Category: Yoga

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Healthy Living Yoga

clocksdali

Feeling exhausted or depleted this Full Moon evening? Was almost late to everything even to the airport to pickup as still looking at a clock that says 8:37 when it turned out to be 10pm. When will I ever learn to not rely on clocks that has stopped ? The flight was delayed by almost 5 hours so feeling the power of the full moon… Cursed probably for not being true to my own rituals … so luney. Need to repair, restore and renew … TLC to all.

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I’m late, I’m late for
A very important date.
No time to say hello, good-bye,
I’m late, I’m late, I’m late
I’m late and when I wave,
I lose the time I save.
My fuzzy ears and whiskers
Took me too much time to shave.
I run and then I hop, hop, hop,
I wish that I could fly.
There’s danger if I dare to
Stop and here’s a reason why:
I’m over-due, I’m in a rabbit stew.
Can’t even say good-bye,
hello, I’m late, I’m late, I’m late.

~ The White Rabbit, Alice in Wonderland

I don’t know about you but my heart used to literally sink Sunday afternoons – a time of realization that the magical weekend is soon to end that tomorrow is the …”harsh” lol reality … popularly known as blue Monday or is it called black Monday now? Anyhow, the dreaded Monday (okay, it’s not that bad – joking – or am I?).
I have heard reports of not only sinking heart but knots in the stomach, tightness in the shoulders and base of the neck, uptight chest region, migraine or tension headache… that comes from just thinking about Monday and all the impending “stuff”. Or are you the lucky one who cannot wait to get back to work and relish the idea of Mondays – I have never been that lucky. In fact, I had a reunion with someone I used to work with and while she’s gotten so much higher in the corporate ladder, she spoke of intense competition and how the bar is raised even higher each time she achieved – the goal is set higher and higher – yes. Of course, it’s never enough – that’s called success. That’s great professionally but in personal life, one hopes for contentment, peace, and joy. So she looked a bit aged – I recommend some me-time (there’s no time? You are running late?) with yoga to regain some mental perspectives while doing something good for one’s own body and mind. Otherwise, your life will just pass you by. Wouldn’t that be a shame?

Running late? Even so, make the time – you are so worth it. Don’t let life pass you by.

Categories
Yoga

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Yoga has changed. Have you noticed? (yes…) During my three decades of teaching (wow…), I have watched the yoga that we practice in the West become physically harder and harder. On one hand, that’s positive. It means that while many of us are seizing the opportunity to challenge ourselves, we are also enjoying the benefits of one of the most complete and effective forms of exercise ever developed. On the other hand, it causes us to make assumptions about yoga that are simply inaccurate.

We assume that the more we advance in our practice, the more vigorous and complicated it should be. Accomplished practitioners are expected to relish physical intensity, but according to yogic adepts, just the opposite it true. As practice evolves it becomes less, not more, physical. True adepts require less and less effort to attain the higher states of yoga. From their perspective, the most profound practices are ones that provide access to the subtlest dimensions of the self. Compared to asana, these methods link us more directly to yoga’s ultimate goal – self-realization. What are these techniques, and how are they organized?

Classic texts describe four practices – asana, bandha, pranayama, and mudra – that are arranged in a hierarchy; each builds on the ones before it. Asanas (postures) steady the body and mind, preparing them for deeper practices; bandhas (locks) help us retain vital energy; pranayama techniques (breathing practices) build and regulate energy; and mudras (subtle techniques of internal control) allow us to direct and channel it. Together, these techniques create an internal alchemy – transformation affecting every level of the self.

– Rod Stryker

Remembrance of what we learned through Sri (“RESPLENDENCE”) training … how can you ever forget the sparkles of knowledge here and there that leaves such an imprint. Always hungry for more – to know, to figure out. Then to soak it up… and then to empty and so the cycle continues…

Categories
Yoga

Silly Goofy Face? Part 2…
Now what’s quite a bit scarier than a lion’s pose (not) is Japanese ladies’ facial yoga practice…
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I don’t know … I guess practicing at a studio with no mirror has been a good thing – I really don’t know what in the world I look like. And that’s a good thing as otherwise, people tend to get too self-conscious, always pulling down their shirt or fixing a lock of hair, adjusting this or that, self-analyzing with those critical eyes of ours – so much judgement. It’s less about vanity and how you look but more about what’s inside… and yet, I guess it’s women’s eternal desire to look better and that desire knows no borders… Still, each student pulling out a mirror like this and gazing at their own face in a yoga studio and calling it “facial yoga” seems a bit … scary to me. Almost sacrilegious … Maybe I will get used to it once I’m there…since there are enough little shrines all over, maybe studios are not treated as a sanctuary the way I treat the place…

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For now, I think I will just go do a down dog with a cat smile – and ponder on this matter…lol.