White Food

Hospital foods aren't the best among catered foods unless you have bribed the chefs with a nice gift. I used to work in the NHS hospitals in UK and even then, I have always thought the food they served the patients were pretty bland. I guess the tastes of food doesn't matter as much if you aren't fussy. But when you aren't feeling well, the last thing you liked to see is pale,boiled, tasteless food. Paper coasters anyone?

I know, I should be grateful for what I have. I do. Just that I don't really understand the concept of giving patients bland food. My previous managers always told me we have to feed the patients healthily. Hmmmm, feed? I think it's more like us serving them the tray and them looking at the tray first then at the nurses saying,.......'You are kidding me right?' And sure enough, 70 % of the time, the patients hardly eats any of the food served. You think, 'it's okay, they can bring their own food'. Well, depends on hospital policies. The previous ones I worked with says no, you can't. Unless it's permitted by doctors. And of course, because doctors have to promote hospital food, they will say," Eat the hospital food, it's good for you." ..........Patient raises one eyebrow and says," You eat it and see if you can digest it."

My opinion is you cannot change someone's eating habit in just one day or a few days stay at the hospital. All of us are usually fussy with our food. Usually. So, instead of the patients being malnourished and appetite loss, why don't hospitals serve food that patients can still eat without having to feel someone has passed them the 'xerox paper' meal.

What I think is pretty nonsensiscal is when fruits are weighted out for each meal. Huh? One time, they served a tray of rice porridge, big enough for two people to consume and a handful of boiled chicken (no salt, no pepper) and a small plate of 3 pieces of watermelon ( the size that fits a 12 year old hand) with two pieces of grapes.

Hummmm, fructose of fruits compared to complex carbohydrates of rice porridge.

The vicious circle involves patient losing muscle weight because of appetite loss. But when the patients return home, they eat the usual food like nasi lemak or other kuih. Back to patient's old regime of 'not so good' nutrition. The hospital defeats the true purpose of healing the patient in the first place.

Suggestion....why don't they just educate patients properly on food 'do's and don't's '? Rather than forcing what I call 'white food' to patients?

So, ........

Beijing Olympics 2008

Sat and watched the recorded tape of Beijing Olympics 2008 with my family and all I can say is ..........Wow! Very impressive. It truly was amazing. Would have loved to be in the crowd to see it live. Everything in it was detailed down to their hairstlyes. How long would it have taken them to prepare? The dances were schronised, the movements were cheographed well and the drums in the music background were fantastic.

I think the final part where the athelete ran along side the walls to light up the olympic torch was a brilliant idea.

So many themes well displayed and expressed through the dancers and the paintings. I like the part where they displayed different faces of children. The significance of the universe, the different cultures to pass on, and to build a better future for the children of the world.

All in all, they have really done a good job for the official opening .....Bravo!

Bought & Forgotten

Have you bought clothes you imagine yourself wearing for a certain occasion? And that certain occasion would be that ‘ maybe’ or ‘ just in case’ days? I am that person, buying clothes for occasions I imagine in my head, thinking it will happen sometime soon. Could be a nice top for a dinner party or a dress for a formal dinner. Problem is, I don’t attend that many party dinners to begin with. So, over the last few years or more, I have collected a wardrobe of clothes either once worn or just kept for the sake of it.

Some of it would be clothes I use to fit in and now has shrunk. Okay, stop laughing! I do think the water in Brunei shrink clothes. So, I had it in my head that I will try shrink to get back into those impossible waist 26” skirts!

It just occurred to me I have no use for any of the clothes other than looking at them. I mean, yes, even though I may be dreamy about fitting back into my wedding dress again, I am realistic that my body changes with each year passing by. Must be that birthday feeling arising again. I am okay with just letting go of clothes I hardly wore and giving it away to friends. Hopefully, they will wear it more than I ever did.

It feels good to see spaces in my wardrobe now and being able to just choose out of just a few instead of a hundred. It sounds zen doesn’t it?

Here's a few tips on decluttering your wardrobe....

1)If there's a particular item has not been used or worn in the past year, well, what are you waiting for? Give it to somebody else who might want it. Don't go tearing it up to shreds as a 'tampoh' or ' wet cloth' for your dinner table!

2)If you have worn it only once and it's gone out of fashion, again, what are you waiting for? Give, give, give to your 'pingyou' or your dearest friends! Pass it on.

3)K, next...don't go buying clothes that looks so similar to all your other tops. Then you'll have a tendency to stand in front of your wardrobe for 2 hours deciding which color you like for the day. Next time you buy clothes, just buy one unique item you like.

4) Don't start wearing your nice 'froo froo' dress at home just because you can't let go of it. Reasons for not letting go of that party dress..erm, let me see..is it the first dress your husband said you look great in? If he doesn't remember you in it or the Brunei water has shrink it..........PASS IT ON

Right, time for me to go home and revisit that wardrobe of mine.........

