Is that why Hot yoga is very popular with most people? All intense work outs that just push you physically relentlessly? Your body probably feels good after such a “workout” and then that feeling probably goes off in an hour or so… and then what? The very next day, you rush to another class to workout and get that rush of endorphins, a temporary high.

Yoga is not only about the body. We all know that. But how many of us practice the yoga of the mind too? Yes, we do try to connect to our body but that is just one small part of the practice - on the mat. What about off the mat? I think that is even more important than being able to do a perfect pigeon (sure it’s a most satisfying feeling when you are able to do it finally - and then what… ? ). So what if you can do all the poses and yet you behaved as if the whole world owes you or you are so selfish and inconsiderate that you step all over other people’s mats?

It’s pretty amazing to learn how yoga can be used as a parallel to your life. During Bo’s Anusara class yesterday , he shared an important lesson. Life is not one straight road. Rather it is much like a “yard sale” - with aplenty of objects all over the yard - this is analogy of the distractions in life.

So we need to be able to overcome the distractions and refocus back to your center - on the mat as well as in our life. How do we do that? We practice and be aware! Imagine if I have just kept practicing yoga without thinking or reflections, with no one to enlighten or “seed” the thought, I would not have grown myself internally, mentally. ( Another excellent way to grow our minds is to read and I don’t mean main stream novels…. but books that get you to think. )

Ultimately, it is what we think that determines exactly what we do - we can choose happy thought or sad thought despite whatever happen as with an enlightened mind, we are able to choose to observe our emotions, not to react to our emotions and then choose the best reaction to whatever happens.

Hmm.. anyone understood what I’ve just said? Haha…

Maybe an example can help… imagine you are on a train and a man and his son sat besides you. Then the man’s son started to make a lot of noise, irritating everyone around him while the man just sat there without doing anything to stop the son or calm him down. Probably at this point of time, if you are tired after working the entire day, you would feel irritated, angry at that man for not controlling his son. Totally pissed and angry, boiling inside, you probably shouted angrily to the man “Hey, can you please control your son and quiet him down? So inconsiderate!” ( perhaps an even stronger term? ) This is what most of us do… we react to our emotion and react to the emotion.

What if then the man turned to you with a sad and forlorn face, and say apologetically “I’m very sorry…. my wife just died hours ago and my son is missing his mother… ” ? Is there a change in what you feel now?

What do you think?

~Namaste

During our menstrual cycle, it is advised that we rest! DUH… however, I have noticed that many women ( including me… guilty as charged sometimes ) are still going for tough yoga classes. However, I do notice that doing some easy yoga like restorative yoga and certain light hatha yoga is very helpful in keeping those cramps at bay as well as helping me feel less uneasy on the tummy.

However, there are some poses that you should avoid ( especially during your heavy flow ) :
1. Any inversions.
Headstand - OUT
Handstand - OUT
Shoulderstand - OUT
Forearm Balance - OUT
….
Generally any pose that has the pelvic area below above the head is not to be performed.

2. Any pose that require strong twisting on the stomach area.

3. Kapalbhati or any breathing exercises that require you to contract stomach muscles are to be avoided as well.

If you have menstrual cramps, heavy bleeding, pelvic discomfort, do try out some of these poses :
1. Reclined Bound Angle Pose (Supta Baddha Konasana)

2. Supported Open Angle Pose (Salamba Upavistha Konasana)

3. Child’s Pose (Balasana)

4. Seated Forward Bend (Paschimottanasana)

5. Lying Knee to Chest Twist ( light twist )

You can use blankets and bolsters to support yourself on your lower back to relax and gently open the lower belly and pelvic floor and womb area when resting.

The best pose? Just rest….

Seems like there is plenty of so called New Moon Leaked Trailers on youtube… but seriously they are all fan made types. It is really irritating. Recent news have it that they are going to finally release a 1 minute trailer on the MTV Awards which will take place on May 31 2009 (tomorrow!). So watch for it!!!! I will … if only I can get to watch MTV Awards ( hope that Cable will show it )

UPDATE : Go to this link to watch the New Moon trailer
http://www.mtv.com/videos/movie-trailers/395235/trailer-premiere-new-moon.jhtml#id=1612947
I think Jacob has really grown up! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRROWLLLLL… Check out the muscles…

The day after he died, I went for an ashtanga class. I thought about Guruji as he was fondly known as by all his ashtanga students all over the world ( with numerous great teachers like David Life, David Swenson etc and famous stars like Madonna, Sting ). Although I am not a avid practitioner of Ashtanga, my occasional practice has brought me much benefits and much respect about the founder.

