Yoga class @ Bodhi Yoga, Taipei

Our itinerary in Taipei was very packed, I'm glad that I had a chance to attend at least 1 class in the week. Before the trip, I searched for yoga studios in Taipei, most of the studios provide classes in the morning starting 8+ and in the evenings. Bodhi Yoga is the only place that provides the first class as early as 7:15am, perfect for me!

It was a 5 mins slow walk from the MRT station, very conveniently located at the 3rd floor of a corner lot commercial building. A big signboard can be easily seen across the road.

The benefits of stretching

Many think that Yin Yoga is for flexible people, or ladies, merely stretching and holding a pose for a long few minutes is torturing and boring.

In fact, everybody should be enjoying this and gain the benefits of stretching:

Incorporate yoga into your lifestyle - Reading while Legs-Up-the-Wall

This is a variation of the original 'Legs-Up-the-Wall' pose. It is a calming pose helps relieving tiredness and tensions on the legs, neck and back. Bringing soothing effect to your mind.

Sliding your legs apart into a wide "V", a Yin way to stretch your inner thighs and groins. Wide-legged pose also helps to detox kidneys.

End this practice by bending your knees and hugging your knees towards your chest, then rock yourself from side to side. Lastly rock yourself to either side and rise yourself up.

Ekta Holistic Centre

Yesterday was the soft opening day for Ekta Holistic Centre. The founder Master Surjit Singh Khalsa prefers not to name his centre as a Yoga studio because it provides more than that.

Ekta Holistic Centre is a safe and nurturing place for healing and personal growth. Its mission is to bring understanding of healing with yoga, concentrating more on mind, body and soul with a purpose of bringing us inwards; teaching us to listen to the body and observe the mind.

Welcome to the 'Rabbit' year

Sasangasana, also called the Rabbit pose, is a simple pose with great benefits.

Sitting on Child pose, holding on your heels, rest the crown (top) of your head in front of your knees, then lift your hips as high as possible, until arms are straighten. Feel your spine curved and elongated, chin tugged to chest.

Benefits: relieves mild head, neck, and back pain; lengthens spine and stretches back, arms, and shoulders; maintains mobility and elasticity of spine and back muscles; improves digestion; aids insomnia.

Each time after a Rabbit pose, I release my forehead on the mat, come back to Child pose and rest for a few breathes before sitting up to avoid dizziness.

Seated balancing

This isn't an original pose in Hot Yoga (Bikram Yoga). But I like to include it into my Hot Yoga session. In the heated room, it's easier to stretch, and the risk of hurting ourself is reduced. So this is a good time for us to challenge this pose. Stretching is not the crucial point in this pose, to be able to stay balance and stay still is the challenge we would like to overcome. We need to learn to ignore the heat, ignore the sweat, ignore the stickiness all over our body. Only when we can ignore the external factors, we can focus on our intentions.

How to lift in Purvottanasana

Q:

I can't seem to lift my hips higher in this pose, was it because of my shoulders aren't opened enough?

A:

Try to pull shoulder blades close to each other to support the chest.

Another thing that we should try is to lift through our feet. Step our feet firm into the mat and not merely supporting our body on our arms. This will help to reduce risk of hurting our wrists.

Most importantly is to keep our neck relax in this pose. Keep it neutral to the spine.

Feel the strength and stretch on the thighs and the spine.

Morning vs Evening

Most people think that one should not exercise on empty stomach. But Yoga is different. I love practicing on empty stomach in the morning. It awakens my drowsy body, clear my mind, nourish my brain with lots of oxygen (rather than be used to digest my food in the stomach). A morning practice prepares me for my day ahead.

I love to end my day with an evening practice, before dinner. It releases body fatigue from a hard day, brings peace to mind, makes me sleep through the night and wake up to a brand new, hopeful and positive day.

One month has passed...

I've learned to organize a class without refering to my sequence notes, everything is in my mind.