How to get baby soft skin

Being a yoga teacher, I practice with the students four to five times a day. I have dry skin, no matter how much lotion I slab on my 'brillo pad' skin, it still stays dry. Because of the way I rub my feet across the yoga mat when I do different poses, my skin under my feet tends to slowly peel off. (Yes, I do hope you are not reading this while eating your meal. Lucky you, I haven't gone full into details.) I think wearing slippers all the time doesn't help. Didn't get much of the 'Frodo' feet when I was in UK. Guess it was because I was wearing socks all the time for most of the year.

My feet therapy now involves paying a visit to Shiatzen Spa, get the foor spa done and have a feet pampered by a professional. Ahhhhh, that for me, is my treat for the week. I do try and exfoliate my feet when I return home. And yes, I moisturise my feet now with butter shea ( I ice skate on my wooden floor) and wear socks to bed.

Yoga students with me at Seraphina will have notice I love my handiplasters on my big toes. Ya, I should have a private account with Johnson band aids.

Anyhow, here are some stuff I found from wikihow, have a look through and see if it helps you if dry skin is your problem too.

1)Cleanse your skin once a day with soap free body wash, water, and a soft sponge.

2)MOST important step- Ex-fo-li-ate! Exfoliate once week or once a fortnight if you have sensitive skin. It will remove dead skin cells, dirt and oil and will leave your skin baby soft! You can do this with an exfoliating puff, exfoliating shower gloves or with an exfoliating scrub. (store bought or hand made)

3)Pat dry with a big fluffy towel. Don't rub or scrub - this damages your skin and also creates wrinkles later on in life.

4)Apply lotion, cream or body oil before you leave the steam-filled bathroom. This is the best time to moisturize your skin because your pores are still open and your skin is still moist.

5)Wear sunblock if you're going to step outside of your house. One of the reasons babies have such soft skin is that they haven't been exposed to the harmful effects of UV rays

Tips

For particularly rough dry areas such as feet & elbows slather on some lotion or body oil before you go to bed, when you wake up they will feel a whole lot better.

Drink half your weight in ounces of water every day. For example, if you weigh 140 lbs, you should drink 70 ounces of water every day, this will keep your skin hydrated from the inside out.

Take a daily multivitamin to help your skin fight off damage and wrinkles.

Gentle, ph balanced,soap free body wash is best for your skin, soap can be very drying & contains a lot of chemicals that can damage skin cells.

Add a handful of sugar (brown sugar works best) to your favorite lotion and mix. Rub it into your dry skin and then towel it off.

Brazillian women have some of the smoothest, sexiest skin in the world, whilst at the beach they will often get a hand full of sand & rub it over their thighs, elbows & bum cheeks to exfoliate.

Try a milk & honey bath for a luxurious way to baby soft skin, run yourself a warm bath, add about half a litre of milk, about 3 tablespoons of honey (this is not enough to make you sticky) and break open a vitamin e capsule into the water.


*Tips are extracted from www.wikihow.com*

The third limb is asana (Ashtanga Yoga, Practice & Philosophy, Gregor Maehle)

As the Yoga Sutra explains,"every thought, emotion, and experience leaves a subconscious imprint (samskara) in the mind. These imprints determine who we will be in the future. According to the Brhad Aranyaka Upanishad, as long as liberation is not achieved, the soul, like a caterpillar that draws itself from one blade of grass over to the next, will, by the force of its impressions in this life, reach out and draw itself over to a new body in a new life.

This means that the body we have today is nothing but the accumulation of our past thoughts, emotions, and actions. In fact, our body is crystalliqed history of our past thoughts. This needs to be deeply understood and contemplated. It means that asana is the method that releases us from past conditioning, stored in the body , to arrive in the present moment.

How do past emotions, thoughts and impressions manifest in the body? Some students of yoga experience a lot of anger on commencing forward bending. This is due to past anger having been stored in the hamstrings. If we consciously let got of the anger, the emotion will disappear. If not, it will surface in some other form, possibly as an act of aggression or as a chronic disease. Emotional pain is stored in the chest, where it functions like armor, hardening around the heart. This armor may be dissolved in backbending. If we let go of the armor, a feeling of tremendous relief will result, sometimes accompanied by crying.

Extreme stiffness can be related to mental rigidity or the inability to let oneself be transported into unknown situations. Extreme flexibility, on the other hand, can be related to the inability to take a position in life and to set boundaries. In this case, asana practice needs to be more strength based, to create a balance and to learn to resist being stretched to inappropriate places. Asana invites us to acknowledge the past and let it go. This will in turn bring us into the present moment and allow us to let go of limiting concepts such as who we think we are.

To hold and release

The yoga students that I have met and am teaching have motivated me to find ways of improving myself as a yoga teacher. I love seeing the smiles on their faces when they reap the benefits off each pose. More so when they find their inner and outer strength to maintain poses they have found difficult to manage before. With their consistent practice and perseverance, it is always nice to see their hard work 'paying off'.

