its lists.

It will keep bracing for the next bad thing.

But when you can see it doing that, you get a choice you didn't have before.

So, if you've been in survival mode and need some help finding the exit, come back to the mat.

This is exactly what yoga is for.

Come find us.

Our Yoga classes are designed to soothe the nervous system and calm the mind.

Monica xx

(Image credit: Van Der Kamp)

Ever tell yourself you’ll do something for your mental health… and never actually get around to it?If you’re stuck on au...
15/07/2026

Ever tell yourself you’ll do something for your mental health… and never actually get around to it?

If you’re stuck on autopilot.

Just going through the motions of life, while you know deep-down it’s not sustainable.

Or maybe you lost your spark in 2020 and still haven’t got it back?

Gentle yoga is a way to come back to yourself.

To care for your mind, body and nervous system in ways that actually feel good.

Our studio caters to beginners and over 50s.

We don’t have mirrors, wear skimpy clothes or take selfies.

Instead, we teach you to move your body to release tension, aches and pains.

We teach you how to breathe to release stress and anxiety.

And we teach you how to calm your mind.

Beginner’s Yoga Workshop
Sunday 26 July
10:30am -12:30pm

$77 - includes 3 weeks of unlimited yoga.

Located in East Brisbane, just near the Gabba, with free parking.

In 2 hours you’ll learn the key poses with safe alignment for your body.

Breathing techniques and simple meditation to calm the mind.

And how this ancient system will help you sleep better, boost your mood, give you your energy back and get rid of the aches and pains.

Working with injuries? We’ll show you how to modify safely.

Nervous about starting? Bring a friend for free (subject to availability).

You don’t need to touch your toes.

You just need to show up.

👇👇👇

https://cultivatecalmyoga.com.au/event/beginners-yoga-workshop-9/

If you’ve been sitting on the fence about Energy Alchemy, this is your final nudge.You’ve heard about it. Maybe you did ...
08/07/2026

If you’ve been sitting on the fence about Energy Alchemy, this is your final nudge.

You’ve heard about it.

Maybe you did the energy workshops.

Something about it resonated.

But maybe you thought I’m not ready. It’s too much of a commitment. Now’s not the right time.

I get it.

But here’s the thing: it might never be the right time.

Life has a funny way of working out when we follow those little synchronicities, when we listen to the whispers of our soul telling us there may be more to life than just going through the motions.

If you’ve heard those whispers, if you’ve felt the call, then this is your last nudge to apply for Alchemy.

Applications close this Sunday, 12 July.

That’s it for 2026.

The next round will be in 2027 during school hours.

This will be the only weekend round for some time - see link in bio.

Address

963 Stanley Street East
East Brisbane, QLD
4169

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 9pm
Tuesday 10am - 7:30pm
Wednesday 6am - 7:30pm
Thursday 6am - 9pm
Friday 6am - 11am
Saturday 7am - 5:30pm
Sunday 8:30am - 5:30pm

Telephone

+61406476950

Website

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