Doing the poses are one thing but it’s another whole level, when you need to watch your breath as well as remember the sequence as well. It’s training for the mind as well. You are also encouraged to practice each pose diligently until you can do the pose before moving on to the next one.

It is a great lost to the yoga community. Guruji has left behind a legacy that everyone will remember forever. Some of guruji’s quotes :

“Do your practice and all is coming.”

“Ashtanga yoga is 99 percent practice, one percent theory.”

“Yoga is possible for anybody who really wants it. Yoga is universal.
Yoga is not mine. But don’t approach yoga with a business mind -
looking for worldly gain. If you want to be near God, turn your mind
toward God, and practice yoga. As the scriptures say “without yoga
practice, how can knowledge give you moksha [liberation]?”

Namaste~

He’s funny too! Just delightful!

www.yogajournal.com/video/112?utm_source=MyYogaJournal&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=myj_361

The amazing thing, the class is over 800 people!

PS. I gotta transcribe this!

However, I cannot hold the binding for long as my left shoulder still hurts after a while. I don’t know what’s wrong with my left shoulder but it is definitely slightly different from my right shoulder. Certain rotation to the back and up still cause some pain and discomfort. But at least I can feel the vast improvement in the movement especially when doing poses that requires some shoulder rotation to the back like Cowface or reverse binding in Parivritta Parsvakonasana (yes, I can finally bind, now working on getting the back foot on the floor). yay!

This is so funny….
Ogden!!!! Yeoooo….
www.yogajournal.com/ogden/episode3

I am always in awe of Ashtanga practitioners. It takes such dedication and discipline to be able to practice every single day ( except on full moon days ) on your own early in the morning if possible. And to remember all the poses in the series? Wow… I cannot even remember past the 2nd pose after the sun salutations. Yeah, I am that forgetful. So it just shows that I need to go for more ashtanga classes to train the mind. Maybe even Mysore so that I get to train my brain.

Another great thing about ashtanga is that I always feel energized and alert after the practice. Maybe it’s because of the twisting and breathing that you try to maintain throughout the practice. And I am happy to report that my jump throughs are finally happening consistently.

So ok, it may not be the slow-mo type of lift off and then slowly gliding through… but it was still a smooth (swift) glide through. Hmm… well, using a trick anyway. I believe everyone’s body is built slightly differently and well, I have short arms and jump throughs are really quite hard for me. Just imagine someone with very short arms and then a bigger body trying to jump through the tiny “doorway”. I guess unless you have super duper core strength to lift all of my hips, legs and body, I always get “jammed”. Now a trick will be to lift your palms and wrist as you jump through. This gives me additional height for me to move through with jam! yay!

I like how the teacher encouraged us when we cannot do a pose.

He says “If you cannot do a pose and you see that your friend beside you can do, be happy for them. For they are our future and we are their past!” Now that’s inspiration!

~Namaste!

I have been to hiking to 3 mountains already! I am amazed with myself! *feeling smug*

I admit, I am a city gal all my life. A docile person who prefers to curl up in bed with a book any day. I have been wondering why I am so into mountain climbing now… But it is a good break from all the mumbo jumbo of city life. You get to think about nothing else but about how to survive the climb up and down. Haha!

This time round, the trek is not as tough as Mt Ophir ( Gunung Ledang ). Mt Datuk ( Gunung Datuk ) is 870m/2900ft and it is in Rembau, Negeri Sembilan. We are the hardy ones apparently, for once again we opted for a night climb.

This time we reached the base camp at around 4am plus. I did not sleep at all this time round on the bus as the bus for this trip had movies showing on board - Wolverine and then some B grade horror movie that has people being cut up into pieces in forest by some weird hill billy cannibals (truly exhaustingly stupid and DUHHHH… had me laughing when the first person was slain… guts that spills out seems to be some jelly rubbery thingy - hmmf… ).

The moon was enormous and bright that night. It was surreal. Wished I had my SLR with me to capture the glorious bright big moon glowed. Here’s a feeble attempt using my dummy proof camera :

We waited at the base camp for quite a long time for our organizer as he was busy guiding the bus out from the narrow road leading into the base camp.

