The Yogini from Manila

May 23, 2007
by Yogajane
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Do You Need to Be a Pretzel to Do Yoga?

Pretzel

“I’m not flexible!”

That is the most common response I get when trying to get people to try yoga out. I must admit, for the longest time, I also thought that way. And that is probably why I never got into yoga until early 2006. I thought I had to be a contortionist to qualify to take up yoga.

The idea that you need to be as flexible as a pretzel before even attempting yoga is a misconception. In fact, it is the reverse. Practising yoga brings back the inflexibility that has set into our bodies due to our sedentary lifestyles and desk-bound jobs.

Observe a baby. Just a few months old, the baby brings its big toe to its mouth and sucks it. What flexibility!

I have also observed some classes where kids do yoga. Many of them effortlessly execute poses that stump adults like us. Continue Reading →

May 23, 2007
by Yogajane
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Positive Energy — A Yogi’s Prayer

It has been so fulfilling to slowly get in touch with yoga practitioners from different parts of the world. Either I find them by accident or through someone else’s blog…..or they find me through yoga tags. That will be the subject of a future blog post for me.

Meanwhile, I came across the blog of Katie, a yoga teacher who is also a school librarian in a U.S. public middle school. In one of her blog posts, she had a yogi prayer which she, in turn, got from her yoga teacher Carol.

My teacher Pio has always pointed out how important it was to radiate positive energy — not just towards one’s self but more importantly, to others. The prayer below spans all people of all faiths and mirrors the kind of positive energy we need to show our fellow men.

A Yogi’s Prayer

May all who are mean return to good;
May all who are good obtain true peace.
May all who are peaceful be freed from bonds;
May all who are free set others free.

Blessings upon all the earth;
May all of the world’s rulers uphold righteousness.
May only good fortune reach everyone;
May all the world’s creatures be happy.

May rain fall when the earth is thirsty;
May all the storehouses be filled.
May everyone here be free from injury;
May all who are good be free from fear.

May everyone know a life of joy;
May everyone live a life of health.
May everyone see only good in the world;
May everyone soon be released from pain.

May everyone overcome all their woes;
May everyone see only good in the world.
May everyone realize all their desires;
May everyone everywhere be glad.

May our mother and father be blessed;
Blessings upon every creature on earth.
May our works flourish and aid everyone,
And long may our eyes see the sun.

Om shanti, shanti, shanti (peace).

 

Namaste! ( I bow to the light of God in you!)

 

May 20, 2007
by Yogajane
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A Lunar Beauty

 

My yogi teacher, Pio, and our regular yogini group stepped out of the building one full moon night after yoga classes and saw this awesome sight in front of us. The lighted building and the moonlight combined was nothing short of spectacular! We all stood for a long while, just taking it all in and soaking in its beauty, until someone said we ought to take pictures. We had nothing save our cellphones to capture the moment but I am so thrilled the picture above came out almost perfect!

The other perfect moment was taking in the entire scene with my yogini-mates and our teacher. How marvelous is our God who can combine His work and that of man to produce this effect.

May 18, 2007
by Yogajane
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I Was Bound and Hung Upside Down! – A Life Lesson

Yes, it’s true. My legs were bound and I was hung upside down.

But before you start imagining the worse, my “torturer” is none other than my yoga teacher, Pio.

Thursday evenings are special for our yoga group of “addicts”. This is a class when Pio challenges us to another level of difficulty in our yoga practice.

For 2 Thursdays now, he has intensified the workouts, going from one pose (asana) to another with hardly any time to stop for rest. He lets us do more difficult asanas not normally done in the other classes.

The climax of this class comes when he brings out the yoga straps (cotton straps about 6 ft long with buckles). He makes us assume a full lotus position (sitting with both legs crossed, heels placed close to the thighs). Once we are in that position, he wraps the strap around both legs, asks us to take deep breaths and with each breath, tightens the straps in order to bring our knees closer together. Aray!

With knees bound, we try to lie down on the floor on our backs while keeping our bound legs as close to the floor as possible. We stay in that pose for a few seconds, then when we sit up, he places 2 foam blocks beside our hands. We place our palms on each block, then lift ourselves (still bound) a few inches off the floor. This is supposed to strengthen our arms by letting us carry our body weight.

Lastly, he makes us place our mats perpendicular to the wall and we do the headstand. This is not as difficult as it sounds, actually. I am able to do this on my own. It just sounds daunting for many, including myself, until I tried it and realized my difficulty was more mental than anything else.

There are lessons we learn along the painful way — that sometimes we think we have reached our physical limits — until we are challenged to raise the bar. Then we realize that there is more to what we can do than we ourselves realize.

This goes beyond yoga. This is a lesson we can very well apply to everyday life.

May 16, 2007
by Yogajane
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Is Yoga All You Need to Be Fit?

An article written in the Yoga Journal caught my eye. They wanted to test the theory that yoga was all that was needed for optimal fitness.

I wanted to know if indeed this was true because other than regular 15-20 minute walks on a treadmill and leg presses, I really had no sport or gym program other than yoga which I do 3 times a week for an hour and a half each, with some self-yoga squeezed in between these formal classes whenever I can.

