Amani

04/09/2026

PEACEFUL WARRIOR | Audrey Hepburn 🕊️

Ariane has nominated Audrey Hepburn as her Peaceful Warrior — a woman remembered not only for her grace, but for her resilience, compassion and quiet fierceness in the face of collective adversity.

As a young woman in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands, she witnessed the horror of war firsthand. She quietly supported the Dutch Resistance, including performing to raise funds, and witnessed Jewish families — including children — being transported to concentration camps. These experiences stayed with her, perhaps helping shape the fierce compassion for children affected by war, famine and displacement that would later define her humanitarian work.

Later in life, Audrey devoted herself to UNICEF, travelling to communities affected by famine and conflict and using her public voice to advocate for some of the world’s most vulnerable children.

Audrey’s story reminds us that peacefulness is not passivity. Sometimes it is a quiet fierceness — the courage to remain tender in a world that gives us reasons not to be, and to turn our own lived experience towards the service of others. 🕊️

04/09/2026

Spring @ Amani https://wix.to/X8c2x65
💛🌸🌱

Awaken at Amani this spring season; check out our BRAND NEW Saturday class and stretch it out with us at the Hawke's Bay Women's Tri!

01/09/2026

Peace begins with… Paula @ Amani
✨

🕊️ GENTLE YOGA: SUNDAY SĀDHANA

This Sunday, I’m stepping back onto the teaching mat after a wee while, offering Gentle Yoga: Sunday Sādhana. 🤍

Sādhana is a devoted practice; a conscious returning - through dedicated, yet compassionate ritual - to truth, spirit, and awakening.

For me, this practice begins with listening.

Listening inwardly to sensation.
Listening to the rhythm of the breath.
Listening to what the body is communicating, without needing to change, to achieve or to perfect any aspect of our practice.

We’ll move slowly and gently, with curiosity and choice woven throughout, to create space for contemplation and (re)connection.

And perhaps this is one of the quieter ways we practise peace.

Before peace becomes something we offer outwardly — through our relationships, our communities, our choices and our actions — we can explore what it means to meet ourselves with kindness and non-judgement.

To soften rather than strive.
To listen rather than override.
To notice rather than judge.

A gentle practice of peace, from the inside out. 🕊️

Gentle Yoga: Sunday Sādhana with Paula
Sunday | 9.30AM | Heretaunga Women's Centre
ALL bodies and levels of experience are welcome.
This practice is shared for koha. 🤍

Book a spot: https://amanibooking.as.me/gentle

31/08/2026

Since I’m taking a turn to step on the teaching mat this weekend, I thought I’d share the story of the wahine I believe truly embodies a Peaceful Warrior:

🕊️ PEACEFUL WARRIORS | LEYMAH GBOWEE

“Peace is not a moment. It is a process.”

Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee reminds us that peace is not passive. Sometimes, peace looks like women standing together and refusing to accept violence as inevitable.

During Liberia’s brutal civil war, Leymah brought together thousands of Christian and Muslim women through the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace. Dressed in white, they prayed, protested and peacefully occupied public spaces, crossing religious and social divides to demand an end to the violence.

In 2003, when peace talks stalled in Ghana, the women famously blocked the exits of the meeting hall, insisting negotiators stay and find a way forward. Their sustained nonviolent action helped build pressure towards ending Liberia’s long civil war.

Leymah received the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, alongside Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Tawakkol Karman, for her nonviolent work advancing women’s safety and participation in peacebuilding.

But her activism didn’t stop when the war ended.

Despite previously supporting President Sirleaf, Leymah later criticised her government for failing to do enough to address corruption and poverty. In 2012, she resigned from her leadership role in Liberia’s Peace and Reconciliation Commission in protest.

For me, this is what makes her such a powerful Peaceful Warrior. Peace is not simply the absence of war. It asks us to confront injustice and the conditions that prevent people from living with dignity.

