Hearth and Soul NZ

Hearth and Soul NZ Blessings, I'm Natasha Mathis and Hearth and Soul is the culmination of 20+ years of developing yoga, healing, tarot, massage and more.

Now based in Napier in a beautiful garden centred nest, Hearth and Soul is a place is soak and reset by the Hearth. The Circle Gatherings include yoga, rest, journeying, cacao, ceremonies and more. Natasha has run yoga studios in Palmerston North since 2006. In 2023 she moved home to Napier and began to create gatherings. These can be two hours long in a community hall, all the way through to resi

dential retreats. Natasha curates spaces, making them feel like you're in a warm home, with a favourite aunt, sharing a cup of tea. On Wednesday nights, at 6.30NZ time, she transports you live to her dining room for an open online yoga class. You can also catch these in the video section. There's a suggested contribution of $6. Since 199, Natasha has also worked with the tarot, 78 pieces of cardboard she will remind you with equal reverence and mirth. From online readings to in-person, workshops to study courses, she loves to share the wisdom and quirky humour of the cards and their stories. To book, to host, to inquire, drop her a message here.

RestMaybe you save it for the weekendsOr for when no one is watchingDo you jump up to do something if you're interrupted...
19/06/2026

Rest
Maybe you save it for the weekends
Or for when no one is watching
Do you jump up to do something if you're interrupted?
Do you collapse at weekends or holidays, too exhausted to do anything?

Rest is so undervalued and so essential. In yoga we understand that you can't meditate if you haven't had sufficient rest. Your brain can't make the transition from go to slow without adequate amounts. If you're exhausted you'll fall asleep, or the thoughts will be at full volume. Rest turns the volume k**b down, not off, just down.

Rest isn't sleep. It's a patch of sun and a cup of tea. It's a good book snuggled under a blanket with a dog on your feet, or with your knee as their pillow. Rest is an album on headphones in your favourite armchair. Rest is a driftwood log on the beach watching the waves. Rest is no-thing.

Rest is walking out of the office at lunch time to sit under a tree. Rest is reclaiming your evenings from work.

Rest doesn't have to be earned.
I'm going to say that one again so your brain doesn't skip it.
Rest doesn't have to be earned.

Rest can be a radical rebalancer.

The image: There are frequently cushions pushed off chairs around the house. This is what happens when the cushion doesn't end up in the right spot. In this image, after much cafuffle with back leg scrabbles and front paw pushes, a hearty sigh, and a grumble, the cushion was in place, not on the floor.

Thursday is my recording day, for my amazing Taking Yoga Deeper crew, and my beautiful subscribers. Not long ago - weeks...
17/06/2026

Thursday is my recording day, for my amazing Taking Yoga Deeper crew, and my beautiful subscribers. Not long ago - weeks - getting all this done was what the day felt like. Even though I love what I do, I struggled and then struggled some more. Each thing felt good on its own, but all of it together created this exhausting tension. If I spread it through the week, I stessed even more (!?!?). Enter all the new realizations and Thursday is slowly becoming a delight.

What is different?

Here I am, writing this on the porch in the sun with Monty asleep on my leg warmer. I'm drinking coffee and thinking through the TYD video. I've taken away the need to finish at 5 like a normal work day. It's crazy that after 20+ years of self employment part of my brain still holds that wiring. Instead, I don't mind if I'm recording one of the meditations by candlelight tonight, that sounds kind of delicious. And if the inspiration isn't quite there for the subscription crew's email, I'll do my afternoon coffee on the back porch in the sun and scroll some cool creators for inspiration.

I'll relisten and take notes on last week's TYD podcast to give myself points to jump off from this week. I'll have crayons and pretty pens to make this more fun.

I have lunch decided.
Snacks.
A Playlist.
And silly little jobs that I can do while the coffee brews that up the dopamine enough to start the next thing.

It's weirdly simple, and a lot and yet, the day stretches out far more gently.

