Four month debrief

Just over four months into my journey, although I feel this is not really like a travel blog, more of an online diary of a YOGIC journey. Or really just an online diary! So if you are happy reading the complete, and somewhat insensible ramblings of an ageing yogi - read on!

It feels like so much longer than four months, I have learnt so much more about Yoga, and what it means to me than I expected. Actually I'm not sure what I expected, some answers yes, I have found myself to be stronger than I thought (but this was a lesson in self discovery I started back in September 2014) and way more independent than I ever thought possible. I have discovered that I really like my own company, in fact I feel I am in danger of preferring my own company to that of others at the moment! - note to self, must get out more!

Where it all began...

My body continues to amaze me with it's ability to get stronger, and more flexible and I certainly feel the fittest I've ever felt in my entire life. I don't want to harp on and on about the benefits of yoga but it really, REALLY works for me. And not only on the physical level, but I have already written on the mental level. The ability to stay calm in stressful situations I attribute soley to my yoga practice. Yoga is not just exersice for me now, it's a way of life, nay, a lifestyle. And with this comes less the urge to have the cutest yoga pants and take instagram selfies but more to delve into the self and challenge what you find there.

Feel like dancing...woo hoo

My travels so far have taken me to India, Thailand (well Koh Phangan) and a quick jaunt to Kuala Lumpar. I am now planning a short break (read visa run) to Bali, to hopefully get back on a surfboard and see how that is after almost a year's break! So far, my favourite place has been Mysore, but not just the city, it;s the Ashtanga Yoga and the magic that happens there which is difficult to put into words. You'll just have to go find out for yourself or take my word for it!

Me! Post hair cut on way to beach = happy Claire

Travelling solo is both exhilarating, liberating and lonely in equal measures. I have the luxury of having some of my oldest and dearest friends here on the island, and this was of course a big factor in deciding to move here, I also am pretty good at chatting (yes those of you who know me know I can talk the hind legs of a donkey) and therefore find it very easy to socialise at the retreat with all the guests and have met some lovely people here.  I have also met so many solo female travellers and they are inspirational.

Squad Goals

And then there is the beauty in the Gulf of Thailand, Koh Phangan. It's and island of hedonism and spirituality. It's beautiful beaches and fierce jungle. It's hot sunny days, and more recently heavy tropical downpours. I have to say I like the slight drop in temperature (about 28-32 degrees when raining) but I am getting a little frustrated with flies and those pesky, potentially dangerous mosquito's. So bring the gruelling heat back please - and if anyone has any tips on how I can bathe in a natural mosquito repellent that last all day and actually works, please message me!

Temple 

Home

Front Garden

The final thing I would like to add to this quarterly summary is that I have discovered not only do I need food to survive and supply my body with energy but I really do get pleasure from eating. My diet changed when I started living the single life, I became a 5:2 vegetarian and now I am almost no meat, but still eat seafood. I find this diet gives me energy, makes me feel better 'in myself' and maintain a healthy weight. And since the detox I have cut down drastically on snacks and alcohol, and caffeine but not completely, those things still have a place in my life just not as much!

Seafood Salad

Chia and Mango Pudding

Glorious veg and rice

Aubergine Salad

Friday's Indian Buffet

Vegetable Wraps

Just some of the amazing food choices I have here and what I eat on a weekly basis. I am keen to look into nutrition and very interested in food that heals. So this could become my new 'hobby'

If I would like you to take one thing away from this post it's that YOU are capable of anything you want, and whatever it is you want, go out and get it. Don't just dream about it - make it YOUR reality. I have been reading many travel blogs recently and particularly liked a post in one that mentioned would you still do you job if you didn't get paid for it? If the answer is yes, congratulations, if it's no, then change it. One of my favourite quotes at the moment is from Walt Whitman -

'Do whatever, just let it produce joy' 

I hope that reading this inspires you to get off your butts and go out and do something! Let it produce joy for you and yours, make your life mean something to you, and please please do not get caught up in the trap of working to live. 

Until next time - NamaSLAY xxx

Continuing Practice - all is coming?

I thought it would be good to update the blog with a Yoga bit - 

The daily practice of Ashtanga Mysore style is now in my system and I am reaping the benefits. Don't get me wrong it's not all joyous rapture, there are days when I question not just what I'm doing on the mat but in life in general, but this is kind of the point that I want to make in this post.

The benefits of a daily practice are not just physical, although becoming stronger and more flexible in the body does have it's benefits on a purely aesthetic basis, especially when you spend most of the rest of your time on the beach in a bikini! And of course there are benefits to the body that you can't see - how it affects your internal organs and strengthens things like the stomach, vital organs. 

