There is a perception that Yoga is intimidating when you start out. Maggie Carr, studio owner and senior teacher, goes to great lengths to emphasise that it doesn’t matter your age, skill level, or level of fitness. Today is the perfect time to begin your yoga journey at Ocean Beach Yoga – a safe space for new and experienced students. From our experience, special attention is paid to learning alignment principles so students can practice safely.

If you want to supplement your other fitness or sporting activities with Yoga, keep this in mind. Yoga practice is preventative to injury, enhances muscle function and combats stress – three critical components to aid your daily routine.

From personal experience, Yoga goes beyond strengthening and toning muscles – it relaxes you. We feel rejuvenated when we leave a yoga class with more energy and less stress. Yoga is an excellent cross-training routine for all ages, not just athletes.

Maggie was first introduced to Yoga in the late 1990s. It began as something she did a couple of times a week at the local gym, but in 2000, Maggie truly found Yoga – or rather, Yoga found her. After being involved in a sailing accident that saw her lose the fingers on her dominant left hand, Maggie embarked on a journey to heal her hand, head, and heart. Daily yoga practice became an essential part of her life.

Maggie initially began teaching the Bikram Method in 2005. She owned two well known hot yoga studios in Melbourne for more than a decade before being drawn to the ocean and the beautiful Mornington Peninsula in 2016. Her travels have involved studying Vinyasa and Hatha Yoga in India, plus training in Yin and Restorative Yoga, myofascial release and mindfulness meditation.

There are many types of Yoga, from gentle, to Vinyasa Flow or Slow Flow or Yin, to name a few, and Ocean Beach Yoga caters to all.

Football and soccer players of the Mornington Peninsula, take note. Yoga’s ability to help with balance and core strength while building stamina and endurance is proven. Today, many athletes have a trend to incorporate Yoga into their training. Yoga can help you achieve better stability and help work hamstrings, groin, quads, calves, glutes, lower back, neck, sides, and core.

Another well-supported sport in the Mornington Peninsula is Basketball. Players need to be agile, flexible and coordinated to avoid injury. As a basketballer, you can benefit from adding in a weekly yoga practice to improve your agility, flexibility, speed, strength, body fat, shooting, passing and dribbling ability.

At the end of the day, you don’t even need to be playing a sport; you might just love a walk, spending time in the garden or enjoying a social round of golf. Yoga is a preventative activity that helps to alleviate tightness. We all benefit from stretching but let’s face it, who does? We just don’t have the discipline to do so, and that’s where Maggie and her team come into their own.

Finally, it’s important to highlight that Yoga isn’t just a physical practice. It’s a mental practice, and you gain cognitive benefits through meditation conducted during a lesson. Many of us struggle with stress these days – overstimulated by information overload, life in general, sport and balancing work and personal lives. Yoga helps with slowing down your breathing, which increases the flow of oxygen to your brain. The breathing centres the mind; the Yoga poses help centre your body – a win-win (mind-body) workout that relaxes your nervous system. Regular yoga practice allows you to improve mindfulness or the act of slowing down racing thoughts and finding stillness.

Maggie Carr believes that the days you practice Yoga are simply better days, and we wholeheartedly agree with her. It’s well worth the hike from far and wide to experience this superlatively contemporary studio above the trees that’s a stone’s throw from the ocean. If you live nearby, count yourself lucky. If you’re in town or other parts of the Peninsula, our tip would be to try to incorporate a visit here at least once a month or when you holiday here. As always, book in advance as this studio is well supported by the local community.

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From day one Eileen Gordon and Grant Donaldson wanted their studio to be somewhere people could look behind the scenes and gain a true appreciation of their art.  Nestled in the rolling hills of the Mornington Peninsula hinterland, the studio has every angle of the artistic process covered – from looking in on glassblowing in action, looking out at the inspiring countryside, and looking around at the gallery’s magnificent glassworks, all created onsite.  Each view is contrasting but tells a story.

