Time Out

Just me, my practice and I.

Wishing all love, peace and light always.

Soulmates

According to Wikipedia, a soulmate is "a person whom you have a feeling of deep and natural affinity, love, spirituality, compatibility, or intimacy/sexuality with.  A twin flame or soul, for which all souls are driven to find and join".

Does everyone have a soulmate?  Yes, I think so.  To me, soulmates need not be confined to a single person.  A soulmate could be your sibling, twin, spouse, friend.... I even believe a boy and girl in a platonic relationship can be soulmates.  I mean, why can't there be different soulmates for different occassions?  Is it set in stone, that there should only be one?

Some say, the lucky ones end up meeting their soulmates and marrying them.  I say, the luckiest of the lot are those who can identify the different soulmates in their lives, and live a life of abundance and happiness.

While I acknowledge (and love) my different soulmates, here's one I particularly want to mention.  Our first trip to India was nothing short of incredible.  You share my passion in the beauty that the people and the land has to offer, the intense spirituality in the path of yoga, and the humour when 'things' don't always turn out the way we expected them to.

For the times that we....

yoga'd by the beaches in Kerala,

wept at the beauty and sheer
magnificence of the Taj Mahal,

got blessed by the "Pushkar God",

(before getting rammed by the holy cow!)

opened our eyes to a "Match Made in Heaven", Bollywood style,

and left smiles all over the Indian sub-continent...

Here's to beautiful memories, endless laughter and more travel adventures!

Spreading the Light

I had just completed my 4-day session as a guest speaker at a NLP Weight Management seminar here in Kuala Lumpur and I'm still riding high on the awesome response I received from the participants.

We discussed wellness in body, mind and spirit.... detox.... nutrition... and we also had 90 minutes of yoga practice during the 4 days.

The enthusiasm and energy from these people were amazing!  Infectious, even.  It was their first time ever on the mat, but I have never met a more curious, committed and open-hearted bunch of practitioners!  The first day was a bit of an eye-opener (not to mention the many oohs, aahs, and ouch that followed!) as they discovered tight hamstrings, even tighter hips and barely-there core muscles.

Firing up the core muscles

Bear in mind, in (almost) all cultures around the globe, saying the 'F**' word is extremely sensitive.  So I recognize and greatly respect the fact, that it takes a lot of courage to step forward, in a public seminar, and admit that one is indeed facing a weight problem, needs help and wants to lead a healthier lifestyle.

Words like 'diet', 'bingeing', 'anorexia', 'bulimia', 'incessant food cravings', 'lazy', 'love to eat', 'stress management through eating' were floating around quite a lot. 

And exercise?  "When pigs fly", was the response from one of the participants.

And yet, for 4 days, these people diligently changed into their exercise attire at 5pm, and gently flowed into a Hatha yoga practice with me.

Yoga, I explained during my talk, stems from the word 'yuj' which means "to yoke" or "to unite" the body, mind, spirit and breath.  It's about aligning your consciousness with the Universe's consciousness, so that one's emotions, action and intelligence is in balance.

In today's society, 'yoga' usually means a workout that strengthens and tones the body, relieves stress and calms the mind.

During the 4 days, I invited them to explore beyond just yoga poses.... what yoga means to each of them.  Even the simple act of being aware of the breath and acknowledging the motivation of stepping onto the mat, is yoga.

Learning to let go

We explored Surya Namaskar to invoke our inner flame, flowed into basic asanas such as Vrksasana to try to find balance and stillness in the mind, Agnistambasana to apply compassion and ahimsa to one's body, and yoga therapeutics to understand, heal and accept oneself.

Agnistambasana with a smile

Not once during our yoga practice did anyone touch on being overweight or fat.  "You start where you are, and yoga will take you there," I said.  "And where you are today, in this pose, is exactly where you're meant to be in your practice right now".

Many of them said they felt a small, positive transformation taking place after the practice sessions.  Hopefully this transformation will guide them along this wonderful journey of yoga.

I feel truly blessed to have the opportunity to introduce yoga to them... to inspire and support them in igniting the fire of tapas, in this path we call life.

Wishing them many more OM's to come.