It is always good to switch Yoga teacher every now and then so that you get to hear and learn different things. My usual Sunday class was replaced by Xiang, a male teacher with huge belly. lol. We don’t always get the chance to see ugly teacher, don’t we? Alright, albeit his huge belly, he is as flexible like any one of us. Forward bend, headstand, split…. no problem at all but he did claim that the huge belly does blocking his way in forward bending. Back to the class, it’s the usual Sunday afternoon where people would prefer to stay home for nap rather than working out. The classes consist of three yogis only.

End of the class, Xiang explained a few theory to us like the benefit of yoga. It helps to increase flexibility and increasing lubrication of the joints, ligaments and tendons.  It is important to always practice counter pose for every asana.  Failing which, the muscle will get harden.  Once it is harden, there is no way to make it flexible again.  Just look at the guy in the gym – 6 packs and huge muscle.  But then, these people is not able to remove their shirt or even reaching out to scratch their back.  Good thing I always love Yoga.

Hot Yoga is also known as Bikram Yoga in Sanskrit. Ideally, the room was heated to 105°F (40.5°C) with a humidity of 40%. However, classes are guided differently everywhere. At the place where I attended classes, the heater was left running for 45 minutes throughout the duration of classes. Sometime 15 minutes before Savasana, the heater was then switched off again.

As you can imagine, a vigorous yoga session at this temperature promotes profuse sweating which believe will help you to lose weight, get rids the body of toxins and also makes the body very warm and therefore more flexible. It is essential to bring along a towel slightly larger than normal and your clothes should be of cotton or any absorbent fabric.

For my personal opinion, Hot Yoga has some con too.

1. It makes my facial skin very dry no matter how much water I drank after class.
2. I can’t tolerate with the intense heat. First 20minutes in the asana, I started to feel a bit nausea. After 30 minutes, I started to feel short of breath, giddy and wanna throw up.
3. I was told that too much of Hot Yoga may damage your kidney, dehydrate your body and etc…

And most of the time, I regretted coming to the class and get torture. Urgh… why do I pay to get tortured? Kinda stupid right? While huffing and puffing and perspiring all over, many question is racing inside my head like… I wish the instructor will switch off the heater now…. I looks fat in the mirror. No, it’s the clothes!… I can’t hold any longer in this asana. Gosh, I’m slipping…. That person in the front row is showing of… I can’t wait till this is over… Yea, right. Come back again tomorrow. Are you insane?… oh, I get to lie down again. This isn’t so bad… she is turning off the heater… phew… it’s over… finally!… towel… towel… I think i almost fainted…. nice music… nice savasana… Namaste!

My kids always get excited whenever I lay out the yoga mat. I was thinking, maybe I should get another yoga mat for them since they like to kid around and I could have my peaceful practice at the same time.

Here’s a picture of my no. 3 in downward facing dog.

At the mean time, I refrained myself from teaching my kids yoga at home. I’ll let them watch and have a little fun not to the extend of teaching them cos they never had discipline and will not listen to my instruction which can be very dangerous and lead to injury. I will leave the task to a qualified teacher unless I know I am good. And I mean REALLY really good.

Have fun 😉 .

Recently my colleagues (about 9 of them) enrolled in a private Yoga class paying RM100.00 for one hour session.  Among the 9 of them, there is one who is deaf.  Well, I know it is quite impossible for her but at the same time, I did not want to sound discouraging.  All I can advise is, “make sure you sit on the center.  No left, no right, no front, no back.  Right smack on the center so that you can copy the others even though you can’t hear the instructions.”  But of course, there are still many things that are disadvantage to her.  I didn’t want to make too much negative comment.  Just let her attend the class to find out herself what Yoga is about and decide later.

Well, the next day, they group gave lots of positive comment and how they love Yoga.  The only thing they are not happy about is the deaf colleague as they think that she (deaf) is slowing down the class and some of them have to explain to her in sign language in the middle of the asana.  That really distract them.  She (deaf) almost cried and blame herself on her handicap.  I felt sorry for her too but there is nothing I could do.

I’m not good at consoling others but I just had to.  So my suggestion to her, “Why don’t you pay for me to attend the class.  I will be your translator so that you won’t disturb the others.”  Well, I know her answer will be no cos she is famous of her kiamsiapness (stingy).  Well….. she nodded!  OMG!  I told her it was just a joke.  I wish I have the time for my own classes too 🙁

This is what every women will ask once a month.  I would say, it is a matter of personal preference and you should listen to your body. If you feel tired on the first or second day of the period, take sometime off.  For women who do choose to practice, it is suggested that they avoid inverted poses like headstand or shoulder stand, abdominal strengtheners, extended holding of any pose, or energizing breaths like kapalabhati. The issue is that these practices might interfere with the downward of the menstrual flow or cause discomfort to the body.

As what I have observed in my body ever since I started Yoga practice, the rate of the flow does increase on the first two days and the subsequent days is normal. It may stop at day 4 or day 5 unlike previously, it was dragged thru the whole week.

As for me, I will resumed class at day 4 or 5 when the flow is hardly even there.  I do feel a little embarrassed  and awkward to be singled out during an asana.  You know what I mean when the whole class know that you are having your menses.  What make it worst, when the words came out from the mouth of a male instructor. *yikes*

Namaste, everyone!

One fine day as I was lazy to lay out the yoga mat, I decided just practice my headstand on the sofa chair. Oops, did I know the sofa is way too soft and watch what happen. My 3 kids almost have their jaw drop to the floor. We thought that is so hillarious and I did it once again so that we would record it down and post them here.

I have an embarrassing  story to tell.

Not sure about you but I do experiencing some body changes on and off.  And well, during my usual Sunday class, suddenly I farted from my private part instead of…. you know, your usual backside.  Ahem.

It was kinda embarassing.  I don’t only farted once, it went on like 3 or 4 times and the last was after doing a shoulder stand when we was supposed to get our feet down in a cycle, and suddenly I just go prrrrttttttttttttt…..

Gosh, that was so embarassing enough to kill me.  It is very weird to have so much ‘angin’ (air) entered thru my private part.

Ok.  This is kinda obscene.  Teheehee… Namaste, everyone.

Sanskrit: Padmasana

This is one of my favourite pic in Padmasana. Reminds me of the tranquility and quietness just perfect for Yoga.

I’ll be away to Siem Reap and be back even before you notice it. Do expect some nice pic from me 😉

The footsteps shown here is my youngest daughter’s trail whenever I’m in downward dog. While crawling around me, she will sing “fallin’ down, fallin’ down. My fair lady….”

Ya, then Mummy will have to pretend to be a fallen London Bridge fell and squeezing her *rolling eye*. She will giggle non stop trying to free herself from the fallen London Bridge. Gah!. Fun, but not so fun especially when I seriously needed some practise at home. Another priceless family bonding here.