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!)

Beach Life

Sooo, I'm living on one of the most beautiful islands in the world, I'm working but still have lots of free time....and I'm a BIG fan of the ocean, so what better way to spend the last few weeks than exploring the many stunning beaches of the island.

Here's my potted guide to the beaches so far:

Haad Salad

This is my local beach, just a 10 minute walk or 3 minute bike ride downhill from my house and the Yoga Retreat

North End

taken from Haad Salad Resort decking

very quiet today

There is lots to love about Haad Salad, it is on the west coast and therefore is a wonderful sunset beach. It is very quiet, even though the resorts are plentiful nowadays. It does attract families with small children as the water is shallow, still and safe. You can snorkel further out to sea, but at this time of the year it is very shallow, so it's not a swimming beach, it's more of a paddle out and lie or sit down.

Some Haad Salad sunsets....

Haad Khom

North facing, alternatelvely known as Coconut Beach, this is a beautiful setting, very quite and has a little more breeze than the west facing beaches, and a little more trees to sit under. - Obviously you are taking the ultimate gamble when you place yourself under the coconut trees though!!!!

outlook towards west/Choloklum

outlook north, towards Bottle Beach

I liked this beach for a read and felt in solitude here, the water was also still shallow but you can swim out to snorkel and sometimes the serenity was spoilt by snorkel boat tours going past blaring western music out. You can also catch a small fishing boat here to Bottle Beach, but I'm saving that trip for a day off.

Secret Beach

Not so much of a secret as there is a big sign on the main road here saying so, but this is still a very quiet beach, mostly populated with a younger crowd, possibly as the beach bar shack plays awesome music all day long. The sea here is not the best, again shallow, but has more of a clay based base, but I really like this beach and I like the music aspect of it.

I'm also mentioning here Koh Raham, not a beach itself, but a really cool bar and restaurant which has many rope swings, hammocks and steps down from the end of the venue into deep water where you can swim (yay!) and be joined by many many tropical fish, so fab for snorkelling too.

from Koh Raham looking back onto Secret Beach

loving the hammocks 

sunset props 

Haad Chao Phao

So wrap up this post, I have to mention possibly my favourite beach bar (so far) which is awesome for sunsets - I think I'm going to have to post a sunset post all of it's own! 

The bar is called Pirate Bar and it is just tucked away in the south end of the beach, almost hidden by the rocks. It has a lovely little deck that juts out in the sea, so you feel like you are on a boat, and it is directly opposite the sunset at this time of the year. 

Later on some evenings they have DJ sets here, and they have a sand dance floor and a huge wall of speakers. I've been to a couple of parties, but being the diligent yogi that I am I have left them early before they have got too busy or too raucous! 

SO WHEN ARE YOU BOOKING YOUR FLIGHTS?????

Sawadee!

So, I'm now into my third week at the fabulous Yoga Retreat, in Koh Phangan.

My good friends Teresa and Kes started this retreat in the stunning jungle location near Haad Salad beach in 2000, and since then have been working hard growing the business into the thriving retreat it is today.

Shala with jungle views 

They very kindly offered me to come over to the Island to teach the Hatha/Vinyasa classes at the weekends, with the added bonus that I can continue my practice with an authorised teacher.
I am also helping out at the retreat by covering the managers shifts and trying to raise the profile on social media (as you know I'm such a big fan of social media!)

Some pics of the spaces on the retreat:

So the last two weeks have been settling in and getting to know the set up here, meeting all the wonderful guests and of course practicing Mysore style daily.

I have also been exploring the wonderful beaches of the west of the island, each beach coming with it's own USP - beach bar music, coral reefs, solitude, swings, the beaches have it good here!

The retreat offers daily drop in classes or for the more serious or people with more time to develop their practice, we offer 5-30 day courses and detox programmes.
The Mysore classes and lectures, pranayama and meditation is lead by Shelley Smith, who is a Level 2 Authorised teacher and soon will be assisted by Kes who just got his Level 1 Authorisation in Mysore with me last month.

I am teaching my Vinyasa Flow classes at 4pm on Saturday and Sundays, and for the moment I am also covering the Sunday morning half led primary series class!!!

The retreat attracts people from all over the world, it has been lovely making new friends and chatting to people from different walks of life, all with the common goal of improving and developing their yoga practice, health, diet, minds and working on the other limbs of Ashtanga aside from the asanas!

At this point I am not sure how long I will stay, but it will be hard to leave that's for sure!
Next post....the beautiful beaches!