Outside rests a calm, peaceful environment with rural views, landscaped to nurture creativity. Inspired by the lush, natural surroundings, Grant, who discovered his love of glassblowing through Eileen, sketches his ideas. Though it is a constant challenge to create new, original pieces, the couple confess that it is somewhat of an addiction, and a shared passion. Without the constant buzz of town, one can find themselves more easily reaching that almost-meditative state where creativity strikes most powerfully.

Finding the right setting to professionally practice their craft was incredibly important to Eileen and Grant. They spent ten years searching for that perfect spot to set up a glassblowing studio, before finally settling in Red Hill and opening Gordon Studio Glassblowers in 2003. Being close enough to Melbourne to source materials, providing sufficient tourism to sustain a business, and surrounded by the natural environment they craved, it offered the perfect mix.

They renovated the property’s old house with the specific objective of creating a secure viewing mezzanine that allowed visitors to watch the resident artists working with molten hot glass, shaping it, adding colour, blowing air and using gravity to create the pieces to be sold in the gallery. It is a distinct contrast to the peaceful views outside.  Glassblowing is a strenuous and challenging craft that requires physical and mental strength – just holding the equipment while blowing is physically demanding.  It is also now a rare trade, due to the cost involved. The techniques and tools – such as the glory hole, blowing iron, tongs, pincers and foot tool, which have changed little over time – all had to be sourced from England. Therefore, seeing glassblowing in action is a unique experience – as close a genuine tie to ancient history as you’re likely to find.

For Eileen and Grant, offering this insight is important, not merely as a point of interest, but to provide an appreciation for, and an understanding of, the art-form, and how much energy goes into creating each piece.

The peacefulness of the outdoors and the energy of the workshop come together through the homely, bright and open gallery, full of colourful and striking glassworks.  Pieces include vases, platters, various types of bottles, bowls, paperweights, and a range of decorative pieces. Many of the pieces have been created from the Gordon family who are very well-known glass engravers. They also create many custom designed pieces for customers, particularly to adorn new houses.

Throughout the year they also host events and demonstrations, including the opportunity for guests to create their own piece of glass art.  Between their work in the gallery and the blowing room, which are open to the public daily from 10am – 5pm, it is a time-consuming passion. They do, however, find time to rejuvenate, as is critically important for any artist. Eileen is a keen skier and squash player, and Grant pounds the skins as a drummer in a band. They have also travelled extensively, collecting glass artwork from across the world and hope to host an exhibition of their collection. That’s how much they enjoy glassblowing – even when they’re on holiday they’re chasing down pieces!

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Encapsulating all the magic of Red Hill, this enchanting property with four-bedroom home and deluxe workshop-studio with self-contained one-bedroom cottage is sure to ignite your artistic side in a picturesque setting that’s nothing short of exceptional.

Set on 3.7 acres of land buffered by ancient Cyprus trees, multiple out buildings and stunning gardens conspire to create an absolute wonderland for young and old – from the built-in playground and cubby house to the rustic teenage retreat/bungalow beside the arena.

The captivating log-cabin homestead inspires under high cathedral ceilings with two living areas surrounding the well-appointed kitchen with stainless-steel appliances and tall breakfast bar, while glass doors open to a Romanesque mosaic alfresco patio overlooking the children’s gardens on one side and a sundrenched barbecue deck on the other.

Oozing artistic delight, the multi-roomed workshop-studio just beyond is all set up for any number of creative endeavors and with fully self-contained accommodation including a kitchen, lounge, bedroom, bathroom and deck, the resident Picasso can keep the creative fires stoked well into the midnight hours.

Currently thriving as a well-booked B&B in the main house and home to a gifted silversmith in the artist’s studio, this incredible property includes two bathrooms in the main house, fireplace, wood heaters, reverse-cycle heating/aircon, two lock-up garages, storage shed, 40,000-litre rainwater tanks, chapel and firepit.

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