OMG, I've been away for so long!

As always, I am writing on this blog after ages - after too long unfortunately. I would open a new post and not know what to write. I would sit there for inspiration to hit me, for all that I was feeling and experiencing to flow through as words on this white screen - some times it would, and more often than not, it would be too personal to post :) So as always I have multiple saved drafts that I haven't been able to post.

My yoga journey has more or less remained stagnant - there are no breakthrough asanas I conquered, simply because I wasn't looking to conquer anything - there was nothing I was working towards with a single minded focus over the last couple of months. My goal is still to get the shirsasana - that I've promised to achieve by the end of this year. But, I've grown more comfortable with what my body can and can not do - I no longer breakdown after a class where yogis in a Vinyasa 2 class jump up and down while I sit on my mat not being able to transition from a handstand to a chaturanga in any form, leave alone with the finesse that they seem to do it. Why? Well, 1) I've stopped going to those classes in the first place - my life no longer allows for evening yoga classes in Pure Singapore 2) I find immense peace in my existing asana practice and I might be complacent when i say this, but I don't have the urge to push and achieve crazy asanas. 

I might look back when I'm much older and kick myself in the ass for not doing the funky poses when I was 20-something because 'now is the age to do it', but i also know that when I'm 60 I'll still be practicing and that is what matters to me. I've become much better at my home practice though, so when I travel my practice doesn't suffer - in fact I find more peace in flowing by myself. 

2016 was maybe a year, I grew very comfortable at being by myself. I moved into a gorgeous little apartment in a part of town I had always wanted to live in - so much so the day I viewed the apartment and decided on signing the lease - i couldn't believe it was happening. I remember looking up to the sky and smiling and thanking the universe for making it happen - after 4 years of living in Singapore - i had finally moved to exactly where i wanted to be. But then like Deb says "You're exactly where you are meant to be in your journey in life" - so right from novena to kembangan, I was where I was meant to be - and I wouldn't change anything about those homes as well. They supported me in their own ways with whatever was happening or not happening in life. Work got crazier - which is why my practice slipped - i could no longer do two classes a day - and that broke me initially. Most folks roll their eyes when i say that, but I was so addicted to beginning and ending my days with a yoga practice that when I saw myself staying back late at work and being able to make the 6:00pm, 6:30, 7:00, 7:30 class, I groaned and moaned and blamed that for my practice slipping etc etc. But that in fact helped me cope with not being able to do the evening class anyway since my work moved from being close to the studio to a million miles away - completely taking away any chances of me fitting in an evening class anyway - so in a way it prepared me, i guess. 

So I go for my morning 7 am classes now : Hatha, Hot Vinyasa, Hatha, Hot Vinyasa, Hatha --> that's my monday to friday schedule. I mix it up on the weekends of course. A couple of weeks back I was in Singapore for Chinese New Year - when the whole city literally shut down (including grocery stores!) and I spent three full days at my yoga studio in delicious vinyasa and yin classes - it was pure bliss, truly.  So I have those jems sprinkled here and there and often reserve weekends for nothing but yoga - which suits my introverted spirit perfectly.

Guess who is back at Pure yoga? Monica :) from my Hom days - my heart soared to see her name on the list -she is still as generous, as beautiful and joyful as she was and maybe even more so. She teaches on Fridays so I definitely see her once a week. I try and attend her Prana Vashya inspired vinaysa classes whenever i can and just this weekend attended her workshop - more to follow on that (in some post later).

Additionally, one change in my life is my Monday fasts. I've heard a great deal about fasting intermittently whether that is fasting intermittently throughout the day or skipping any food on one particular day of the week. I choose the later. And it was pretty tough the first few weeks - so much that i used to end up with a crazy headache or fever the next day - but i read up about that as well  - and apparently it's just your body getting used to the idea of not getting food.  I continued and now I'm all good. I don't crave food on Mondays, I drink gallons of water though and on Tuesdays, I'm back to my usual diet. I am not one to monitor my weight so I don't know if I have lost any weight - but that's not why I'm doing it in the first place. With respect to the changes I've noticed, i can confidently say I'm lighter (might also be a consequence of my vegetarian diet for the last two months), I am satisfied (and full) with smaller quantities of food, I don't indulge in 4 pm snacks anymore. Overall, it makes me feel good - i think we eat way too much than we should anyway. 

In wrapping up this post - Im making a commitment to post here every week - even if it's just one paragraph on something yoga related. The picture above was taken in Villa Rufolo in Ravello in Italy - a country I fell in love with last year and a country I've pledged to visit more often in life. Monica was one of the teacher who helped me hone this asana : natrajasana - i love it for many reasons : it serves as a perfect transition point in sequencing balancing asanas, it;s named after the first yogi : Shiva, and is called dancer's pose in english - and that signifies how i look at my practice - like a never ending seemless dance between the body, mind and breath.