As I progress in my learning, I came to realize that being conscious of your breath is not a simple thing to do and it helps you to be focused. Usually when I am very tired after doing a pose or a sequence of poses, I found that it was due to the shortness of breath or rather losing control of breathing… especially when you get too obsessed with getting the pose right or perfect.

When the breath is smooth and controlled, I feel energised and the flow is smooth and in control. I think that explains why I am terrible in hot classes. I get distracted by the perspiration running down my face and keep wiping them off and with that I think I did not concentrate on the breath ( as what Singaporean would say “anyhow” breathe ) and lost control.

Or when I get distracted with other things like the mind keep thinking and analysing why the teacher is doing this and that… I bad… I tried a few other teachers’ classes and I did not enjoy them too much… was it really a bad class or just me? I must try again but this time with an even more open mind and to try to appreciate the class instead of thinking too much… and just concentrate on my breath…

This just came to mind again… something bugged me a whole lot… I went to this teacher’s hot class (not my usual class) and he told us to breathe in when we twist and to exhale to extend the spine ( we were doing the Half Spinal Twist - Ardha Matsyendrasana )… And all along I thought we were supposed to exhale when we twist and to extend the spine when we inhale…. The more I thought about it, the more certain I was… Or was it a hot thing? As in a Bikram hot yoga breathing technique??

I am still puzzled….

1. The Anusara invocation.
I sing that every single day. Well, almost… when I walked to take a bus or train. It is sort of to myself but it is calming and beautiful. I remembered how all of us used to sing that 3 times in class together with Bo at the start of every class. Two times, call and response ( Bo sang one verse and all of us followed… ) One time together and finally an om ( or was it 3 oms?… memory fades… ) It was wonderful and lifting. The harmonious sound of all of us together.

2. Pigeon.
Always… which is why I love doing pigeon. It reminded me that it was Bo and Desiree, both my favorite Anusara teachers who made it possible for me. The importance of squaring the hips, the opening of the heart, shoulders back, hugging to the centre, elongating the spine in the pose. Whenever I do this pose, I remembered all these wonderful Anusara teachers.

3. Handstand.
Yes, handstand. I remembered long time ago, I cannot kick up to a handstand against the wall at all. And I feared it. And yes, we have to do it in every class by Bo. For the life of me, I can never kick up. Well, because of me doing the handstand everyday in Bo’s classes, finally I got it. Once I could kick up to handstand against the wall, it was fantastic! And from then onwards, I love handstand. It really gives you a high and I always feel pretty good after a handstand.

4. Hugging to the centre, softening the skin
This was used by Bo a lot in class previously. For the longest time, I did not get what he was trying to say. But when I finally did, I think it made a difference in my practice. Now I always tell myself this in most of the poses.

I really think I need to go back to Anusara…

I saw the match and it was really a nail biting ( I was waiting for my turn to get my poor overworked laptop fixed ) match. When they won, I felt a great sense of pride. Yes, a confirmed medal… a silver at the least but more importantly the chance of a gold medal.

I probably would be soooo proud of the medal if only if the team captain hadn’t made the remark before the match. The remark was that the China team is going to win… so to me, as a sportsman to have made such a remark has already lost half the match. It’s like we’ve got silver, that’s enough and stop trying. And indeed, we suffered a crushing defeat… China 3 Singapore 0.

I am not saying that they did not try their best. But I can be sure that in their minds, there is already a mental picture that they are already going to lose to China. I mean, you fought so hard to get to the finals and the gold medal was within reach, shouldn’t one fight the hardest and never to bow down to giants to the end?

The last medal won by Singapore was 48 years ago by the weight lifter, Tan Howe Liang. He fought hard to the end without any support, monetary reward (now winning a silver medal equates getting a cool $750k… ) nor recognition like what we have now… He fought for Singapore. This is the true Olympian hero!

I hope to see in my lifetime, our very own true Singapore Olympic Gold Medalist!

