Rock-Star Yoga with Adam Levine

"Yoga grounds you and really roots you to the earth." - Adam Levine 

Alexi Murdoch's Breathe and It's Only Fear

I would like to share these two songs by Alexi Murdoch as I associate them with our yoga practice. 

The song, Breathe reminds us not to forget to breathe.  There are times in our yoga practice when we are so challenged by a pose, there is a natural inclination to stop breathing in the face of the strain to maintain the pose.   But breathing helps to keep our body relaxed and the mind calm and we find ourselves going deeper into the pose instead of collapsing when we hold our breath.  

Don't forget to breathe. You know you are here. But you find you want to leave. So don't forget to... breathe

It's Only Fear is the mantra I would say to myself when I hold back from going deeper into the poses . We tend to stay at our comfort zone, not going deeper for fear of injuring ourselves.   We also have the fear of falling when we go up into inversions.   But once, we get past the feeling of fear of whatever that stop us from going further, we opened up to many new possibilities.   We find ourselves willing to take on more challenges, push past our limits and explore new things. 

It’s only fear that keeps you locked in here.

Pose of the Day - Eka Pada Koundiyanasana II

At yesterday's Flow2 class at My Yoga Sanctuary, I finally managed to lift off on my left side for the first time in Eka Pada Koundiyanasana II for a couple of breaths.   I have always managed to lift off on my right side and hold for five breaths  but some how, lifting off on the left side has always been a problem.

After class, I found out that two of my fellow practitioners also managed to lift off in the pose and it seems it was our Pose of the Day.

Below is a good description on how to do the pose taken from Acro Core website.

To begin, come into downward dog. Bring the left foot to the outside of the left arm. Drop the left arm underneath the left thigh, trying to get the arm as far underneath the leg as possible. Bend the elbows and begin to lean forward. Squeeze the left thigh into the torso and then bend the left leg to lift the foot off the floor. At this point, the left thigh should be resting on the upper arm.

Extend the spine as much as you can here. Engage the right leg, extending it back strongly and lifting the back of the knee up to the ceiling. The more you can keep a straight line through the hips the better. Keep the chest lifted and the shoulders level. Imagine that you are reaching forward with the sternum. Distribute your weight evenly between both hands and extend forward, trying to find the balance point where the back leg just lifts off the floor.

Once the back leg is lifted, press back through the ball of the right foot, then squeeze the left leg into the torso again and straighten the left leg. As the leg straightens, try and keep the hips level and extend out from your center. Keep the gaze forward and the breath steady and even.

You can hold as long as you like. To come back, swing the left leg back, pressing through the hands as you jump back to plank. Some people find it easier to bend the left leg first and then try jumping (or floating) back. Flow to downward dog, then repeat on the second side.


"The best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult or worthwhile." - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

                                                  

66 days of Self-Care for Inner & Outer Well-being

In April 2007, I took up yoga as my body needed some workout and that started a beautiful journey where along the way I found some enlightenment of my inner self while my body amazed me with how it was able to cope with the yoga poses which were so difficult to do in the beginning.

The 66-day Self-Care program which starts from today is my way of thanking my body and I hope that it will be an awesome journey of new discoveries.

This is my manifesto for the 66 days which I will try my best to adhere to.

Be kind to myself. Do not self-criticize and always remain optimistic.

Grow from every mistakes made and never regret the past.

Meditate at least 5 to 10 minutes each day.

Have at least 6 to 7 hours of sleep daily.

Enjoy my breath and take my time to come into the yoga poses.

Get up and stretch every hour after sitting in front of the computer.

Respect others' space and their unique individuality.

Keep a journal of any observations that I have come across during this 66 days.

I will not be following everything in the C.A. Kobu Self-Care program workbook as I will be incorporating things that I have been doing in my routine such as my yoga practice. The one thing from the workbook that I would be following closely would be the Writing Exercises as I believe it will help to raise my awareness about my body and emotions and the way I perceive my relationship with other people.

My Ego and My Yoga Practice

This post came about after I read Elephant Journal's blog post "Pull Your Ego Out of Your Asana". 