My challenge is when I meet a student who's pretty much low in self esteem and confidence. And then to change their way of thoughts from 'cannot' to 'can' is something the individual can only do for themselves. But when a student faces her challenge with courage, subconsciously or consciously, I know he/she will continue to discover her other hidden qualities he/she did not know existed.

The strength to maintain Warrior 1,2 and 3 is powerful. To stay focus and to hold the pose for a period of time takes endurance, willpower and determination. And when you release it, it is that moment of freedom from the pose that feels exhilarating. To let go of the pose is not to amid the defeat, but to feel the wonders of surrendering without resistance to changes. Like in life, we endure things, we persist, we fight to survive challenges then comes the moment where you just have to let go of the issues or situation you have been caught in. Having to surrender your emotions and feel it's okay to just 'go with the flow'. Let whatever the situation be to take its course without having to 'direct it' the way you would want it to be.

I remind my students each pose they do carries a different story each time they practice. You can only wear the issues 'on your sleeves' for however long, but know this, it is always more exhilarating and joyful to be free of your issues even for a day or more.

Seeing The Bigger Picture ( The Daily Om, Madisyn Taylor)

August 5, 2008
Seeing The Bigger Picture
Together On Earth
Seeing an image of the planet Earth taken from space inspires awe in many of us, since we can clearly see the connectedness of all of us who live upon this planet. We have created imaginary boundaries, sectioning ourselves into countries and states, forgetting that in reality we are all living together, breathing the same air, drinking from the same water, eating food grown from the same earth. We share everything on this planet, whether we are conscious of it or not, with other people, and those people are our brothers and sisters. Keeping a photograph or painting of the planet Earth in a prominent place in our homes can be a positive way to remember our interconnectedness.

Meditating on the fact that any sense of separation we have from one another is truly an illusion, we will naturally begin to make more conscious choices in our daily lives. The simple act of preparing food, or determining how to dispose of our refuse, can be done with the consciousness that whatever we do will affect all our brothers and sisters, no matter how far away they live, as well as the planet herself. When we foster this kind of awareness in ourselves out of a feeling of awe, it becomes easier to be conscious than to fall back into old habits of thinking of ourselves as separate.

When we contemplate the earth in her wholeness, we attune ourselves to the truth of the bigger picture, which is the Earth, and all of us, every one of us, living on her body. We are connected to one another in the most intimate way, because we literally share our living space. As more people become aware of the reality of our interdependency, things will shift in a positive direction, and much of the discord that we see now will give way to a more cooperative, loving conscious. This is happening already, so as our consciousness grows, we can join with the many other minds working to live in the spirit of togetherness.

Dharma धर्मं

Seane Corn used the word 'dharma' in most of her workshops. I wasn't entirely sure the real meaning behind it, until I read the Bhagavad Gita, a version written by Eknath Easwaran.

The word dharma means many things, but its underlying sense is " that which supports", from the rood dhri, to support, hold up, or bear. Generally, dharma implies support from within: the essense of a thing, its virtue, that which makes it what it is.

Dharma means the essential order of things, an integrity and harmony in the universe and the affairs of life that cannot be disturbed without courting chaos. Thus it means rightness, justice, goodness, purpose rather than chance.

There is an ancient Sanskrit epigram, Ahimsa parama dharma; the highest dharma is ahimsa, non violence, universal love for all living creatures; for every kind of violence is a violation of dharma, the fundamental law of the unity of life.

Notes From The Universe

There is no greater love than kindness

A smile, a compliment, encouragement
and compassion belong in the arsenal of every
Time~Space Adventure

Today, may you crush, kill, and destroy the fears you encounter, in others and in yourself

En Garde

Passion & Compassion

It was good to be back in Singapore. I was there to attend some yoga workshops in Pure Yoga studio, hosted by Seane Corn herself. Her workshops was very focussed on compassion and understanding for others as well as bringing awareness to yourself and chakra balancing. Her workshops brought awareness into how we treat ourselves, people around us and the environment.

Seane Corn became a Youth AID's first National Yoga Ambassador. A few years back, she has launched the campaign Off The Mat, Into the World, with all proceeds going to Youth AIDS.

" I found my purpose by going straight into what scared me. Whatever brings you to the mat-alcoholism, abuse, divorce- will be the place from where you'll serve."- Seane Corn (Yoga & Joyful Living, Jan - Feb 2008)

Corn stressed a lot on approaching social activism from love rather than anger. Her workshops also focussed on making healthier choices for ourselves and the world, detoxifying our bodies, clearing emotional blocks, like resentment, with the spiritual practice of forgiveness.

She also believed to start your love and charity in those closes to you first. Rather looking for the causes in your life at home before you head out.

All in all, it was such an uplifting experience to be in her workshop, and yes, would definitely return back whenever the opportunity arises again.