Leymah’s story reminds us that peace can be compassionate and prayerful, while also courageous, persistent and willing to speak truth to power.

Peace is not passivity.
Peace is action. 🕊️🤍

25/08/2026

Peace begins with… Shayla @ Amani
✨

This Sunday, join our darling Shayla for Gentle Yoga: Sunday Sādhana — a gentle invitation to slow down, turn inward, and create a little more space for yourself. 🌿

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Shayla’s approach to yoga is grounded in Svādhyāya — self-enquiry: cultivating awareness, reflecting with curiosity, and noticing what brings us closer to living in alignment with our truest selves.

Her teaching is simply exquisite, reminding us that yoga is not about how a shape looks, or whether our practice resembles somebody else’s. Instead, we might ask: How does this feel in my body? What do I notice? What do I need today?

Through gentle seated and standing movement, nourishing stretches, floor-based shapes and moments of meditation and rest, Shayla offers space to explore both movement and stillness — without striving or comparison.

And perhaps, little by little, what we practise on the mat begins to accompany us beyond it: slowing down enough to listen, creating space before we react, meeting ourselves and others with greater awareness, and choosing how we wish to move through the world.

Gentle Yoga: Sunday Sādhana with Shayla this Sunday, 9.30AM at the Heretaunga Women’s Centre🤎

Book: https://amanibooking.as.me/gentle [link in bio]

24/08/2026

🌿 THROWBACK TO JUNE | PLANTING PEACE 🌿

Back in June, something pretty special happened…

Our beautiful Amani whānau pulled on their gumboots, grabbed a spade, and joined Andrew and me to help plant 785 native trees on our whenua. 🌱💚

There was mud. There was laughter. There were tired bodies and dirty hands. And, little by little, there were hundreds of tiny trees finding their new home in the earth.

For us, this was about so much more than planting trees.

It was about restoration — returning native life to the land, creating future habitat for birds and insects, supporting biodiversity, and caring for this little piece of Papatūānuku that we have the privilege of tending.

And it was also a beautiful reminder of the kind of peace we speak about so often at Amani.

The peace that can be found when we step away from the noise and spend time outside. When our hands are in the soil. When we notice the birds, the wind, the changing light. When we work alongside one another without needing to rush.

There is something deeply grounding about remembering that we are not separate from nature — we are nature. 🌿

Those 785 trees have been quietly growing through the winter wind, rain, and frost. One day, we hope they’ll form a thriving pocket of native bush — long after the muddy gumboots and aching muscles of our planting party have been forgotten.

And knowing that our Amani community helped put those roots into the earth makes it even more special. 🥹

To our wonderful whānau who came and planted alongside us — thank you. For your time, your energy, your care, and for helping us leave this whenua a little more abundant than we found it.

Perhaps peace can look like this too:
people coming together, caring for the earth, and planting something they may never see fully grown. 🌱

With so much aroha and gratitude,

Paula & Ānaru 💚

24/08/2026

Peace begins with…

the quiet beneath the noise,
the breath beneath the busy,
and the little moments that remind you
there is nowhere else you need to be.

Slow down. Soften. Breathe.

Let life meet you where you are.

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A pause for thought; a pause for peace.

The Slow Down — Yin Yoga with Zara 🌿 Zara 🌞 | Mindset & Movement

🌿 Every Tuesday
9.30–10.30am
Heretaunga Women’s Centre

$koha

All mats and props are provided.

Book your place today:
https://amanibooking.as.me/yin

🌿🙏🏾💛

23/08/2026

PEACEFUL WARRIOR | Jane Goodall 🌿

“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” — Jane Goodall

Our Zara has nominated the indomitable Dr. Jane Goodall, who for more than six decades, invited us to see the world differently — with curiosity, compassion, and a deeper recognition of our connection to all living beings.

Beginning with her groundbreaking observations of wild chimpanzees in Tanzania, Jane challenged long-held ideas about what separated humans from other animals. She documented chimpanzees making and using tools, while her patient, relational approach revealed their complex personalities, emotions, family bonds and social lives.