I've learned to not use the "I want you to..." instructions too much. Thanks to Jaclyn, simpler and straight-to-the-point instructions are easier to be catched. And my instructions now don't sound so demanding (like a kid).

I've learned how to observe and take care of the elderly in class.

I've learned that, it's not possible to please everyone. I'm utterly greatful to those who allow me to spread the goodness into them.

A new start

Today is a great start.

It was a beginner's class, I felt more nervous than attending my TTC exam and teaching all other classes I had previously. I wasn't sure why. It could be the expression on the faces, it could be the merely-2-feet-distance with the teacher coordinator (the examiner), it could be the surrounds of all total strangers, or it could be a bit of everything.

I received compliments and criticisms. I accepted them with an open heart because both are motivations to reach further and achieve more. This is how one can grow stronger.

I believe therefore I am.

Marina Yoga @ Krabi, Thailand

Marina, the owner of Marina Yoga, has a strong accent, I didn't know which was it until she told us she's from Germany. (That explained why our day tour agent who called her on the phone helping us to book for a class started with "Sawadee Ka" but ended up speaking broken English).

Her yoga place is a hut, an airy and quiet hut surrounded by plants, 2 doors away from her house. There's a gazebo beside the hut, a whiteboard hanging in front of it noting the time of classes and names of registered students. And, her 2 pet dogs and some stray cats walking around guarding the place, in peace.





I enjoyed her Hatha class very much. It was an evening class so there weren't any vigorous steps or series. We had a smooth flow of warm-up, arm strength series, abs exercise, standing balancing, stretching, twisting, and ended with a short Yoga Nidra.

Her instructions were clear with demonstrations. Her encouragement words were strong and powerful, yet fun. Her words during Shavasana had calming effects. Our evening class was a fun, satisfying workout. She's a friendly lady and likes to chat. She told us how she came to Krabi, how she loves Krabi and how she built up her Yoga business there.



I wonder I will go back to Krabi for my future vacation, but I do hope we will meet again, maybe in another part of the world.

Stay firm

Time changes things - people, places, perspectives, life.

Regardless of the changes under your feet, stand strong and stay firm in your beliefs.


Tree pose at Ao Nang beach

PS: Wave comes and hits your leg, the sand fades away under your foot making your standing ground loose, your mind must be strong, your focus must be sharp, in order to stand firm - great balancing exercise.

Neck stress during ab crunch

This is one thing that bugs me when I do ab crunches. Most of the time I gave up because there's too much stress on the neck. That's also one of the reason I don't enjoy Pilates class.

Last month I attended Min's Pitales class at Chayo Studio. Her class was very enjoyable, it was like a mixture of fast-pace Yoga and slow-pace aerobics. With the music playing at the background her movement was like a graceful dance. And the most important thing she had taught me - the head/neck position during ab crunches.

Previously I always did it with my chin tucked in.


Now I tried her method, keep my head and upper back neutral and neck relaxed.


I now look at the ceiling instead of my belly during ab crunches, and avoid pulling my upper body up using my hands. It helps a lot.

Chayo Studio

I'm looking for a (new) nice place to practice, without having to commit for a long time period, convenient for me to reach the place after work, with convenient parking facility and lastly with class schedule that have classes I like and have convenient timing for me.

All factors considered, I decided to go for a trial at Chayo Studio.

I like the location of this place, its located in the Kelana Mall, opposite Giant. Ample parking space in the building, cost RM0.50 per hour for the first 2 hours, and RM1.00 per hour for the subsequent hours. Giant free parking is another choice, but it'll get a little messy if it rains.

At ground floor, it's a vegetarian cafe - no eggs, even our strict-est vegetarian friend can dine here :) The studio is at the first floor. It's a serene place. Small and cosy. Consist of a reception area with notice boards and chairs for registration/waiting/resting, a small office and 2 studio rooms. The bigger studio can fit around 12-15 students, with an elevated seat in front for the teacher and mirrors on the right hand side. The room is equiped with projector and screen and sound system I think to be used during workshops. The teacher's seat is decorated with religious/spiritual statues and paintings, but nothing too intimidating.