Whether you feel like a yoga soak - cacao, intention setting, deep relaxation with the crystal singing bowls, yin into s...
17/06/2026

Whether you feel like a yoga soak - cacao, intention setting, deep relaxation with the crystal singing bowls, yin into slow flow and back to rest.
Or you are tarot curious, wondering what the cards are all about, needing to dust off a set in a drawer somewhere, or bring your trusted pack along, Sunday has the events for you.

The gorgeous Hello Sunshine Studio will be warm and toasty. Monty will be there to greet you and then to demonstrate savāsana. And I'll be there with two pots of beautiful cacao.

Winter Solstice feels like a reset for me. The long nights, warming foods and chilly mornings are kicking in, but there is the turning point, the solar flicking back towards longer days. What do you vision for yourself for the coming season? What rest does Winter bring?

The Yoga soak runs from 3-5.30pm and costs $45

The Solstice Tarot celebration starts at 6 and finishes around 8.30. It also costs $45.

You can do both for $80 - Amy is taking the bookings for the double. Otherwise pop over to MindBody to book in.

New Moon energyOne that feels to me like a massive reset, a chance to explore being myself without old constraints. It's...
14/06/2026

New Moon energy
One that feels to me like a massive reset, a chance to explore being myself without old constraints. It's a bit exciting over here in neuromagical land.

It's also time to sit with the cards and New Moon Readings. It might seem strange that I can do these without the person present, sometimes without having met the person, and this is all about trusting the cards. They tell their stories and weave conversations that I just need to sit and notice. Increasingly I'm leaning into what the new moon itself is doing - researching what the gifted astrology crew are saying. It helps interpret the cards stories as they dance with the moon and the person I'm reading for.

This week leads into Winter Solstice here in the Southern Hemisphere. It's a special time for welcoming renewal and celebrating the long nights, slow warming foods, and rest as Winter settles in. This adds its own energy to the cards so if yours are gathering dust in a drawer it might be time to bring them out, or book in for a reading. The little 20ish minute readings aren't just available with the New and Full moon so you could book one to look at the Solstice. They arrive in your inbox of choice as audio recordings.

As for Monty. This is morning sleepy face, having borrowed my yummy woolen wrap. This is also, 'is it a second coffee morning, or do I need to get up?' face.

It's Sunday.A deep day off - the one with zero plans, long coffee snuggles with Monty and simply letting the day unfold....
13/06/2026

It's Sunday.
A deep day off - the one with zero plans, long coffee snuggles with Monty and simply letting the day unfold.
That doesn't mean nothing.
Sometimes it does.
Other times the side quest nudges, and then the adventure, and gently pushing past comfortable.
That can be at the sewing table with no one else to witness the moment my feet don't touch the bottom.
Or it might be going out to drink coffee in the sun with my journal when maybe it's a bit uncomfortable.
It can be standing looking at my (fabulous) wardrobe and wondering if today I can wear that...glorious but perhaps challenging.
I've often made the mistake of thinking I have to dive way past my depth, to the really scary, when just the moment past comfortable is where the growth is, the wow is, the 'I did a thing' is. Often no one else notices and that's fine because it's not about that, it's about the inner process, the conversation with myself in the mirror, the way it feels to sit in that Cafe, the oooh as the scissors hit the fabric. There's the something exciting.
Happy Sunday 🩷🐾

A tricky question...I've had some incredible experiences working with men, in Soul Chats and on the massage table. Creat...
13/06/2026

A tricky question...

I've had some incredible experiences working with men, in Soul Chats and on the massage table. Creating a space for anyone is an honour and I acknowledge it can be a longer path to the door for our tane.

At the same time, I work from my home. To enter the front gate, walk up the path and through the front door is different to walking into a spa, or wellness clinic. For that reason I only take men for massage appointments who have been referred by a partner or friend who I trust. If you've found your way here without that referral, book a Soul Chat first.

It would be amazing to live in a world that didn't make this a tricky question. We don't though, and I've yet to work alongside a man who didn't understand why I'm so cautious.

15-29 June, Hearth and Soul will be filled with the energy of the return of the solar energy, the slow lengthening of da...
11/06/2026

15-29 June, Hearth and Soul will be filled with the energy of the return of the solar energy, the slow lengthening of days, while celebrating the deep, long nights of contemplation and renewal.

