Saturday, November 30, 2013

Day 22, 23 and 24 - Samskaras

Day 22:Shitty Practice 

Day 23

Friday morning led class with Nea followed by Yoga Sutras - it was interesting. The topic at hand was:

samskara 
= deep impressions,
 imprints in the unconscious
, deepest habits,
 subliminal activators,
 traces

(positive/negative)

Ashtanga yoga is such a deeply meditative practice that you would pretty much be working out your negative samskaras as you go deeper into the practice. I know I'm preaching to the choir right now, but if you want to learn more about this : Read Kino McGregor's article here.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone :)

Day 24

Morning practice with Tonya,  followed by lunch and beach with an old family friend who's in town. I love living in a city by the beach.






Namaste xo.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Day 21 - Dubai wins Expo 2020

Day 21 - Hotel Practice.

If you don't know, now you know: Dubai Exbo 2020

Congratulations to Dubai! Now, what does this mean for the regular yoga enthusiast?

1) More yogis and yoga studios in Dubai
2) Less expensive yoga (more competition in the market)
3) More eco-friendly products and yoga mats available locally
4) No, Marichiasana D is still not available for sale.

Namaste xo

The celebrations on Beach road today. It was quite entertaining =) 


Back home in DXB, 
8am meeting. 
I predict a lot of coffee tomorrow.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Day 20 - Abu Dhabi is a weird city

Day 20

Morning half primary in my hotel room again. I felt that total mind-numbing bliss while I meditated for the last 10 minutes of my practice.


lol - few people would get this joke.

Didn't have to use my AK.

no?
yes?
ok.

Work may or may not be driving me crazy. The coffee downstairs is making my life complete though. If you haven't heard of or tried PappaRoti, you have to!!!

PAPPAROTI

They are also really awesome on twitter ----> https://twitter.com/PappaRotiUAE


Monday, November 25, 2013

Day 19 - Like water

Day 19


“You must be shapeless,
formless, 

like water. 

When you pour water in a cup,
it becomes the cup.
When you pour water in a bottle,
it becomes the bottle.
When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot.
 Water can drip and it can crash. 

Become like water my friend."

-Bruce Lee

My flow was like water, smooth and adapted to my hotel room this morning. Abu Dhabi is a beautiful and very REAL city, unlike Dubai. Those who have been around here a bit would understand what I mean. The city has a certain authenticity to it that Dubai lacks. However, AD has no Mysore-style Ashtanga anywhere. I'm so over it.

Namaste x



I miss home and hippo and my bae

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Day 18 - Travel and yoga

Day 18

I spent the last summer holidays travelling around Canada with my family. We did the Alaskan cruise and then the Rocky Mountain train and then airplanes, and cars, and buses, and bicycles, and walking. But not enough of yoga. But why?? It's not like I didn't have the time. It somehow just was not convenient. I left Dubai with the intention to practice everyday. And I have to admit, it was the hardest, hardest thing to do.

Yoga-Travel checklist

1) Bring yoga mat
2) Get on mat

Simple, non? 

Nea wrote a wonderful post on how to keep up while "on the go" and I'm starting to put more of those things into practice. My schedule is always changing even when I'm in Dubai, so I'm always finding ways to adapt. 


Abu Dhabi for the week should be interesting :) - will post more about this capital city and ex hometown tomorrow. I got through a nice sweaty half primary today sans painkillers.

Namaste x

This pic was taken somewhere in Alaska mid-hike.


 

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Day 17 - Painkillers and yoga.

Day 17

About 3 years ago, I had an accident in Cancun which resulted in a fracture to my upper front jaw amongst other bruises and wonky teeth. It's not all sad and boohoo, don't worry. I got better in about 3 months and life kept going.

But guess what? About 3 weeks ago I found out that it has come back to haunt me!!

I just had a 9.30am appointment to fix my face. Ok, I will spare you the details. But there was blood and stitches and now I'm on some major painkillers. I attempted a little bit of primary today, it was going well and then some dizziness happened right after standing. So, I called it a day and sat there in the happiness of my painkillers.

It's a new dimension of zen haha - I will get off them (painkillers) as soon as I figure out how to deal with this pain. At least there was no swelling/bruising/anything on my face. I just had to talk a little slow and slurred today.

Hopefully more asana will come tomorrow.

Practice practice practice.

I spent my day here today after la dentiste:

There are few things I love in life more than piles and piles of canvas.







Friday, November 22, 2013

Day 16 - Never Give Up / Always Let Go.

Day 16

Thought-streams are controlled by practice and non-attachment.

Patanjali's Yoga Sutras say that practice is the effort to secure steadiness. So this may be through any form, yoga, meditation, breathing, etc. It is not necessarily 2 hours of Ashtanga primary or half primary every day. But that is what it is for me. A solid half primary practice - that is what brings my steadiness. And yes, I am attached to it. I am on a quest to be devoted to it, without interruption, over a long period of time.

Yesterday, I missed my practice and I was upset about it. But today, after a nice, sweaty, Friday morning practice followed by studying Yoga Sutras with Tonya and Nea - I feel much better.  My practice is the EFFORT to secure steadiness. It will always be an effort to get on the mat (some days more than others). And it will and should always be an effort to practice non attachment. We are all human, we are attached to places, people, things, shoes, lululemon, lovers, etc - we need this to keep us human. But in the end, we need to stop looking for an outcome or expected result. That's where we fuck up.

So yeah, to sum it up:

Give it your everything but expect nothing.

Never give up, but always let go.



Namaste x

Sheikh Zayed Road after the storm  is actually kinda gorgeous.

Day 15. F for FAIL

Day 15 was a fail.

:(


I was really hoping for an evening practice, but that did not happen. However, today (Friday) totally made up for it.


Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Day 14 - ice cream and ashtanga

Day 14
Home practice after work (7pm) and then errands to run. A few glitches later, at about midnight, this happened.





Parking lot pimpin. This is not good.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Day 13 - Tuesdays aren't "good" days in yogic tradition

Day 13
Tuesdays are known to be superstitious days in the Ashtanga (Indian) tradition - So, maybe that explains my weird ass day.

Click here to check out the superstitions behind Tuesday

I was driving to the salon after work. Desperately hungry; I pulled over at a gas station on Al Khail road to grab some stale veggies from the convenience store there. Traffic in Dubai was ridiculous today and sure enough - there was an unorganized mess of honking cars waiting to fill their tanks.

Attempting to skip the line up and get straight to the "pronto" convenience store, I cut in front of a guy in a black Audi - intentionally. And he showed me NO mercy. He stuck his hand out the window and gestured vigorously as I looked away. A few minutes later, he pulled up beside me at the parking lot and I immediately got out of my car to apologize. The man looked furious - maybe this was a bad decision.

"SORRY!! I didn't mean to piss you off" I said to him with my sweetest smile.

Two quick glances at my face and a full-body scan later, the once furious dude was smiling and telling me it was okay and asking me about my day. He later told me that if I wasn't "beautiful" - I wouldn't be forgiven.

Ummm....Thanks?

I was really hoping he would say "your inner peace and calmness reached out to me and brought happiness into my life". No? Just my bum? ok.

It's sad how much you can get away with by just being a woman!

I did my practice at 8.30pm in my yoga room at home and it was a little nauseating after the convenience store veggies. I skipped my inversions to avoid puke-asana.


Namaste x

my bae is back in town tomorrow! :)

Monday, November 18, 2013

Day 12 - Meatless Monday & Ahimsa

Day 12
(Ok whatever, I'm counting moon days. Say something!)

I made it in to mysore this morning! Hallelujah! and I was having a super productive morning, drinking ample amounts of water and other healthy liquids. Everything was going great until I discovered my dutty food court soup had chicken in it! I knew I shouldn't have trusted the food court lady :(

I've been vegetarian for about a year now, and I have to say - it feels like one of the best decisions I have made in my adult life. However, I'm not a super anal vegetarian yet - I eat fish from time to time and I still indulge in meat-based gravies with simple ignorance. So... really, I'm not vegetarian! But I DO think about my food and the practice of "Ahimsa". Do you?

But here's my philosophy; one step at a time - we all gotta start somewhere. As long as we have the right intention, we're on the right path.

Namaste! x



This is me every time I make it in to Mysore. (which is supposed to be every day)


Sunday, November 17, 2013

Day 11

Full moon day - so we do not practice. 

I usually don't religiously observe this, but since I have taken up this commitment to my practice,  it might be my only opportunity for down time!

We had a lovely guided meditation. I thought I would reach somewhere deep, but that did not happen. My thoughts on love and happiness stayed pretty shallow on my boyfriend and Christmas! 

I can't wait to be able to begin a meditative practice at some point in my life! Vipassana maybe?

Today, I obsessed with Bed Peace- Jhene Aiko's track with Childish Gambino. I'm quite a big r&b/hiphop fan (sorry) .

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Day 10 - Being Sober Sally, all.the.time.

Day 10

It was a friend's boyfriend's birthday thing last night at one of the most crowded over-rated beach bars in town. I'm starting to feel a little bit (okay, a lot) self righteous when I say I don't want to drink or party. But, I went, got a little grumpy and came home asap. I can't. I just can't.

And then I found this article - I'm not sure if it makes me feel better or worse.
Read this Article Here: Are you in the Ashtanga cult?

I identify with everything on that list - and every one of my friends should be nodding along right there haha.
Number 8 from that list is tomorrow!  :)

Rest well yogis xx

Namaste.




Friday, November 15, 2013

Day 9 - "my insanity is my sanity"

Day 9

Today, after yoga, we talked yoga sutras and the dynamics of our mind. The practice of controlling your emotions, which ultimately affect your body, comes from bringing awareness to your thoughts.

Are you still with me?

Thoughts --- Emotions --- Physical reactions.

Thoughts may be of the past, the present, or the future. They may be real, they may be projected, they may be delusional. The thoughts that we should focus on are those that represent reality. That means we accept things as they are, not what we want them to be. This acceptance and awareness is a constant battle for most of us, but things like yoga and meditation are tools to guide us. Just Breathe :)

My friend Lily, who is a big fan of Mike Tyson, spent some time last night explaining to me the "rawness" of Tyson's personality and character as depicted in his documentary. I just watched it and I could not agree more. Tyson embodies this concept of yoga to the tee. His awareness of reality is astounding and his story will definitely identify with some part of you. I cried *shrugs*.

Namaste and have a good Friday!



 PS.  Watch his documentary "Tyson" below, you won't regret it!!

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Day 8 - Off with the fairies today

Day 8
Home practice after a 12 hr work day. I'm in lala land. It's been a long week in Dubai!


Basically, If it wasn't for this 60 day challenge I put myself on, I would have not practiced today.

Namaste x






Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Day 7 - bruises make for better conversation.

Day 7

I made it into morning mysore practice. YAY!

Today, I worked from home and talked to my brother in Canada a lot. He has had an ankle injury as of last week and is sitting at home recovering. I'm so traumatized at the thought of an injury and the disgusting snapchats he's been sending me. Crutches aren't fun when you actually need them.

