Whatever time it is… I will find a way to get my yoga practice done. By hook or by crook.

Today, was awesome. Managed to do quite a long session today, after making some pancakes for Lil D and Kv.




The weather was nice and warm, so I felt I could stretch easily. The Posterior stretch was effortless today, and I could remember Mr Perumal’s words as I was doing it… “If you feel comfortable, exhale and stretch a little further”. So I did just that, and it was really nice to see that my nose was just only a few inches away from my knees.

I also ended up doing one of the poses which I really really feel I need a lot of help with. I usually hardly do this pose, but something told me to do it today. The half spinal twist. And guess what? Even that felt quite effortless today. Of course I didn’t hold it for a full minute and a half, but I think it was at least a minute on each side, which was good enough for me.

At one point all three of us were on the yoga mats sprawled across the living room floor. Kv put on an mp3 of continuous Om chanting, and what a difference that made to the atmosphere. It felt like each pose actually became meditative. Although I shouldn’t get attached to this because then on the days when I don’t have the chanting in the background, I’ll be at a lost!

The only other thing I want to note is that I am feeling awfully thirsty these days. Not sure if it’s because of the weather or if it’s something else. No matter how much I try to drink though, I don’t feel it’s enough. Will have to observe the next few days and see.

I decided to jot down some ideas on how I might be able to wake up earlier in the mornings so that I can get this to work!

1. Do the morning errands the night before (dishes, housecleaning, ironing clothes, making lunch?, packing lunch)
2. Set your alarm clocks, Dinesh! (both mental and mechanical)
3. Do what you can to have a good night’s sleep (maybe I can post about this tomorrow?)
4. Pray for help (this should have been number 1)
5. If you know that your sleep is going to be interrupted, do what you can to minimize the interruption length and intensity (duh!)

Let’s see if tomorrow is different?

Quite a bit – as it turned out. We had two blackouts last night – each lasting about an hour or more. As you can imagine, it wasn’t very pleasant. Thankfully our little one didn’t wake up during the blackouts – and slept through it all. My sleep on the other hand, felt like morse code – dots and dashes of sleep every now and then.

Thankfully I woke up at 6, and managed to get into my routine fairly easily. However practice today was very sluggish. It was probably more in my mind than in my body – but almost immediately after I got into any asana – I would tell myself – ok, that’s enough, let’s move on to the next one.

Shows how important proper sleep is.

Then again, it could have been because I ate a little bit too much last night (Kavi cooked some delicious vegan Ma Po tofu…. mmm mmm mmm).

My left nostril was very blocked even after doing the Suryanamaskar. So I only did one round of pranayama. Sirshasana was very very nice today – for some reason. I seem to recall that previously, every time I did Sirshasana, my head would pound and my eyes would feel as if they were bulging with blood. This was when I was diagnosed as having slightly elevated levels of blood pressure. Recently, I was told that my blood pressure is back to normal – and it looks like so is my Sirshasana. I like it.

Anyway, I decided to spend more time on my Savasana (corpse pose) today -  so that I could recoup from all that lost sleep. I read somewhere once that doing the Savasana in its entirety is equivalent to getting 7 hours of sleep. Now that’s a keeper!

I took Kavi’s advice and did my pranayama after the sun exercise. What a fantastic idea.It worked beautifully – I wasn’t rushing through it at all – and I could breathe through both nostrils beautifully because it was just after the sun exercise.

Somehow step 3 and step 9 always clears my nasal passages.

Gone are the days when I visualized/had a tranquil yoga space to practise. Definitely far from the definition of the world’s best yoga spots, but you know what? Practice is practice. Instead of feeling sorry about not having the perfect yoga space, I feel thankful that there is still space for my practice at home, in my mind & heart

Of course, I blame it on the usual suspects – lack of discipline, lack of ability to manage my time, inconsistent sleeping times, meals late at night…

Being a new dad with another baby on the way, it’s really tough to commit to doing yoga every day. Strangely enough though I still manage to have breakfast every day (more or less). I still find time to have a bath in the mornings. I still brush my teeth. How is it that no matter what time I wake up in the morning, I still have time to do these things? But not practice yoga.

This year however, I’ve decided that the excuses stop here. And to make sure I stick with the program, I’ll be writing about my practice daily here on this blog. To keep things interesting, I’ll also include some creative expressions – relating to my practice.

Today, I only had time to do about 25 mins of yoga. But hey, I’ll take what I get… What surprised me was the fact that I was able to hold most of the asanas very easily – even though it’s been a while since I last practised. Could it be the weather? We’ve had some harsh Melbourne summer days recently.

However, I did have some pulling sensations in the area above the left side of my butt as I did the sarvanagasana (shoulderstand).
So I didn’t push it…I stopped. You shouldn’t ignore a pain in the butt. I wonder what it’s about though, let’s see if it comes back again tomorrow.

Interestingly also, my nose was clear for most of the practice. Especially after my seventh round of suryanamskar. (I’ve been having a blocked nose for the past 4 months – so trust me… it’s really a big thing for me when I am able to breathe through my nose!)

The other thing I wanted to note is … I decided to do my pranayama before the savasana. Which is a different order from what I was taught. As I was doing it though, I kept feeling that I shouldn’t be doing it this way. I should only practice pranayama when the heart has stilled and the breathing is back to normal. So again, I stopped. I guess the lesson for me today is shut up, listen and understand. As I write this, something tells me that the fourth part to that (which will come later) is ‘adjust’.

And excerpt from the workshop handout

The workshop promised to teach the participants to service their body, to get rid of toxins and carry this knowledge with them for life. It definitely lived up to my expectations, with all the lively demonstrations, true stories, exhibition of toxic waste pictures (not for the faint heart I mind you!) and some hands-on practice on eyes & mouth  cleansing as well.

One of the stories See Pei shared left a lasting impression on my mind (with tears in my eyes as well). It was the story of a 5 year old with colon cancer who had to have part of his colon removed. A study on his lifestyle revealed that he has been fed McDonalds from a very young age for at least 3 times a week. Such is the damage of processed food on our body!

At the end of the workshop the participants were requesting for a 3 days Cleansing & Rejuvenating Retreat already! Thanks to overwhelming support, See Pei will now be conducting a full cleansing retreat on July 30, 2011. You may contact her from our contacts page to book your place.

 In light of the current situation, the Divine Life Society have cut their 3 months Yoga course fees from RM150 to RM120. Now, this is what I call Yoga! Truly compassionate, truly mindful.

My partner See Pei & I,  both started our journey in Yoga with DLS. And  after exploring many other options and places, we are still drawn to DLS classes for the simple reason :

“Teachers are excellent, teachings are purely just on asanas (poses) & pranayama (breathing), classes are regular and punctual, and the price is the cheapest in town”

You too can take advantage of this!

Peace. Peace. Peace.