If you feel like you need a reset, here's some solstice special combinations you can mix and match over the next two weeks

Cacao, intention setting and tarot review: $95 for an hour of luscious insights.

Add cacao and a 20 minute tarot reading to your hour of massage resetting: $130 (a 90 minute session altogether)

Take the long road home with a 90 minute massage $130

And online crew, book a video Soul Chat for $80

I'm also doing a delicious event on Sunday 21 June. There's a 3-5.30pm cacao and yoga soak $45. Then from 6-8.30pm there's Solstice tarot soak (with cacao, of course) $45. There's a few people booked for the double $80 so our cacao levels are going to be high! These events are part of Hello Sunshine so if you want to book in, pop over to MindBody or, if you're keen on the double let me know as that's booked through the studio (3 spots left for the double)

Tomorrow I'm going to pop up some ideas for celebrating at home 🩷🐾

10/06/2026

A little Monty conversation to lighten your scroll. Yesterday's post about AuDHD brought some beautiful messages sharing stories and wonderings. I wanted to pop a little part two in especially for those who might encounter imposter syndrome, and for those wondering why suddenly it seems like neurospicy is exploding.

There's room to question now where once it was about surviving.
Enough people cracked open to clear the path for the rest of us.
There's words for experiences that weren't there before.
There's women and q***r folk speaking about life outside of the norm, or trying to exist within a norm that never fitted.
The days of thinking of being autistic as being like Rain Man are over.
And a whole lot of women who thought it was past trauma, anxiety, depression, bipolar, menopause, or being hormonal finally recognized it was a whole lot more than this (and maybe all of this too).

In true Gen-X style, and for my Boom generation friends, it's about getting on with life now. I love, love, love the understanding it has given me. I can't express how amazing that is. Yes, massive grief for all the misdiagnosis along the way, and the relationships it built (limerance is a whole thesis of experience), but now, now it is life. Living this juicy beautiful life, understanding me.

So if you are experiencing imposter syndrome - that's a part of the journey along with denial. And if you're tempted to write it off, as some are, as a fad, chances are you're fabulously neurotypical so it hasn't been your experience. Maybe talk to us spicy crew, curiously, about our interpretive dance feet, and stimming our way to life without masks.

Hearth and Soul (me) welcomes all the stories and fears, wonderings and questions.

When I started along the physical yoga path I was in my first year of university. I was 17, couldn't touch my toes and h...
09/06/2026

When I started along the physical yoga path I was in my first year of university. I was 17, couldn't touch my toes and had a nagging sense that I was different in a very uncomfortable way. Over the years yoga gave me all sorts of versions of what was going on in my mind, fluctuations, afflictions; there was plenty to work on. The problem was, I still couldn't get my life to match what I saw in the teachings and what I felt inside. The roller-coaster I kept putting myself on just kept speeding up.

Now I'm fifty and there are finally words for what has been a felt unease all my life. Yoga kept my head just above the water long enough to discover the extent of my neuro-spicy self. It kept me in community long enough to recognise the other late bloomers stepping out into the sunshine for the first time, no longer feeling secretly crazy. AuDHD have been the most liberating letters I've ever had the pleasure of meeting inside me.

How does that impact Hearth and Soul? It helps me schedule enough rest, and create a day that nourishes me enough to give into the beautiful spaces Hearth and Soul works from. It gives me another language to help other women finding their way through late diagnosis - the grief and relief and discovery: As a GenX crew member I just got on and did life until I couldn't anymore, so working out the masks we wear and what sits underneath is a whole process. I feel like I can sit alongside that with someone now; tea, Cacao, massage, long Soul Chats and sense making, supporting whatever therapy they may be finding.

And then there is yoga, and I'm revamping the beautiful Re-inhabit course slowly in the background as a retreat and as an online course. It feels like it's time to explore the gentle process of finding home in the body. More on that soon...

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143 Wellesley Road
Napier
4110

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