Pure Yoga : Universal Mandala and Yin
I was so comfortable being at Hom that I didn't find the need to venture out. Even now, I love the coziness of Hom, i love the teachers there, I love the friends I have at Hom, basically i love everything about it. I tend to get like that about places, people and situations I am comfortable with. Irrespective of what anyone says, I'll turn a blind eye and continue on the path. But this one discussion with some of my HOM friends, and the fact that a teacher i love : Deborah : is at Pure Yoga, I decided to give it a try and signed up for their free trial. They have a beautiful Universal Mandala class Copper Crow teaches on Saturdays. I did my first universal class with Daphne in Ubud, and absolutely loved it. I liked the fact that the class was relatively small, not heated, the teacher was jovial and fun. Copper is a brilliant teacher, I could see that from the minute Deb introduced me to him before class. You can sometimes feel the aura around a person and i felt that with Copper. His instructions are very clear and as easy as that sounds, there are very few teachers that can give clear precise instructions, so that you can literally close your eyes and follow their voice. Copper is one of them. And in fact he encourages you to close your eyes in most asanas and feel how your body is dealing with the sensation and what the body is feeling. So in this class, it was a 90 minute practice, we worked on each side of our body, left and right and then the upper body and the lower body. It was a cross mats practice, so the mats look something like this:
And you rotate on all four sides,working on all aspects of your body. We also did some pranayama, and at other times when we were in our asanas, Copper asked us to follow 'soham' breathing: "soooo" being the sound of inhalation and "hummmmm" being the sound of inhalation. Soham in sanskriti means " I am He/That", there is a story that says when a child is born, he asks "Koham Koham" (Who am i) so the universe responds saying "Soham" : You are the same as I. ( i had heard this story before and when I wikipedia'ed Soham just now, it's found it there as well)
So we concentrated on the soham breathing, very similar to the ujjyayi breath in ashtanga, but without the bandha of course. The same sounds being produced though. We did a shoulder stand and then an inversion , headstand, I got into headstand preparation instead :
(Credits : http://www.yogaxtc.com/asana/sirshasana_prep.html)
I am going to nail that headstand. And I am going to go crazy on this blog when that happens. Haha. And then we ended with a twist and a long savasana and pranayama. I left the class feeling very relaxed. Similar to what i felt after Daphne's class at the retreat, like i had woken up from a very restful sleep. As soon as I stepped out of that class, I knew I am going to be tempted about joining Pure Yoga on top of my membership at HOM. I calmed myself down for the time being. I spoke to Copper after the class, and what a man, so so so beautiful. Told Deb I was loving it. Went down and got myself a Sub (vegetarian, i never knew subway does veggie pattie sub) and with lunch thought about how this double membership thing is going to work. Maybe I could continue doing my morning classes at HOM because i loved their morning schedule and frankly the morning schedule at Pure all Hatha, if I had to go do Hatha at 6 am in the morning, I would never get out of bed. Haha. OK, no I don't hate it that much also, I just can not do it at 6 am everyday, that's all! So then maybe I could do the evening classes here at Pure, because they had more variety : literally a different class everyday at 6/6:30. Yes, that could work. I chewed on that veggie tikki and that thought and went up towards Pure. My next class was Deb's Yin...Woohooo! After so long! the studios in Pure are all very nice. I also like the fact that they are harshly lit. And of course and non hotness of it all just excited me too much.
For yin, Deb turned down the lights, a lot, and I just closed my eyes and followed her voice 75 mins and it was absolutely amaaaaazing! I love Deb, have I said that before? I'll say it again, I love her! I also love yin, it can literally ease your mind off all your worries, as you relax and let the tension out of your physical system, your mind relaxes too, and that in turn relaxes your physical body even more. The longer you stay, the deeper you go and more you open and feel the beauty of life in your heart. Sometimes, when I think about a yoga teacher training, I find myself wondering how wonderful it will be to do a Yin teacher training! :) It's a skill that not everyone has, although a more relaxed practice that the more active Yang, it even more dependent on the teacher and the vibe that they bring to the class. I personally like teachers who don't speak too much during the practice, because that helps me relax more. My mind can't find peace, even though my eyes are closed, if the teacher keeps talking. So today, I will share this awesome Yin pose, that I did for the first time. It's a backbend and unfortunately I do not have a picture for it. Maybe I should start taking my own pictures for Yin, relatively easier to demonstrate . Haha.
So we start by sitting with your feet like a wide-kneed child's pose, with your toes touching at the back. This is the first option, you sit like this with a straight spine and hands on your thighs. The second options is to then go back down and place a block in between your shoulders, for shoulder-opening and then let your head rest on the ground and your hands lie next to your body on the side, with palms facing up.
It's a backbend and a shoulder opening as well. You feel slightly uncomfortable in it, in the beginning. But like all yin poses, the more you ease into it, the easier it gets, and then you no longer focus on how much time is left in the pose, but let you body calm down and relax. It was the first time I tried that pose and it opened up by back and my shoulders a LOT!