First, the article tries to define the factors that influence how fit you are:

1. Cardiorespiratory fitness: how fit your heart, lungs and blood vessels are (your ability to move without feeling tired or out of wind). Tests would include working out on a treadmill using a mask to measure oxygen intake, how it moves through the bloodstream and into the muscles (VO2max test). Another would be blowing into a tube to test lung capacity as well as heart rate tests.

2. Muscular fitness: the tests cover muscle strength (amount of weight you can lift) and muscle endurance (how long you can lift it).

3. Flexibility: With age, muscles shorten and tendons stiffen. Range of motion of limbs occur and loss of flexibility can lead to pain and injuries.

4. Body composition: refers to the percentage of your body made up of fat instead of muscles, bones, organs, and other nonfat tissues. Too much fat, too little muscle can raise risk of disease and makes movement less efficient. One good test is the pinch test using a pair of calipers; for athletes with less body fat, their submerged (in water) body weight is compared with land weight. The greater the difference, the higher the fat percentage. Continue Reading →

May 10, 2007
by Yogajane
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A Turning Point in Yoga

Tonight marked a turning point in my 1 year of doing yoga. Our yoga teacher, Pio Baquiran, challenged me to do my very first headstand!

 

The thought of going completely upside down is mentally daunting to many a yoga newbie (including me) and while I had gone through the many poses ranging from the basic to the intermediate ones, the thought of eventually trying out this one pose churned my stomach and made me feel like I did on my first rollercoaster ride — that point when the cars are inching their way up the steep climb with you knowing that at the tipping point, you are going to go for one hell of a ride. Continue Reading →

April 25, 2007
by Yogajane
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Is Your Exercise Program Right For You?

I came across these questions in My Yahoo! and thought of posting it here. If you are in an exercise regimen, ask yourself these:

1. Do I look forward to this? (hey, no point in pursuing an activity that you have to drag yourself out of bed for, right?)

2. Do I enjoy doing it? (is it enjoyable while you do it? if it’s a solo program, does it make you want to come back to it day after day? if it is an exercise with friends, do you have fun together?)

3. Do I feel good afterward? (this was my ultimate test in choosing yoga — not only did I sleep well on my first night after doing yoga, I continue to feel good now — inside and out!!)

If you answered YES to all three, you’re likely to continue on doing whatever it is you are now doing. I checked my yoga program against all three and the verdict is ….

YES! YES! YES!

P.S. Good luck to you too!

April 11, 2007
by Yogajane
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Balik-Yoga!

It was GREAT to do yoga again after more than a week! I was telling Joy it’s amazing how easily one becomes inflexible after just a day or two without yoga. And yet here we are, working for months at gaining even just an iota more of flexibility. Life is truly not fair!  Just kidding!!!!!

But that aside, it was great to see familiar faces in class last night. And our yoga teacher’s aura was so “maaliwalas”. He must have had a great regenerating vacation as well!

It was not a gruelling class but still…a really sweaty one. Good! All the toxins I imbibed from pigging out during our Subic trip can all now come out in this detoxifying class!

Thankfully, I was not yet that inflexible, thanks to one measly yoga workout I did in Subic (yoga mat is now part of my bagahe). With Holy Week behind me, here’s looking forward to a summer of more regular yoga classes…

March 29, 2007
by Yogajane
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Now You CAN, Then You CAN’T!

 

We all have good days and not-so-good days.

And in yoga, I have days when a pose comes easy to me and there are days when the same pose makes me groan and grunt and yet nothing happens. I am sure you have those days too…

Last Tuesday, I had a CAN day! Ever since my pinched nerve injury in my leg, I have always tried to spend time doing warm-ups ahead of yoga stretches. So that Tuesday, I left early, dropped by the gym, did a 10-minute treadmill and some leg presses, and proceeded to the yoga center.

Pio took us through a lot of salutations and there were several instances when I thought we were already done, only to hear him say, “Now, prepare your mind and body for the next pose…” (oh no, yet another salutation?). I could feel sweat on every inch of my body and I felt flushed all over.

But it all paid off in the end. When we got to the Wide Angle Seated Forward Bend, I held both my feet and wow, when I bent down, I got to touch the floor with my forehead! What joy and serenity to be able to rest in that pose! It almost felt like I wanted to stay in that pose for a long time!

These are the little lessons I learn in class and from my teacher. The poses all have purposes, not just corporal torture (hehe). Having good warm-ups allow more flexibility and make difficult asanas a little easier, if not do-able.

Patience is the biggest virtue I am learning all throughout. Maybe I was able to do the Wide Angle Seated Forward Bend last Tuesday. Next time, I may not be as lucky. But the fact that I found I can actually do it under certain circumstances tells me that in time, it will become a regular, do-able pose.

March 20, 2007
by Yogajane
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Tax Period is TAXING!!!

March all the way to April 15 is a HELL period for tax preparations. When I was still working for an accounting firm, I remember sleepless nights and stress to the MAX for all of us working on clients’ income tax returns. Coffeeshops were not yet popular then so the stress-busters ranged from smoking to pigging out. I did the last one, hehehe….

It is not as bad now. But still there are real estate taxes to pay as well as year-end BIR reports to submit. I am now typing away, writing out checks and by tomorrow should be headed for the post office to mail off the ones for the provinces. Then off to different municipal/city halls to pay the ones in MM.

I must remember to breathe SLOWLY, in and out….and my stress-buster these days?

YOGA!!!