Ok, enough of my rant… check out this funny site about Olympics… ( i still prefer LOL cats though… ) :
lolympics.tumblr.com/

Special note : do check out the Singapore’s Li Jia Wei entry…
lolympics.tumblr.com/post/46197923/i-iz-bettr-at-tabel-teniz-rly-thanks-to-our

Being present when you are eating, talking to your friends, practising yoga is not very easy. I often find images of unrelated events and thoughts drifting in and out of my head unwittingly. Sometimes it just pops up and my mind will follow that thought ( hence train of thought? ) and then I will notice and snap myself back into present.

Being present takes more effort and practice. Hence the importance of meditation to train your mind, to be in control of your thoughts by your conscious mind. It is definitely something that we cannot develop overnight.

My yoga teacher threw us this challenge to be present while we are eating. He said to choose a meal everyday to practice this mindfulness. To be with the food totally as you consume, eat, bite and chew.

Try out yourself and let me know if you are able to do so. For me, near impossible. I can perhaps hold the being present for like a moment.

Most people work at a desk and hence, most of the time, they hunched they shoulders forward when they type or work at their PC. It is no wonder that many people developed a hunch back. I used to be one of them before I start going for yoga classes. It was a pretty ugly hunch and it makes me look even shorter than my already short height.

However, luckily for me, I discovered yoga and have since corrected the years of “torture” that I have inflicted on my shoulders. I count my blessings everyday!

But of course, it took me some time to “rework” my shoulders and it still need more work… So Tias workshop on the shoulder girdle certainly interest me alot.

Tias showed us where exactly is our kidneys located in our body and even though I was a biology student before, I never thought about why the kidneys are located as such. The kidneys are very important organs in our body and we can see that mother nature has “hidden” them deep within our chest. He also made us feel the kidneys of each other as we breathe in child’s pose as well as sitting up.

You can really feel the difference in breathing… between the left and right side. It is subtle but you can feel one side of the body rising more or faster or less smooth than one side. This shows which side is the weaker side.

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More coming… was inspired by a friend’s drawing of yoga poses… looks like my drawings are not so bad… Will up load them soon to share!

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The long awaited workshop is finally here.

What’s great some more is that I saw a few familiar faces like previous teachers whom I studied under. Plus Shirley is assisting! And I get to attend workshop side by side with my Anusara teacher, Bo. Cool

I have read quite a fair bit of articles by Tias Little in Yoga Journal and have heard great things about his training from Shirley who travelled all the way to Sante Fe to study with him. Tias teaches Prajna yoga but has first trained in Iyengar System in the beginning and then 10 years of Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga.

He looked very strict at the start of the first workshop. But we soon realize that he is really a funny guy.

Today’s first class was about the sacrum and all about opening the pelvic region.

His class is not the type that most people are accustomed to - like a lot of flow or doing difficult poses ( which I came to understand that many people are hung up on ). It’s really all about understanding of your body part, in this case, your sacrum and your body alignment.

Since Tias studied Iyengar yoga before, it is no wonder that he uses a lot of props like yoga blocks, blanket as well as the belt. Fab! I think props can help alot especially when you are not really open in certain areas. Like for me, I can’t do the “Cow Face” pose ( Gomukhasana : see here ) and hence a little belt or towel is great in helping me bind.

After this workshop about our sacrum, I came to understand more about the importance of our sacrum and how we can “keep” our sacrum healthy - do yoga ( of course… warrior 1 and 2 are great ), when standing, stand in Tadasana… do not slouch and stand on one foot… Not even when you are waiting for someone!

When you come face to face with Wagyu beef offered at a discount - used to be $40 per plate, now at $29?? No brainer… it is really hard to resist…

And to think I want to go on a seafood only diet… and to say that I am going to ban all red and white meat is surely quite a joke. HAHAHA.

Oh well. It was a well worth sacrifice. When you gently bite into the piece of succulent juicy morsel, it oozes with beefy goodness and tenderness. And it is not those strong sometimes overwhelming beef taste but a delicate beef taste that leaves you hankering for more.

The lamb rack is really good too! No strong lamb smell but juicy tender smoky grilled meat that drop off the rib. Almost as good as the beef.

I am guilty as charged!

OM~

That was two days again. I have been good for the past 2 days… only eating seafood and no meat, not even chicken.

And boy, am I excited today! This is much better than wagyu beef…. Tias Little’s workshop is finally here today!
So looking forward to his yoga workshop!!!!

OM~

Did you see the guy float from handstand to a single hand side peacock pose?? my jaws dropped… totally… literally…

Be awed!

OM~

Over last weekend, I am very happy for one of my yoga kakis ( Singapore slang for good friends )… she has finally kicked up into a handstand on her own ( and most effortlessly too! ). I know that feeling of joy and I know that from now on, she would have totally “kicked” the fear of kicking into handstand just like I did. Once you overcome that barrier, as they all say, the rest is history.

Charat, the always cheerful bubbly humble yogi, shared with us a most enlightening story ( I do like yoga teachers sharing their experiences, stories and sets a theme for the class, always makes me ponder and think… ) :

Back in India in his ashram, some time ago, his guruji had found that his yoga practice did not seem to improve and he did not know why. He felt troubled and decided to set off into the mountains to find this sage who was living in a cave up in the mountains. He hoped that this sage can enlighten him why he is not seeing any more improvement.

And so, he set off and he found the sage. ( Does this sound like a fairy tale story? hehe… this reminded me of those old fairy tale story books that I used to borrow from the library )

He presented his problem to the sage and waited in bated breath for the wise man to bestow an answer…

Instead, the sage just quietly sat there with crossed legs and then lowered his head. And then he made a fist with his right hand, bent his right arm at ninety degrees and starting to move this arm back and forth, back and forth ( almost like pulling or sawing action ).

What does that mean?

It simply means to carry on practicing and practicing and practicing…

Charat also said “practice is a journey, we just have to carrying on practicing regularly as we do not know when we are going to reach the destination, but we will reach the destination… ”

Just like my “One Day”.

Even though his class is not the “workout” type of class, his interesting perceptive and philosophy probably will do many people good, like myself.

om~

Well, in the real world of yoga I see a lot of competition, jealousy and ugliness when groups of yoga teachers band together to ostracize other teachers. Oh yeah, it’s real and it’s happening in the yoga studio I go to. How does that sound when even students get to hear all these “backstabbing” stories - yep, I overheard a group of students discussing what happened to a yoga teacher in the dressing room. They love the teacher’s class but one of them were shocked that that teacher were asked to leave. One of the other students commented that some of the teachers wanted him out because he is not teaching the yoga style that they are teaching. However, this will probably appeal to groups of yoga students who want to let go the day’s stress and just want to relax and enjoy a nice easy going and yet uplifting class. I even heard that this band of teachers are going against a certain yoga school… why? I have no idea…

Such incident of this nature has already happened many times before and now again.

I was really surprised when it happened for the first time…

“The difference between the world of yoga and the fashion world is that in fashion, competition is placed right out in the open. In yoga, people pretend it is not there.” quoted from David Swenson’s article, www.yogajournal.com/for_teachers/2545

Looks like my classes I can go for just shrunk even further…

It’s sad and so disappointing when you think about it. But I guess that is what happen when one stresses too much on one aspect of yoga, just the asanas and forgetting everything else that really matters. Like what Charat says, yoga is not about the poses that you do but the mind, body and the divine within us.

After two years plus of learning yoga, I think yoga is a journey of learning about yourself, body, mind and soul. Sure thing that being able to do this and that cool pose is added pluses but do not discount the rest of the benefitsYour attitude towards yourself (self respect, self confidence, loving yourself, knowing your limits) as well as towards others (respect, support and encouragement, humility, care). It also about learning how to trust yourself and also other people, about learning how to ask for and accept help when you need it. Opening yourself to other people’s views and beliefs and to observe without judgment.

om~