But her legacy reached far beyond science. As an environmentalist, humanitarian and tireless advocate, she showed us that the wellbeing of humans, animals and the Earth are inseparable.

Jane spoke often of hope — not as passive optimism or simply believing that things would somehow get better, but as something we actively create. Her hope was grounded in action: in restoring damaged ecosystems, protecting animals and their habitats, empowering young people to become changemakers, and encouraging each of us to recognise the impact of our everyday choices. Through initiatives such as Roots & Shoots, she placed particular faith in younger generations, reminding them that their voices and actions mattered. Even in the face of climate change, biodiversity loss and immense environmental destruction, Jane continued to insist that giving up was not an option. For her, hope lived in the decision to care enough to act — again and again, together. 🌿🕊️

Jane’s life embodied a beautiful kind of peaceful resistance: gentle, persistent and profoundly powerful. She reminded us that peace is not only something we seek between people, but something we practise in our relationship with all beings and the natural world.

And while her voice may now be gone, her invitation surely remains: What kind of difference will you choose to make? 🌍🕊️🌿

19/08/2026

Peace begins with… Susy @ Amani
✨

This weekend, we have the pleasure of being guided by our gorgeous Susy, at Gentle Yoga: Sunday Sādhana. 🩷

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For Susy, yoga is a practice of connection — to self, to others, and to the natural world.

Her teaching honours the roots of yoga while creating space for individuality, autonomy and exploration. Through āsana, prāṇāyāma and meditation, Susy invites each person to listen inwardly, cultivating their own sense of strength, stillness and calm.

But for Susy, yoga doesn’t end when we roll up our mats.

Guided by the Eight Limbs of Yoga, she carries its teachings into everyday life — particularly ahimsa, the practice of non-violence. Compassion, truthfulness, contentment and self-study become ways of meeting herself, others and the world with greater awareness and kindness.

There is something very Amani about Susy’s understanding of practice: that the peace we cultivate within ourselves can ripple outward into how we live, relate and move through the world.

We’re so grateful to have Susy sharing her practice, presence and wisdom with our Amani community.

Join her at the Heretaunga Women’s Centre, 9.30-10.30AM.

Book: https://amanibooking.as.me/gentle [link in bio]


🖤🤍🤎🌈♾️

17/08/2026

PEACEFUL WARRIOR 🕊️ | Eliza Hatch

For our first Peaceful Warrior, Amani teacher Susy has chosen British photographer and activist Eliza Hatch, founder of Cheer Up Luv — a platform challenging gender-based violence, misogyny and harassment through photography and storytelling.

The project began after a stranger told Eliza to “cheer up” in the street. When she spoke about the experience, she began questioning why behaviour that makes women feel uncomfortable or unsafe is so often dismissed as harmless.

So, in 2017, she picked up her camera.

Through Cheer Up Luv, Eliza photographs people in the public places where they have experienced harassment, giving them space to tell their stories and, symbolically, reclaim that space.

What began as a photography project has since grown into an international platform for activism, education and conversation.

And this is where Eliza’s work speaks so beautifully to our exploration of peace.

Because peace does not mean remaining quiet.

It does not mean accepting harm to avoid conflict.

Sometimes peace asks us to speak, listen, challenge and disrupt.

To believe people when they tell us they have been harmed.
To question what we have been taught to accept as normal.
To create communities where everyone can move through the world with dignity, freedom and safety.

Eliza reminds us that activism doesn’t always begin with a grand gesture.

Sometimes it begins with noticing something that isn’t right — and deciding not to look away.

A camera can become protest.
A story can reclaim power.
Listening can become solidarity.

And making space for another person’s voice can itself become an act of peace.

Thank you Susy, for introducing us to your Peaceful Warrior. 🕊️

May we imagine peace not simply as the absence of violence, but as the presence of safety, dignity, justice and freedom — for all.