Samasthiti

Hom has changed quite a bit. Loads of teachers have left, loads of new teachers have joined. I've been a little irregular with my studio practice off-late, thanks to the increasing hamstring pain. But I've been treating it and hopefully can get start going for my regular practice at the studio. But the good thing is I have started practicing at home on my own. It's of course easier when someone is leading you through the asanas and instructing you to get into proper alignments, but i now realise the importance of a personal self-led practice. It's a little extra brain work, because you have think about the shapes you will be getting into, but it's worth it. I think I am going to plan my sequence before hand so I know can flow without interruptions during my practice. The title of this post is something that June shared with us on Tuesday before and after the class. The theme of her class was prayer hands. With your hands in prayer mudra, touching your heart cente...

I wake up at 6 am everyday thinking I'll make up for lost time in my weekend sleep. And that never happens. And quite frankly, I'm in bed by 10:30 pm, so 6 am is not bad at all. I've technically given my body and mind enough time to recover. But just the thought of waking up before sunrise is painful. So when I received an email from my studio about a masterclass with Leah Kim this Saturday at 8 AM, I was both hesitant and excited!Excited for obvious reasons, Leah Kim is a yogini who travels all over the globe teaching, practicing, living and breathing yoga. She is more famously known as Nike's yoga ambassador. She is in Singapore to lead the teacher training course at Hom Yoga and was conducting a vinyasa flow class today. I was hesitant because, dude! 8 am on a Saturday is brutal. It's just plain brutal. On weekends, I usually wake up at 8ish, but just because I CAN, I lay in my bed for 2 hours. Haha.  So you see? Giving up that luxury of choice to go sweat it ou...

Wow. It's been some time since I visited this blog of mine. I've been paying a lot of attention to my other blog : zindagi migzara. I might have stopped writing everyday after the hot journey got over, but I haven't stopped practicing. The last couple of months have turned my life upside down, and the one thing that has kept me rooted is my practice. Usually when I take a vacation, I give up practicing and chill for two weeks and then come back to the mat. But when I went home last November, I carried my mat and practiced everyday for 60 mins. It was nice and relaxed and not in a hot room, so that was really nice. So the overall theme for the last few months still has been strength like the tree pose or Vriksasana. But an additional thing that has helped me center myself and bring my mind and soul along with the body to the mat, is my focus on the breath. Now when I step onto that mat, I close my eyes and I'm transported to another world. And all I can hear are my teac...

Date : Monday, October 28th, 2013 Day: 25 OK boys and girls. This is the end of the journey (on the board). Technically though from just the number of days I have gone to class, I have 5 more days to go. And ok, I skipped a few here and there. How many you ask? well, hmm, 3 :) I can blame it on that nagging pain in my right thigh, but it's a combination of many other factors. But I'll tell you this, my body needed that rest. And voila (!) the pain has vanished.  So I finally went for the evening Ashtanga class by Michelle on Monday. And putting that last dot on that chart, man oh man! What accomplishment. OK self praise stops here. I am still beating myself for missing 3 days on a row.  So there you go, my lovely smilies on the board :) What shall we talk about today. Let's talk about the Vrksasana or the tree pose. It comes from the Sanskrit word 'Vriks' meaning plant or tree and asana means posture. This asana as easy as it seems requires imme...

Date : Thursday, October 24th, 2013 Day : 24 OK people, let's do this! With this class logged in, I have only one more class to complete that board. Wow. I cant seem to take straight pictures EVER! A very sleepy day. Fortunately a Thursday, which means I have another night of getting up and going to work and then weeeekeeeend! My post is called "Monica, oh my darling" because today's class was Hot hom by Monica and there's this really popular hindi song   called that ! Like, it's a cult song. If you are watch bollywood movies and don't know that song, well, umm, you should be a little ashamed at yourself :| So I also asked Monica what is the cause for this pain on the right thigh and back leg and what I should and shouldn't do. She said I should be careful when stretching, and that I should always always always suck my stomach in, and push it towards the spine, because that makes sure that I don't compress my spine and i'm stretc...

Date : October 23rd, 2013. Wednesday Day : 23 O.M.G.  I'm getting there, well, at least on the above board i am! So I decided the last three stickers to have the letters : O, M and G and the last last one to have an exclamation "!" mark. Yes, as you can see, I am very excited. I realized, I never shared the Week 4 theme. It's "Triumph". With the hot journey nearing completion, this week turns celebratory as we explore the theme of triumph. Every class you have taken, every plank pose you have held and every time you have turned away from mental distraction and back to breath is a personal victory! No matter how you feel, your challenge is complete, it's time to reflect and appreciate all that you have done in the last 30-40 days. We also explore how the jubilant energy of triumph can also act as a catalyst for greater change - it maybe the end of this journey but should you choose to accept the challenge, the beginning of a lifetime of self-disc...

Date : October 22nd, Tuesday Day  : 22 Finally a class where i don't have to do a vinyasa, was looking for a break! My schedule from a timing point of view is quite fixed 7am and 6pm. By the time i get back home from the 6pm on the force ts 7:40-8:00 and i don't like to push it further!  My class this morning was Hot Hatha with June. the class was good except that i found myself a little stiffer than usual and rather unbendy. That could be my continued soreness from 108 Or it could be that muscle i pulled resulting in that acute pain in my right sit bone. Whatever, it did hamper my movement a bit and i realised i should REALLY listen to my body now instead of pushing it. Like in the Standing bow pose i couldn't lift my right leg up because the pain in the sit bone was just too much to even try.  So after class i asked June and she suggested resting and if it getavworse going to a medical specialist orba traditional medicine practionner. It was then tha...