And it was obvious that we were not alone…

Pretty soon those pesky mosquitoes started swarming around us. And those of us wearing sleeveless shirts were easy targets and we became fast food for those mosquitoes. We were like standing there in the dark feeding the hungry mosquitoes… I think those mosquitoes must be having a huge feast with the 15 of us standing there…

We started the real trek at around 5am. And it was all the way upwards climb. But I must say, out of the three mountains, the view at the top for Gunung Datuk takes first place. Really beautiful and the wind is fabulously up there. It took us only 2.5 hours to reach the top.

Warning : There are many bees at the top of the mountain. I wonder why… But they were huge and they seemed to be particularly attracted to bags. Weird but true. Bees totally dig my backpack. Clusters of them just want to hover around my bag… Plus 4 of our group were bitten by leeches. EEEow…

Of course, I dreaded the way down. It was another harrowing experience for me coming down. But I think I did improve… In the end, I was the last one to come down

Another thing I learnt, must remember to bring a hair band to keep my perspiration from dripping into my eyes!

PS. If you are considering climbing this mountain, I heard some stories that when you climb it, do not bring or eat anything with pork. Seems like there are some stories about people who died because of that… anyway, it’s really better to be safe than sorry. So do take note!

Especially when the person chanting has a beautiful voice. It is soothing, calming and captivating.

When you chant at the beginning of a yoga practice, you are setting the intention of your practice. I always feel calm and at peace when I do a chant at the beginning of my practice.

In the studio where I practice (very commercialized), most teachers do not do any chants. Probably due to the fact that some students there are not comfortable with the chants. They are of other religious groups that may deem yoga and the chanting inappropriate for their followers.

True or not, I am not sure. But I am of the mindset that as long as the intention is good for the common good and for peace, whether the language used is English, Chinese, Malay or Sanskrit, it does not matter to me. It’s like watching a program on TV with a different language translated, as in the case of a fan of Korean serials like my friend. To her, watching a Korean serial in the original soundtrack with no voice over is way way way better. She rather read the transcript off the tv. So in the similar sense, chanting in the original Sanskrit language captures the “feel” more than if you were to chant in other languages. But do know what you are chanting as it brings more meaning to you when you chant them.

Here’s an article by Yoga Journal that gives a run down on the chanting basics :
www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/841

Actually I am a terrible singer and I used to hate chanting. I have no way of sounding like an angel. Then I started to do my Anusara Chant on my own everyday as I go for my yoga classes. Plus it is a way for me to remember the chant as I have poor memory.

Listening to beautiful chants by wonderful voices of Krishna Das, Jai Uttalare uplifting and moving. They bring the chants to another level. Their voices are rich, powerful and emotionally charged such that you can feel them as you listen to them.

So, every time I don’t feel so good or just upset, I listen to them to clear my mind, find peace within and lift my spirits. It works every time!

~Namaste!

Just the other day, something happened that showed me that the universe is listening.

Some of my friends were planning to go for 2 trips, one to Sarawak ( another climbing expedition ) and also a trip to Bali (climb volcanoes?). The two trips were already pre-arranged amongst several of them since last year and they have already gotten tickets at promotional prices to go. I was late to the party but I really wanted to go to Bali as I have never been there and I’ve always wanted to go there to see the volcanoes ( fascinating! ).

But to go there, I had to pay full air ticket price which is about twice as much as what my friends bought. No way! So I told my friends I will wait and see. Several months passed and it seems like there is no hope from that same airline that they will ever have the same offer again. And all the while I kept thinking there must be some offers or even better deal…

Another several months passed, the trips all but forgotten by me… aside from an occasional glance at prices of air tickets.

Until now. I was on IM with a friend just talking about trips when I started talking about the trip again and wishing again for a good offer to come up soon. And sure enough, some strange cosmic intervention, I got an email from one of the airline companies that they are offering cheap tickets to Bali ! All within that time while I chatted with my friend.

And the cool part is that the ticket was even cheaper !

So be careful of what you think… they may all manifest eventually. This is the Law of Attraction. Everything you see around you, starts off as a thought in some one’s mind! So here’s what all of us should do, think only of good positive thoughts and banish all the bad thoughts!

~Namaste!