Day 31,32,33,34,35 - Vegetarianism and Yoga

Day 31,32,33,34,35 (Week 5)

I did horrible this week you guys. I ended up getting about 2 home-practices in and it was not enough. But this was one of the defining moments of my diet helping me get through. I can blame about 80% of it on work, but 20% was just me. It honestly bothers me so much when I can't get on my mat, it's almost to a point of OCD right now (which is what I'm aiming for, let's be honest). I need. I crave. I want.

Points of redemption when I can't get my daily practice is my diet and an added effort to control my thoughts. I know the fluctuations of the mind are so much more intense on days where I haven't practiced but I made a great effort to control my diet and it worked. Green veggies and lots of water go a long long way. For the most part, just saying I'm "vegetarian" does the trick. I get judged and then left alone.

I just got through Friday morning led class with Nea and it was painful!!! I mean physical actual ouch. My mind is on a whole new level though. I can't wait to have a good week back!!

On that note - I am still waiting for the Christmas spirit to set in!!!

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 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 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! :)

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 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: