MEDITATION

1.5hr of Vinyasa it is today. Sweat dripped. challenged and persevered.

Heard today,

"The HIGHEST form of YOGA is Meditation 
 and not difficult ASANAS."

When you practice YOGA, you stay within yourself and not let your mind wonder. When you are doing YOga correctly, you are in meditation. Your mind stays centred and does not leave your body. You do not daydream. You do not look at others.

When you do YOGA, its not a competition. You do not want to outdo others. If you do that you are depriving yourself of the gift of the moment.

Feeling centred and within yourself, you will realise that you can execute poses better as you feel your body, the joints and the muscles. Its really a beautiful experience.

Next time when you YOGA, be within and try not to look at the mirror in front of you and at others.

Feel your body.

Enjoy!

Yoga is infinite

The beauty of YOga is that you never stop learning and discovering yourself.

Though I have completed by 200hr TTC, I still go for regular classes and push myself.

In yoga you may be a teacher,  but while teaching, you are also a student as in the process you learn from your students.

Being a full time mum, I am glad I have a passion.

Something which anchors me. Something which keeps my mind alert.

Practicing asanas and stretching myself both mentally and physically humbles me, as you always want to improve your asanas, make it better and graceful.

I love my YOGA.

Invigorating Vinyasa

Today I attended Vinyasa class with one of my favourite teachers. Its my first class with her in 2014.
Its really a powerful class, breaking sweat and muscles feeling spent after.

In yoga class I always feel like I am in meditation. Always concentrating, not letting thoughts enter my mind. Not looking at others, the mirror but looking internally within me.

Today we did this pose and I feel I am feeling stronger.

You will be mine!

Durian and YOga are not friends

This morning I went for Hot YOga at 9.45am.

The night before I had Durian Party with my friend. Never ate so much durians for such a long time. Durian eating is a community activity.  Eating alone is no fun. You got to have company tasting the soft flesh of the delicious durian. So I ate and ate.

Today at practice, I can feel the difference in my body.

It feels a little rough.

For the past few practices I went, I could feel the smoothness in pose execution. Today is a different story. Though I could execute the poses, it does not feel so shiok(satisfied).

I learnt something about my body today. While it is no surprising I feel like that since durian is acidic. I think it is rajasic and also perhaps tamasic food group. Thus the sluggish feel.

Hope to make it to vinyasa tomorrow. Will see what the body whispers to me as I had beef noodle(kway teow today).

Hand Balancing

Today I went for POwer Yoga.

Once I would pant at power yoga. But now I leant something about my body.

Its stronger and my stamina is better.

Bakasana and other balancing poses are happening. Thanks to practice and practice and practice

Simple Tips to help to Arm Balancing Postures and Push-up positions:

• have the palms flat on the floor but grip with your finger tips
• press more on the inside (thumb-side) of the palms for better force transfer from the forearms to the wrists
• squeeze the heel of the palm inwards (as if trying to turn the palm out) in order to stabilise the elbow
• tighten the underarm muscles by pressing the arm pits in the direction they are pointing
• generally bring the shoulders over the over the finger tips (for most arm balances)
• spread the shoulder blades and lengthen the skin between the shoulder blades in the upper back
• push the sitting bones and lower trunk toward the same direction the navel is pointing until the front of the abdomen becomes firm without sucking the navel to the spine
• breathe into the firm abdomen to give you relaxed inner power that can be maintained for a long time without stress
• don’t do anything that feels painful or is potentially dangerous for you

Misconception about Yoga

A month ago there was a riot by some South Asian foreign workers in Singapore.

Within 3 hours law enforces managed to take control of the situation. Many people came up with theories on why this happened? Given that there has been NO riot in Singapore for the past 42years. And this riot was not from Singaporeans but a few foreign workers.

 Some said these workers were frustrated, some felt they needed more activities to fill their weekend.They do not work on Sundays. So YOGA and MEDITATION were offered to them. From the photos and videos I see, I can see that these workers who took part are flexible. I am not surprised if they practiced back in India.

 While one writer felt that what these workers need is not YOga and Meditation but some fair at work policy which is fair. But how much do you know about YOga and Meditation to dismiss yoga and meditation. They say that in Hollywood many movie stars do YOga and meditation because they have everything.

 So YOga and Meditation is sidelined as something for the rich and those who have already arrived. I think the writer has obviously not tried yoga and meditation to understand that wealth does not equate happiness.

 The more you practice the philosophy of yoga, you begin to appreciate what you have.
LESS IS MORE! You appreciate the little things in life like being able to BREATHE and your HEALTH.

 These foreign workers have certainly braved a lot of hardship back home and has taken a hefty loan to be here. With back breaking job from MOnday to Sunday, missing family back home and the thought of repaying their loan, I think YOGA and MEDITATION is the perfect offering as it teaches one to be calm and be at peace with oneself.

 Maybe the writer should try it before condemning..AHIMSA.(non-violence)

I found YOGA in California not India

The year 2005 was very significant to me for 3 things.
1) I got a new job in broadcasting
2) I met my husband
3) I met YOGA at a gym. It was California Fitness Gym.

Being a dancer in the university I thought I was flexible. That thought was humbled when I realised that there are so many postures I cannot do, simple postures which require flexibility. That was when I was awakened about how inflexible I was.

I would be in awe of people who could do pachimottanasana(seated forward bend, with the forehead touching the knees).

I remember approaching two girls after a class and complimenting them, I thought that posture was unreachable.

Then, I attended YOga classes once a week.

But though I was not as flexible, I benefited a lot from the therapeutic and spiritual aspect of yoga. I felt peaceful. I benefitted from yoga's even breathing.

I remember that after each class, I felt emotionally stronger. Nothing could anger or hurt me.

It was something very VALUABLE.

For 10 years I practiced yoga more as a recreation than passion. As a result my progress was minimal.

But I always loved yoga. My progress accelerated only after I came back to Singapore at the age of 46.

My body is stronger and is able to do things I could only dream of when I was much younger and also as a child.

So who says your body stiffen up as you age? I smell an excuse...