Day 42,43,44,45 - Desert Carols

Thursday, Day 42 - Morning Mysore

Friday, Day 43 - Friday Led Primary with Nea

Saturday, Day 44 - Home practice + deadly Christmas shopping

Sunday, Day 45 - Morning Mysore


This Happened. We sang carols in the desert and got cozy with hot tea and a real camel!! Sand dunes instead of snowy hills once again. I kind of miss Christmas in Canada. Kind of.

Day37 - The Color Run

Day 37

No Ashtanga. Well, a few asanas to warm up if you wanna count that.

It was a fun morning :) learn more about The Color Run here

Now I need some Ashtanga so bad!! 

Namaste xo

Day 28,29,30 - Have Faith.

Day 28 
Ladies Holiday aka Bitches' day off, but this time with NO PAIN. yoga cures cramps y'all

Day 29
Home practice. I had an allergic reaction to some chickpeas. It wasn't the nicest of days.

Day 30

I'm half way there. Writing has been really helpful to my practice as it gives me a chance to reflect. Maybe I should just have a journal and not bore you guys? Just kiddin, I love the attention.

Today was Friday led class with Nea and it felt amazing as always. I felt light and I did my Bhujapidasana and back bending with new found vigor. Today's yoga sutra topic was interesting

"clarity is preceded by faith, energy, memory and equalminded contemplation" 

-Yoga Sutra 1.20

Clarity = Samadhi.

Clarity of mind.
Are you there?
Does it come naturally?
Or do you have to work on it? How far do you go every day to achieve it?
Ashtangis generally go too far.

This is a beautiful piece to watch: 

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 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.

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.

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 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!

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.

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!