But the benefits of the mental are far stronger in my opinion. I've always liked a routine, I think it's a Yates thing (organised fun is good fun!) but I think all creatures benefit from some kind of routine lifestyle. So firstly, the action of waking up (at Sunrise) have a pranic building coffee or tea then making my way to the shala gives an actual purpose to the day. This routine of getting on the mat for 7am to face the practice and the day ahead gives you a reason to get out of bed, and practicing before work means your purpose is not just to work, to pay the bills to survive etc but to do something for you, your body and mind. 

Even though you work through the same sequence every day no two days are alike. Some days practice flows through sweet and fluid, and some days it's stiff, rigid and frustrating, and on other days, well it's pretty much a mixture of those two things, and maybe even more emotions and feelings are thrown into the mix.

I really like this excerpt from the book 'Guruji' by Eddie Stern and Guy Donahaye, this is written in Guy's preface:

'When being adjusted in a challenging asana (by Pattabi) /i sometimes felt on the precipice staring down the abyss at the prospect of death or debilitating pain, but that maybe salvation somehow was at hand' He goes on to talk about how Guruji would get him into these postures and then remarks 'Oh! I didn't know that was possible! Put my troubles on one side for a moment, put aside all my preconceptions about what I am capable of doing. If one can do that for a moment, it affords one the ability to put these troubles aside and later on, to look at these troubles and let them go.

You see, working on your practice you are reflecting your life on the mat. As you work through postures you learn ways to deal with life situations. I teach a balancing focused classes on Friday's and I try to draw the students awareness of how you approach a balance in Yoga is how you can approach a situation in life that requires strength, focus, stability, even flexibility.

So, routine of daily practice reaps many rewards, if you want to try to do this and don't have the luxury of living and working on a yoga retreat or being able to go to a Mysore style class in your town all you have to do is wake up, roll the mat onto your bedroom floor and start with five Surya Namaskar A and five B, maybe close your practice with some mindfulness sat in easy cross legged and carry on about your individual routine. You've hit every muscle group in your body, used breath to link movement and it probably only takes 15 minutes of your morning before you have your breakfast. Try it for a week and see how you get on!

Meanwhile, if you need me, I'll be on my mat practicing my asana and working out my life!

Staying in Thailand!

So readers, friends and family, it's been a while since I have posted about how hard beach life is and how living on a island you have plenty to choose from!

I have some news so thought it worth a blog post, plus will try to endeavour to post more frequently my thoughts and musings even if my day does mainly consist of yoga and beach.

EAT, YOGA, BEACH REPEAT.....

Back to the news - I'm staying in Thailand! I've handed in my notice! (for those of you who remember this little yoga jaunt I'm on is officially a sabbatical) After some deliberation I decided that my life right now is here on the island and that for the same reasons I requested a sabbatical I cannot return to my life as a lecturer/curriculum leader in rainy old Gloucester City.

I have had some amazingly rewarding times at GC and loved spreading my love for dance and the theatre to the young people of Gloucestershire, but the way the education system is currently set up in the UK is frustrating and life became more about retention and whether a student was attending a Maths or English class than whether indeed they could have the skills to give them a future in performing arts. This sad fact and the fact that after 9 years I had had enough of working in a low pay public sector role have made the decision to stay on at the Yoga Retreat a very easy one.

As I sit here writing on my new balcony (Thai version of living room) after my morning Mysore style practice I can hardly believe my luck of where my life is today.

Home for now

Being at the retreat I am still getting the same gratification of seeing people's lives change for the better, and that is the rewarding thing about this job. That and the sea view. And the beaches. And the healthy amazing food, ok so a little more than the gratification of helping change peoples lives!

Sophie the cat assisting me in one of my Yin Classes

I'm on the most part a sociable person so meeting people from all over the world is a wonderful daily activity. Hanging out at breakfast with guests, the talk is often of yoga, which is fine but also we have lots of laughs and giggles at other random topics.
My free time has now just gone up a notch as I have moved into my own little bungalow on the hill overlooking the beach at Haad Salad.
The sea view reminding me that whilst I deeply miss the folks back home this experience is what I was seeking, the ease and simplicity of island life. The shedding of the ego and material wants. The being content with what you have, and where you are right now.

View through the trees to the sea (trees give good shade means cool house!)

My yoga practice is getting stronger, and this in turn is making me a better teacher, more on this in next post :)

So, dear readers, those of you that are friends and family it would be amazing if you could start saving up your coppers and come over to visit, take a course, maybe a detox, or simply just hang out at the beach to catch the greatest show on earth....with a ice cold beer of course! Come and visit me, cause I'm not sure when I'll be back!!