Entrance & reception


Merchandise corner


Waiting for the previous class to end outside the studio.

I just had a quick peep at the other small studio, it can fit around 6-8 students, a nice place for a quiet small group.

The only drawback of the studio is that it doesn't have windows. Although during class the aircon is switched to room temperature, I still prefer feeling and listening to the natural sound of wind outside the room.

Today was my second class there and I'm totally enjoying (exhausted by) it.

Using towel in Yoga class

A small towel comes in handy in class not only during perspiration.

1. Use it as a prop (if you do not have a belt).

Paschimottanasana (Seated Forward Bend)


Gomukhasana (Cow Face Pose) - Hand

2. Use it as padding for knees.

Crescent Moon

3. Use it as blind during Shavasana, so you don't squeeze your eye lids to close your eyes.

Think positive

Because I believe in Law of Attraction, I like to think positive.
Only with our heart and mind open, we can keep more beautiful things.


Purvottanasana

Abs workout

The simple and effective abs workout I've tried recently...

Can do it with alternate-leg,


Both legs,


And sideways.


Resting lower back on the mat to prevent the back from arching when lifting the leg(s), thus prevent aching or injuries on the back.

Strong like a Tree

Someone asked why his foot of the standing leg in a Tree pose (Vrksasana) is hurting so much causing him couldn't stand for long.

I had the same problem. The method I used is similar to what we need in Arm Balancing poses, in the opposite way.

Instead of putting all the weight on the standing leg, try 'claw' the foot firm into the mat - press the ball of the foot and all toes into the mat. And micro-bent the knee of the standing leg, using the strength of the thigh to take some weight off the foot and this will be less stressful for the ankle.

By doing so, the thigh is more tiring but it's a good workout for the leg.

Yoga @ Yoga Now, Langkawi

Yoga Now is 15 mins walk from the Cenang main beach road (quite far, should have drove in), behind the Rasa Restaurant. There're signboards at the junctions so it can't be missed.

At the end of the road, we saw a small traditional malay house, with a big blue banner.


The temperature outside was killing, but practicing inside the house was peaceful. It was a traditional Hatta class. The class started and ended with 3 OMs and chanting, I couldn't understand the sanskrit chanting but it sounded different from the Invocation chants I heard in other classes. We rested in Shavasana for a few minutes in between each pose/series. During the class, we listened to the sound of the wind chimes hanging outside the house, and felt the breeze through the windows.

I love the Sun Salutations the most - the flow was graceful like a dance. I forgotten how many we had done, but it wasn't as tiring as I thought it would be.


A combination of ab exercise, inversions, arms & standing balancing, forward & back bends, seated twisting and a full 10-minutes Shavasana refreshed my body and mind. It was a great lesson for my asana practice, as well as my daily life.

BREATHS, BANDHAS & DRISHTIS workshop with Azmi

The first session of the workshop was mainly theory, and seated breathing practices. It was relaxed yet energizing for a Saturday morning. Ujjayi breathing alone made my body feel warm. Breath is an important part in Yoga - always breath comes first before the pose; inhale to lengthen, exhale to deepen. Long and soft breathing helps in claming and stabalizing the body.

During the short break, we had fruits and vegetables juice for a light refreshment before going into a more physical session of the workshop.

Bandha means inner locks. Locks of energy in different parts of the body to acquire strength for more challenging poses. I still can't differentiate the feeling whether it's 'locking' or squeezing these parts, though squeezing the muscles seems like giving me the results that I wanted.

More than 1 hour of asanas in exploring different Bandhas, then we proceeded to the Drishtis session. It was a short 15 mins or so Sun Salutations and some Vinyasa poses emphasizing on our Drishtis.

It was a very 'Ashtanga'ish workshop, tiring to me. I skipped the last few Vinyasas and came straight to Downward Facing Dog. The most beneficial part is about breathing, learning to breath right with the poses makes pratices more joyful and enjoyable.

Waiting for Part II workshop.