Handsome boys

Max in his Tigger t-shirt..



My nephew, Gabriel and his daddy Joe.

You gotta be kidding me!

Oh!!!! They can't be serious!!! I've just watched Grey's Anatomy and am heartbroken at season's five finale. If you are a big fan of GA, and you haven't watched season's five....don't read on....

Two beloved characters in the series dies and I cannot believe George 'O' Malley and Katherine Heigl may or may not return to season six. Okay, maybe I'm the last to know about the season's plot but I don't like reading early about what happens next in any series but still!!!!! Season five finale is still a shock, even my mum who dislikes gore and blood was caught up in the final act!!!!

Deep breaths....inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale...I feel like doing the precordial thump on George and Izzie....Maybe I should ask Shonda Rhimes to send them to GJ, they're pretty good at revival...Joke...I'm feeling very compelled to write to Shonda (won't it be great if she read this?) ...could you please convince T.R Knight and Katherine Heigl to stay for the next 1 billion episodes......wishlist, wishlist, wishlist, wishlist....

Yoga Mats

Students have been asking me what type of mat they should get or buy, my answer varies. It depends if you need a mat temporarily to try a few yoga classes and would like one of your own for hygiene purposes. If it's a short term use, then there are lots of yoga mats sold in big supermarkets here in Brunei. There are higher quality mats like Adidas and Nike brands. They're priced at $ 70 BND or higher. I prefer the Adidas brand since they're a little thicker and much stickier. The Nike yoga mats are pretty thin and a little more slippery.

If you're looking to invest in a premium yoga mat, then you'll have to look for it overseas or order them online. At the yoga conference, I had a good look around, and the only one I thought were pretty good and long lasting were 'easyoga' brand. They have all sorts of mat to choose from.

Students practicing ashtanga yoga would benefit easyoga 'mandara' yoga mats. They're similar to premium yoga mats, heavy duty and non-slip. The only disadvantage is if you're traveling, it might prove too heavy to carry around. But if you are an environmental friendly conscious person and practice yoga asanas a lot, you might want to invest into the easyoga natural rubber yoga mat.

For the 'Hello Kitty' yoga fans, easyoga sells this too!! It's very pink and Hello Kitty's pictures are on the mat too.....hmmmmm, wonder if they every going to create Transformers for the guys. Or maybe He- Man .....or Captain Caveman ....or the Flintstones....

Ahem...back to seriousness....(:P) and if you're the nomad type, travelling from east to west, north to south and over the pacific to the atlantic, try the easyoga Eztravel. I have seen it. It's like a beach towel, but rubbery, light, non-slip.

I was given this email address by a easyoga representative at the yoga conference, I hope it helps you with oversea ordering....Let me know if it works! Here it is:-

Sales : Priscilla Hsieh
Email : info@greenvogue.com
Address: Shanghai Office Unit 9, No 159, Tian Zhou Rd, Shanghai, China or for Taiwan office is No 30, Shiou-Jiang St., San Chong City, Taipei, 241-49, Taiwan.

Tel No: +862154453308 (China) or +886-2-2970-5930 (Taiwan)

Website: http://www.easyoga.com

I was also told easyoga has a branch in Singapore. Not sure if they have one in KL. Good luck guys!!!

Practice from the Heart

It's amazing when you practice from the heart rather than just the physicality side of yoga. As a teacher, I have depended heavily on being,'perfect' in every pose according to textbooks and magazines, or even a copy of yoga master's asanas. In doing so, I have never felt a hundred percent comfortable in any pose (accept in Balasana or Shavasana) and never felt I was satisfied fully with my own practice. It didn't matter if I did 20 sun salutations according to textbook pictures, I felt something was still missing, inside and out.

Lately, after taking some time off, being a student again in the past week has taught me to look internally. What are my possibilities in all the asanas I have learnt, could I reinvent what I practice? Which part of me is the infinite and which part of me wants freedom? Which part of me finds happiness, physically, emotionally and spiritually?

Practicing with Twee Merrigan, Patrick Creelman, Maya Fiennes and Desiree Rumbaugh has made me realise I can reach out further than I can imagine, if I immerse myself, as if hypnotize, by willingness to reach deeper into my backbend with my breath following what the mind and heart says. Watching myself from the inside. It's like being on a journey to somewhere peaceful within myself when I practice surya namaskara without losing sight and gratitude of the awareness I should bring into each and every yogasanas. Learning to feel prana from the tip of my fingers, from the skin to every part that moves or stays.

In my previous practice, I have always been quick to take my form into the poses and trying to work my way into perfection. I have learned to instead create my pose with my heart, to expand from the center of myself in mind, body and soul. Taking the time to observe my movements has helped me move into the poses with awareness rather than consciousness. As B.K.S Iyengar's explains, self awareness is the opposite of self consiousness. When are you self aware, you are fully within yourself, not outside yourself looking in. You are aware of what you are doing without ego or pride.

I love B.K.S Iyengar's explanation of stretching in the asana......horizontal expansion and vertical extension should synchronize so that you are extending in all directions. Freedom in a posture is when every joint is active. Let us be full in whatever posture it is we are doing as we should be full in whatever we do in our lives.

Somehow, trikonasana hasn't been my favourite pose and have always felt restricted in it, releasing myself from it was my only joy. Lately I have found the liberation in trikonasana by not resisting the posture but to let the posture lead me instead, by letting certain parts of me freely accessible to the pose, I feel I could reach my hand further more than I could imagine.

'B.K.S Iyengar writes beautifully in his book, Light on Life. He describes doing asanas with the awareness of the body and the intelligence of the brain and heart should be in harmony. The brain may instruct the body to do a posture, but the heart has to feel it too. He says the head is the seat of intelligence; the heart is the seat of emotion. Both have to work in co operation with the body.'