The Greatest Show on Earth (that I didn't choreograph!)

Ekam Inhale - last week of practice

So I have reached the end of the month's practice with Saraswathi at KPJAYI.....

I don't think I can put into words the feeling of achievement I have from completing the month, which has been at times frustrating, annoying, jubilous and rewarding.
If I were on a reality talent show I would definitely coin the phrase 'it's been a roller coaster of emotions' but I'm not, so I won't.

In the end it wasn't about completing the series or achieving certain asanas, it was about a development within me as a person and a yoga practitioner that I can now bring to the mats of the people I teach.

Ashtanga (Mysore) the Pattabi Jois lineage, the 'parampara' has an energy and spirituality of it's own that I don't think you can fully understand unless you come here to the birthplace.
I will never forget walking into the shala on the first morning to the sound of the ujayi breath like the ocean breaking onto the shores, sometimes as I walk through the shala after practice I look at the other practitioners and thought that it looks as beautifully choreographed as a ballet, yet as calm as  Buddha in meditation.

What have I learnt? Well, I would rather keep some of it to myself to be honest! What I can say is Ashtanga will reveal things about yourself you may have wanted to keep hidden. It will test you physically, mentally and spiritually. It will make you want to cry and make you jump for joy, all in the same practice. It will make you reassess how you live you life (and not just the yamas and niyamas) it will control what you eat, when you sleep and may well ruin your social life, unless your social life is with the other ashtangi's who understand that you have to leave the party at 8.30pm to go to bed.

I read a fab article, not all of which I agree with on Elephant Journal this morning - it's worth a click as this woman tells it warts and all.
Article - Ashtanga is the most hated yoga

I have been bitten by the Mysore bug....as well as by quite a few of the local bugs!
As I posted on Instagram earlier, Yoga saved my life by giving me a focus when I was going through a particularly tough time in my life, and now Ashtanga has changed it, and shaped the way forward for it.

So, night all, I'm off to bed for an early start tomorrow to go to Goa!!! yay! holidays!

Frustration, Elation, Acceptance

As the week 3 in Mysore draws to an end I sit and reflect on the week's practice and how it has left me feeling.

The start of the week the emotion was frustration, I seemed to move backwards even in postures that were familiar to me and that I have been doing for many years. Then on Monday Saraswathi 'gave' me bhujapidasana (even though I need help with the binding in Marichasana D) so I tried my best, but still fell back on my butt like a sack of spuds!!
The other frustration was not being able to bring my right leg into half lotus at all due to the screaming pain on the outside of the knee (which Dr.Google and numerous anatomical chats with fellow yogi's leads me to believe I have strained my LCL, lateral collateral ligament) so I am doing my own modifications for all postures that involve the half lotus.

Then, on Tuesday (which also happened to be my birthday) I felt clunky and unelegant and was feeling low. Despite this I did my best attempt at bhujapidasana...held with feet just off the floor for 5 breaths and lowered head down...on coming up and taking my vinyasa after Saraswathi booms over from 2 mats left 'bhujapidasana you did???' I said 'yes', and she gave me a huge smile and said 'is coming' and I smiled back, I had to then hide my face as the ego took over and I felt such feelings of elation and pride I was ecstatic, and reader, I don't mind admitting, tearful!!!

Sharath demonstrating Bhujapidasana in the Astanga Yoga Anusthana

The latter part of the week I have been much more reflective and have come to an acceptance of what will be will be, the phrase 'practice and all is coming' is quite over used, but there is good reason for this, Ashtanga is not an easy practice and even though I can do some of the poses later in the series my body is saying, slow down, keep at it, and with faith and perseverance it will come.

Sharath talked a lot in conference this week of the other well used phrase of Guruji's, Yoga is 99% practice and 1% theory, this meaning not just asana but the first four limbs of yoga, practicing your yama, niyama, asana and pranayama.
Yes, read all about it, I'm still ploughing through the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, and have read Ashtanga Yoga Anusthana but the real yoga comes from DOING and understanding it through practice.
Practice, Practice, Practice.

Accepting where you are today is a humbling experience, in fact Ashtanga Yoga in Mysore is a humbling experience, yet one I am learning from and growing in each day.
Being thankful for what we have is not easy in the Western world, but is so easy to understand here in India.

Thank you to this wonderful woman who has scared the living daylights out of me, yet made me feel like the richest person alive, and helped me to accept where I am, and keep the ego at bay.

Looking like a giant next to the small but non the less terrifying Saraswathi