There's no way you don't come out Deb's yin without feeling like you were just born again :) and this time was no different, i was ready for a nice long hot shower and call it a day.
So that was my time at Pure Yoga. I am tempted enough sign up for their 1 year package. No, I am not crazy, I can see how I will learn a LOT out of the non-hot classes, from new teachers, and maybe finally learn how to do those crazy inversions in their Hatha 2 ! And of course continue meeting Deb and doing Universal Yoga and Universal mandala with Deb and Copper. They also have a few interesting yogis coming to Singapore later this year and I can sign up (with a member discount) for those immersion sessions as well. Plus like one of my friends, Rahul, said : If it makes you happy, do it!
I will write more about my Anusara yoga session with Sumei and Lynn tomorrow.
With that, namaste.
So we concentrated on the soham breathing, very similar to the ujjyayi breath in ashtanga, but without the bandha of course. The same sounds being produced though. We did a shoulder stand and then an inversion , headstand, I got into headstand preparation instead :
(Credits : http://www.yogaxtc.com/asana/sirshasana_prep.html)
I am going to nail that headstand. And I am going to go crazy on this blog when that happens. Haha. And then we ended with a twist and a long savasana and pranayama. I left the class feeling very relaxed. Similar to what i felt after Daphne's class at the retreat, like i had woken up from a very restful sleep. As soon as I stepped out of that class, I knew I am going to be tempted about joining Pure Yoga on top of my membership at HOM. I calmed myself down for the time being. I spoke to Copper after the class, and what a man, so so so beautiful. Told Deb I was loving it. Went down and got myself a Sub (vegetarian, i never knew subway does veggie pattie sub) and with lunch thought about how this double membership thing is going to work. Maybe I could continue doing my morning classes at HOM because i loved their morning schedule and frankly the morning schedule at Pure all Hatha, if I had to go do Hatha at 6 am in the morning, I would never get out of bed. Haha. OK, no I don't hate it that much also, I just can not do it at 6 am everyday, that's all! So then maybe I could do the evening classes here at Pure, because they had more variety : literally a different class everyday at 6/6:30. Yes, that could work. I chewed on that veggie tikki and that thought and went up towards Pure. My next class was Deb's Yin...Woohooo! After so long! the studios in Pure are all very nice. I also like the fact that they are harshly lit. And of course and non hotness of it all just excited me too much.
For yin, Deb turned down the lights, a lot, and I just closed my eyes and followed her voice 75 mins and it was absolutely amaaaaazing! I love Deb, have I said that before? I'll say it again, I love her! I also love yin, it can literally ease your mind off all your worries, as you relax and let the tension out of your physical system, your mind relaxes too, and that in turn relaxes your physical body even more. The longer you stay, the deeper you go and more you open and feel the beauty of life in your heart. Sometimes, when I think about a yoga teacher training, I find myself wondering how wonderful it will be to do a Yin teacher training! :) It's a skill that not everyone has, although a more relaxed practice that the more active Yang, it even more dependent on the teacher and the vibe that they bring to the class. I personally like teachers who don't speak too much during the practice, because that helps me relax more. My mind can't find peace, even though my eyes are closed, if the teacher keeps talking. So today, I will share this awesome Yin pose, that I did for the first time. It's a backbend and unfortunately I do not have a picture for it. Maybe I should start taking my own pictures for Yin, relatively easier to demonstrate . Haha.
So we start by sitting with your feet like a wide-kneed child's pose, with your toes touching at the back. This is the first option, you sit like this with a straight spine and hands on your thighs. The second options is to then go back down and place a block in between your shoulders, for shoulder-opening and then let your head rest on the ground and your hands lie next to your body on the side, with palms facing up.
It's a backbend and a shoulder opening as well. You feel slightly uncomfortable in it, in the beginning. But like all yin poses, the more you ease into it, the easier it gets, and then you no longer focus on how much time is left in the pose, but let you body calm down and relax. It was the first time I tried that pose and it opened up by back and my shoulders a LOT!
There's no way you don't come out Deb's yin without feeling like you were just born again :) and this time was no different, i was ready for a nice long hot shower and call it a day.
So that was my time at Pure Yoga. I am tempted enough sign up for their 1 year package. No, I am not crazy, I can see how I will learn a LOT out of the non-hot classes, from new teachers, and maybe finally learn how to do those crazy inversions in their Hatha 2 ! And of course continue meeting Deb and doing Universal Yoga and Universal mandala with Deb and Copper. They also have a few interesting yogis coming to Singapore later this year and I can sign up (with a member discount) for those immersion sessions as well. Plus like one of my friends, Rahul, said : If it makes you happy, do it!
I will write more about my Anusara yoga session with Sumei and Lynn tomorrow.
With that, namaste.
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