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Yoga

Yoga Challenge With a Difference – #5daysofyama

June 17, 2014

Yoga is a holistic practice. I keep on saying this, but I feel my voice gets muffled by lots of people peddling ‘perfect’ yoga pictures made even more perfect with the help of iphone filters. Asanas are an important part of yoga, but the …other eight steps of yoga are also mandatory for a complete practice. Starting tomorrow, I’m going to take a little time each day to practice a Yama. Traditionally, yamas (yogic principles that must be followed) were practiced and inculcated before starting the practice of asanas. Times have changed, and yoga classes now follow a different pattern. However, the yamas are easy to integrate into your regular life, you only need 5 minutes each day. Join me tomorrow for the #5daysofyama challenge. Trust me, a little bit of reflection for the next 5 days has the potential to change your life

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Making Time to Live Your Life

June 5, 2014

I met Louise in Wellington, when I first started teaching yoga. After a couple of months, I held her up as an example of ‘balance’ to the class. She is in her early 40s, has two beautiful childern, a rocking career, wonderful marriage…and she still found time for her yoga, tennis, hiking, reading etc. The credit for making her life so rich and full goes to no one but Louise. After all, she could also sit back and complain that she had wanted a career/tennis/amazing body/(fill in the blank) but had to give it up because of: children are too small/husband has a transferrable and demanding job/has other familial obligations/(fill in the blank). Granted Louise comes from a culture and country different from 95% of my students, and many who are reading this are thinking “well you know in our culture (fill in all the perceived limiting factors of being a married woman with kids in India)”.

Now I have an example of an Indian woman (yes, married to a man who has a demanding and transferrable job; yes, has two growing children who demand/want time/attention; yes, has all the familial obligations that come with being from our culture) who reminds me of Louise. Sharmishta Vardhan has been regular in my class from Day 1. When I got to know her better, I found out that she’s a Bharatnatyam dancer. When there’s no yoga she goes for a walk. She’s an amazing swimmer and has been swimming since she was 8 years old. (Incidentally, she taught me how to swim within 10 days. I’m confident standing on my head on land, but 10 days ago I would list drowning as my biggest fear.) Here’s an Indian woman, in her 40s, married for 9 years, two crazily energetic boys (I’ve seen them in the pool), who defies the ‘Indian woman married with two kids’ convention. She reads, sometimes travels to pursue her hobbies, gets in her daily swim before heading home for dinner, cultivates her own friends circle with whom she goes for movies, exhibitions, fairs etc. You can see the results of daily yoga in her before-after.

So next time you think you don’t have time for yoga remember that there are women like Louise and Sharmishta who are busy living the lives they love, and making time for yoga as well! 🙂

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Yoga

10 Days of Gratitude – Day 10

June 4, 2014

Today is the last day of our gratitude challenge. Today lets take a moment to appreciate all the mistakes we’ve made in life. After all, mistakes teach you a lot about yourself and the world around you. Mistakes help you understand what you actually want in life. They take you on adventures that make you who you are. If it weren’t for mistakes we wouldn’t have so much to be grateful for!

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10 Days of Gratitude – Day 9

June 3, 2014

We’re almost done with the #10daysofgratitude challenge. Today lets be thankful for the interests that make us unique. These interests give us something to pursue, they make life colorful and make sure that we’re constantly stimulated.

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10 Days of Gratitude – Day 7

June 1, 2014

We hear of people denied fundamental human rights in different parts of the world, honor killings, girls being kidnapped to make some kind of convoluted point etc. It’s horrifying, unsettling, unfair, illogical…and it’s happening! So today lets join our hands together and be thankful to the freedom that we usually take for granted and send courage and hope to people stuck in situations beyond their control, for no fault of theirs. Namaste.

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10 Days of Gratitude – Day 6

May 31, 2014

Now, everyone has those days when they feel blah. You don’t feel like getting up, your life and what you seems pointless, you don’t feel good about the decisions you’ve made, you feel insecure, uncertain….basically ‘blah’! So you may pick up the phone and call a friend, or listen to some soothing music, or read some inspirational words…something that allows you to reach into your reserves and tell you ‘this too shall pass’. Today let’s join our hands together and be thankful for what gives us strength, because some days you don’t need anything else!

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10 Days of Gratitude Days 1- 4

May 29, 2014

It keeps coming back to me time and time again that we make an impact on people whether we like it or not. And in a world which is rapidly shrinking, we make sometimes end up making an impact on people without even knowing that we are doing so! Maya Angelou made an impact on countless people. To me she signifies positivity and strength in the face of all odds. Her writing has always been about how her struggles have made her into a better person, a person who understands more. To me she signified an individual who triumphed over all odds and came out stronger.

Today is the 4th day of my #10DaysofGratitude project on Facebook. I realize that many people may not follow me on Facebook and thought that I should share the developments of the past four days in the blogosphere as well. I believe as human beings we’re successful if we are able to stay positive and healthy despite the many odds against us. So for the next few days lets meditate on the good things in life. Create more positivity. Give off some real good vibes.

Day 1:

Mindfulness is all you need to increase your levels of holistic health. When you become more mindful, you start to watch what you eat, what you say, what you think, how you feel etc. Every once in a while, its good to consciously think about the good things. Gratitude is a great way to practice humility and count your blessings. For the next 10 days be thankful for the good things in life. For today join your hands together and be thankful to the family has been and always will be with you. #10daysofgratitude #gratefultofamily

Day 2:

Today lets be grateful for wonderful partners and all their foibles that make them who they are! Take a moment to think about what makes your partner great and all that they bring to your lives. #10daysofgratitude

Day 3:

Today join your hands together and take a minute to send out positive vibes to all your friends. After all, they taught you loyalty, respect, gave you comfort and stepped in as the voice of reason when the other little voices in your head were bugging you! #10daysofgratitude #day3 #paschimanamaskarasana #vrikshasana

Day 4:

We rely on our family and friends to help us and get us out of sticky situations. But sometimes complete strangers jump to our rescue. A stranger changed a flat tire for one of my friends, a lady in France dropped us to our hotel at 2 am, someone gave my friend an umbrella when it was pouring cats and dogs on commercial street the other day…Today lets be grateful for well-meaning helpful strangers. They don’t expect ANYTHING in return, so it’s only fair that we send them loads and loads of gratitude today. #10daysofgratitude #day4