On that note, my heart also goes out to all the victims of the typhoon in the Phillipines. I've been seeing pictures and videos of the injuries, homelessness and sadness of over 10,000 people. I send you love and light xo

If any of my Dubai readers want to join a guided meditation practice for charity - Please join the facebook event - http://t.co/5K6G0ur34A 







Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Day 6 - Love and Luxury watches

Day 6

Spent the day surrounded by "luxury" products for a stock count. When I think of luxury my mind cues Lorde -
"Crystal
Maybach
Diamonds on your timepiece
Jet planes
Islands
Tigers on a gold leash" - Lorde (Royals)

Monday, November 11, 2013

Day 5

Day 5

I don't know whether I slept through my alarm or if it never went off. So there went my morning practice. We had a Canadian visitor to be dropped off at the airport at 7am before heading to work - I doubt morning practice would have happened in retrospect.

I missed my old workplace a lot today after I went back to spend time with them this weekend. I felt so safe and loved around the families, kids and gays. Check them out here.



Mysore at 6.30 in the evening with swollen feet after an entire day in heels isn't all that fun. After a brief bout of energy -  I'm ready to put my feet up and zzzzzzz.


xoxo night



Sunday, November 10, 2013

Day 4 - learning something new about yourself

Day 4

Mysore practice at 5.30am. It's Sunday, which means Monday in Dubai, I was working from home, hooray!

But wait.

Who can handle mind numbing excel sheets and numbers when there is chocolate, a pool and browsing freedom?

No more working from home for this lady.

Hope you guys had a good day :)

Namaste x

What I want to do:



What I actually did:

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Day 3


Day 3

Led class with Tonya @ 11am

I took my friend Sahar to yoga with me.

Sahar is Arab African (Sudanese)-raised in Oman-super Christian-hilarious-humble-lovely girl and a good friend. She is looking to get fit and is in the phase of counting calories and watching portions hard core. Although I thought the initial sanskrit chanting might scare the crap out of her - I imagined she would LOVE the workout aspect.

She liked the class, loved it even - but found it too hard and can't see herself doing it everyday.

I need to accept that this shit is not for everyone. Let people find their own path.

So that was Day 3.

I went to bed at 9.30... i miss my boo!



Friday, November 8, 2013

Day 2 - Yoga Sutras and Commercialism

Another 5am wake-up call, but not for yoga - to the Dubai Women's Run!

It was a great venue, great turnout and well organized. I met a lot of lovely ladies and tons of interesting people pitching cool "health related" businesses. On the down side, it was commercialism at it's finest. Anyone will sell you anything and claim that it's healthy. I'm not one to preach about health and fitness, but I wish more people did their research and made a conscious effort to look through the bullshit.

By noon I was done Friday morning led class and sipping on some homemade chai with a group of like minded souls. Between day dreaming and reading yoga sutras with Nea & Tonya, I caught something about "the stillness/essence underneath it all" - that's what matters. Bingo.

Commercialism is well & good, branding is great; we all have a brand - a worldly identity. But that's not our essence or our true selves. Look through your own bullshit now and again.

Namaste.




Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Day One (again)

Okay so Day 1 didn't pan out as imagined.

5.15am alarm on a Thursday morning. First thought - it's the weekend (In Dubai at least)!!!

I got dressed and quickly drove over to my favourite morning destination @yogaroomdubai before my body realized what was happening. I have officially begun. I got through my half primary series, enjoyed a good savasana, was back home by 7.15am

What a win.

Tomorrow is a Friday which means led class followed by some yoga sutras with Tonya and Nea. Let's see what that brings!

Tomorrow is also the Dubai Women's Run - 5k & 10k, if you are running - come check out the juice bar with @cafebaroque. I did a juice cleanse with them a couple months ago and I highly recommend it. In fact I think I might endure another one before christmas - I have been so so naughty!

Day One

Day One

Day One has been cancelled! YAY!! *jumps in fat joy*

Bitches' day off

Read all about it here: http://www.missstan.com/?p=1523

I did suffer horribly at work. Cramps are 10x worse when you have been eating unhealthy. Someone pass me the cranberry, pomegranate, anything. anything. please.

However, may day did turn around after receiving this card from my little brother in Canada. Birthday love is welcome any time of the year. I'm always appreciative of a good art joke!!