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.

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

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

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. 

Read the article here

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.

 

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 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.

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!!

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

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
IslandsTigers on a gold leash" - Lorde (Royals)

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

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!