"Sthira sukham asanam" Sthira means firm, fixed, steadfast, enduring, lasting, serene, calm and composed. Sukha means delight, comfort, alleviation and bliss. 'Asana is perfect firmness of body, steadiness of intelligence, and benevolence of spirit.'

Ahhhhh, c'est la vie ....

Prana all around.

When I was at the conference, I was asked why I went into yoga teaching. I didn't hesitate to answer, I went into it cause of my love for it. The physical, emotional and spiritual side was awesome. I feel blessed in so many ways I have been able to express myself through yoga and given such a great opportunity in this life time to do what I have always wanted to do. More so, grateful towards the yoga teachers at the conference for giving all of us a great opportunity to practice with them.

It was very much a community of teachers and students gathering to share experiences, embracing the diversity we have among ourselves in yoga and life.

In the last two days, I have taken my practice into mind, body and heart. The practice doesn't end in one class alone, it travels right out into the universe. From waking up, to sitting with a friend, honing into my inner self awareness of my surroundings and embracing life's abundance. Sometimes the spirit within me says.'play' and I do. Sometimes my mind says,'rest' and I don't resist it, I just do.

Even as I'm driving down the road, I am just glad to 'just' be. "It doesn’t take long to hold a thought of loving gratitude for the heart that beats within us." - Daily Om

My thoughts was what the mind thinks rather than what the heart says, but I have learnt to instead let the heart lead as the rest in life will follow through.

As conscious participants in the cycle of giving and receiving, we share our light with others as we become enlivened ourselves, with our heart leading the way.

So finding 'prana' within me and around me becomes easier when my self consciousness is awake. Checking into the heart center and finding the joys in life is right there within reach.

Twee Merrigan...such an inspiration!

Evolution Rocks On!

With Patrick Creelman and Sam M. from SA

Yogalicious in Hong Kong

The first thing in my mind when the plane landed in Hong Kong airport was," Don't sneeze, don't sneeze, don't sneeze (I have sinus attacks every now and then) or cough!" The last thing I wanted to do was spend days in a quarantine room in the airport. I wasn't ill or anything but there were warning signs on swine flu everywhere at Hong Kong airport. I reckon if you accidentally sneezed at the immigration counter, they probably drag you out of the queque into quarantine immediately.

But overall, my experience in Hong Kong was enjoyable. The hotel room I stayed in overlooked the harbour and was just a minute's walk away from the convention center.

It was pretty good from the start at the yoga conference, we had goodie bags filled with snack bars( I guess it was a hint we were all going to work hard) and little lancome lotions. The yoga bazaar was the first thing you saw before the conference halls and they were filled with yoga apparels to yoga cds and books. Just a look around, it feels as if you were living in yoga journal watching people like David Swensen, Ana Forest, Desiree Rumbaugh, Patrick Creelman, Paul Dallaghan, Twee Merrigan, Ganesh Mohan, Jason Crandel, Maya Fiennes, e.t.c. Better than visiting Madame Tussauds!

I loved Twee Merrigan's playful vinyasa flow and her grace to help us live through our own body and mind experience. Desiree Rumbaugh's good sense of humor and amazing backbends. Maya Fiennes endless energy working through the chakras was out of this world. Patrick Creelman's challenging poses with his groovy and upbeat soundtracks. Yup yup yup....I was yoga saturated big time!! All in all, I reckon I did 100
urdhva danurasana and 500 adho muka svanasana in 4 days...I kid you not!

I met amazing friends from Hong Kong, South Africa, Beijing, UK, Singapore and US.....

Gotta tell you this! Love Twee Merrigan. I had so much fun doing her yoga sessions. We did a class on 840 000 yoga possibilities and she had this wild idea, took us to the yoga aid challenge with MC YOGI and DJ Robin Livingston. We ran and followed Twee from our hall right across the bazaar and straight through to MC YOGI. We danced crazy for 20 minutes and ran straight back with Twee to our own hall again. Talk about having a good warm up session!! IT WAS WILD!!! Brain stormed thru' the poses and Twee's creative imagination took us beyond our set ideas and believes.

I am so glad I had the opportunity to attend such a fantastic event. I will never forget this wonderful experience and hope to see more again in the near future..................

Beam me up, Scotty!!!

Feels like a billion years since I have written in this blog. I have been trying to gather thoughts into words, but got a little stuck with ideas. Pete and I have been house hunting and between those times, completely worn out travelling (whilst teaching) from one place to the other. I reckon the trip I make in one week would have allowed me to travel from Brunei to India. I'm lucky to have the four wheel drive to accomodate all my belongings in the car. I am your 'yoga nomad'.

I love teaching, but exhilarated to be a student again. The yoga conference in Hong Kong will allow me to just 'let go' and listen to learn......ahhhhhhhhhhhh, nice.

The only thing I'm not enthuastic about is 'flying'. Feeling nauseous thinking about it. You see, 'heights' is a no go area for me. A fear I have yet to overcome. I wish they provide parachutes for everyone on board.....plus a survival kit. I still have to study the info guide on passengers' safety jacket...just in case they have made changes ..like maybe they included a 'gps' in every suit. I think they should also include lunchboxes in their survival kit. If I had it my way, I would also make sure there's inflatable boat for every two passengers. Why can't we do the 'Beam me up, Scotty!' way???? !!!!!

I do like the new Star Trek movie. Am not a fan of S.T but I must admit the film was pretty cool!

Somebody might just have to knock me out when we take off!!!!

Surya Yoga with Maktab Sains Students at Muara Beach

Photos taken by Jenn Wong.