"The next time you roll out your mat, look deep into your ego and what it does to your practice. If you're practicing obsessively because that defines you as a yogi, that's ego.  If you're so caught up about missing a class or even a week of practice, that's ego.  If you think you need to look a certain way in a pose, that's definitely ego.  Achieving a deep posture is not the goal of yoga, however it's the practice of being calmly aware of the present moment, even if you're falling out of a pose."

The above paragraph made me reflect on my own yoga practice. 

Is my ego taking over my practice?  My answer is..."when I allow it to".

Sometimes, I find myself so caught up in attaining the poses that I do not want to miss a class.   There are times when my body gave me signals to take a rest but I just ignore them and went to class. And I realized that those are the times when I felt unsatisfied and frustrated with my poses.

Letting my ego take over has also resulted in trying to twist and bind my way into the poses even though my right elbow which has not completely healed was not ready for them.   Giving myself excuses and trying to ignore the pain in my elbow have been my way of dealing with it.

Although I have set my intention and is aware not to let my ego dictate my practice, I still find that occasionally in class I had allowed these feelings to come into play, "It's feel so good whenever the teacher gave me praise", "I think I am much better at this pose", etc.

I am learning to turn away from those feelings and not allow them to surface by maintaining a connection with my awareness and being present in my practice by using my breath and focusing on my drishti. 

I also noticed that my progress in some of the poses came about when I was willing to wait for it to happen.  It took me so long to able to go into Headstand which only came about after having fallen so many times in class. 

I am certain that I will be able to progress further in all the other poses if I take my time instead of trying to rush into them  And skipping classes once in a while whenever I feel like it will be my way of preventing myself from getting too attached to the asanas. 

Rejuvenating Yoga and Wellness - Yoga Retreat in the City

Partner Yoga 

After reading the posting below, I was immediately attracted to join the yoga retreat in the city which was held today and I managed to get two of my yoga buddies to sign up with me.

“Make a retreat from your usual Saturday’s to-do-list! Just for a change, come over and spend your Saturday with us in this beautiful private sanctuary in Damansara Heights for energizing yoga sessions, guided meditation, hearty meals, and stretch out those tight muscles in your body accumulated throughout your busy weekdays in our very special “Yoga Stretch & Massage” session.”

There was welcome tea waiting for us when we arrived this morning and before the yoga sessions started, we were sipping on freshly brewed mint tea. 

The first yoga session was led by Gianinna who started the class with some stretches  to warm up our body before going into a modified sun salutation sequence.  Gianinna’s class which was supposed to be a gentle class had us holding in chair pose, lunges as well as working on our abdominals.  It was a great session to get our muscles and joints ready for the next class. 

We had a fruit smoothies and mixed fruits break before the next class where Raymond gave us an energising flow class with hip and chest openers as well as twisting poses.  The poses helped to loosen up tension while letting energy flow throughout the entire body.

After the invigorating workout, we were ready for a healthy  and delicious lunch of vegetable salad with barley and pumpkin taro soup with homemade bread.  It was also time to get to know the other practitioners.

After lunch, it was guided meditation and breath work with Angeline and she started  with a  15-minute meditation and pranayama session where we did alternate nostrils breathing.  This was  followed  with a 15-minute yoga nidra or sleeping savasana which is yogic sleeping with awareness.  It is intended to induce full-body relaxation and a deep meditative state of consciousness.    

I am glad that I did not fall asleep as I was feeling a bit sleepy after the hearty lunch and instead, I emerged feeling rejuvenated from the session.

It was then time for Partner Yoga which was a great way to build trust and communication with my partner while we supported each other in the poses.  And thanks to my partner, I could feel a deeper stretch in the poses which helped  to loosen all those tight spots in my body which also received another boost from the massage session. 

The yoga retreat ended with all of us sitting in easy pose in a circle with our knees touching each other and placing our right hand onto the next person’s left hand.  Raymond led us through the session where we felt and shared each other’s energy.

And we were rewarded with a delicious piece of chocolate brownie made by Raymond to round up a beautiful day of wellness for the body and mind.

Ashtanga Jump Back

Great video to learn the various options to jump back.