Beautiful isn't it?! And with madonna doing it!! Super fabulous!
Ashtanga Yoga a Favorite for Madonna and Gwyneth
Time and time again we hear people say, Life Is All About Making Choices, but what many failed to demonstrate is the weight of responsibility that one has to also take in making the choice. Making choices in life certainly has its values, and the right ones come with rewards. Having said that, the choices themselves carry their own liabilities, which may result in serious consequences and ramifications. However, people do commit the crime by being utterly ignorant about it.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Applauding Yoga Teachers
Who are they?
When I first started doing yoga, I did not know anyone close who had a career in teaching it. My friends were all practitioners back then and there would not be any kind of banter in class as everyone would be serious about practicing. Teachers were regarded as spiritual leaders and were too highly respected that we do not want to socialize casually with them.
However, throughout the years of practice, along the way I discovered that a few of the people I started practicing with were now teachers. Later on when you find out the many different walks of life and the variety of traits of these individuals, you realized that hey, anyone could be a yoga teacher. They can come in various shapes and sizes having a similar intention of helping us to find balance and spiritually connect us with our lives.
In whatever way, yoga teachers have also been stereotyped as an absolute vegetarian, non-drinker, non-smoker and so forth. IN view of these, we soon find out that none of the above constitutes as qualities of a good person and life is about making choices and being responsible about the choices you make upon yourselves. Ultimately, I personally believe by being kind and having compassion are the real heartfelt attitudes that everybody can relate to.
Judging, stereotyping and assuming yoga teachers of the things we hear about and expecting them to be all-angelic are simply asinine. In all respect, yoga teachers are real people too. They have their own obstacles and challenges and they also require the necessities of life like everyone else. I believe one of the main intentions of teaching yoga is to have the awareness of Ahimsa – a non-violence attitude, which eventually leads to finding balance in life resulting in peace and harmony.
At the end of the day, as individuals, teachers are just ordinary people who could offer kindness and truthfulness in giving us the tools we require to face our demons. Having said that, he or she could be your friend, your mentor, your confidante or even your guardian. More than anything, yoga teachers are thinkers, philosophers; people who live their lives based on logic, wisdom and rationality.
What are their roles in society?
They have been universally regarded as being a spiritual and health role models. In general, I believe yoga teachers play a key role in building a society in the aspect of respect, kindness and social tolerance. Ultimately it affects people individually through the bestowal of higher thinking and self-improvement.
Commonly, I believe in walking the talk and practicing what you preach as they demonstrate passion in doing what you love and loving what you do. There is nothing worse than illuminating the essence and attributes of yoga just to be found cheating, lying and being irresponsible, contradicting yourself in many aspects. Society gives a relatively high respect towards yoga teachers, which ultimately gives yoga teachers a certain responsibility to uphold that honor. Fortunately as most yoga teachers are true to their beliefs and passionate about the practice, being on top of society is not hard to do.
How do they affect our lives?
The affect our lives by constantly reminding and teaching us about the profound meaning of life, about understanding the nature of our inner self so intense that we are awed by our own potential and competence. By helping us discover things about ourselves, by helping us connect with life and ultimately compelling us to realize our purpose and the reason for our existence. They show us the many paths life have to offer and their teachings of self-awareness and self-discoveries, assist us in making the right choice with those paths.
Personally, yoga teachers have somehow managed to teach us the art of detachment and letting go, where in the long run allows us to find freedom from our obstacles and predicaments. And they do this simply by putting us in a posture that requires us to execute using the tools we need in the form of instructions for us to stay in it for long periods of time. How we use the tools will show how we deal with life in the real world.
In a yoga practice, the postures that are being thrown at us to be executed represent the challenges that we face in our lives. In reality, we somehow lose the capability of how to handle our stress! However, stepping on the mat and using all the disciplines and techniques to execute the postures have become a logical practice, where people apply to their everyday lives!
When a teacher points out how relevant your yoga practice is to your own personal life, you discover that you can improve the quality of your life just by being consistent in your practice. Eventually when we start to apply its philosophy and discipline in our everyday lives, we experience a shift that enables us to feel great and reborn. Gradually we find that yoga serves and nourishes us at every level of our being and spontaneously contributes to greater wellness in all domains of life. Ultimately we realized that yoga helps us discover gifts within ourselves that have remained unopened since our childhood, gifts of peace, harmony, laughter and love. And when all that happens, our yoga practice will be a necessity and a practical way of life to guide us joyfully till the rest of our days.
In a nutshell, as a guide to living life with a positive attitude, yoga teachers have become ambassadors for optimism and positivity. After more than 5000 years, yoga has come a long way towards how humans think and analyze life, and most significantly with its role in the process of Evolution.
Namaste,
Azmi Samdjaga
10 Tips For Beginner Yogis Before Taking That First Step
I would like to post the following tips with the intention of giving those with the intention of practicing but have been skeptical about it do to several issues. I hope, with these tips, they will be more motivated and confident in taking that first step to this invaluable practice and experience the ultimate joy.
1. There are so many things in the world that you can be nervous about. Yoga is NOT one of them. Remember that the main benefit of the practice is to reduce stress, not create one. So just take it easy and have fun in class!
2. Know that although the class you attend would be a beginner's class, not necessarily that everyone is going to be a beginner. There would be people of all levels. The important thing is NOT to follow what they are doing. Try to listen carefully to the teacher's instructions. Trust your ears, not your eyes.
3. Bring with you an open mind to try new challenges and an openness in receiving new information. This is because you will be given a lot of instructions about movement, which you have never done before. And you need to be able to trust it and execute it.
4. Have high respect for your breath and give it your utmost priority over the postures. Your breath represents your life support and your practice represents your life. Thus if you do not have a good life support, you will not have a good life. Always be conscious about your breath. Keep it smooth and long. Never hyperventilate or hold it unless otherwise instructed.
5. Honor your own body and 'listen' to your body's needs rather than it's wants. When executing the postures, and in adjusting it, always find a position where there is a balance between comfort and effort, then move towards stillness and allow the body to simply feel and adapt to the pose.
6. If you have to look at others to check on the pose, never see whats happening from the waist up. BUt copy your neighbor from the waist down as you want to see their foundation, which is made up of the core and the legs. See their positioning of the feet/foot and how they ground them firmly on the mat.
7. DO NOT FORCE or over exert yourself in the execution of the pose. You need to acknowledge the limits of your body and work with your own level. Doing things that is over-exerting is just risking yourself to injuries. That would in turn, pull your muscles and even stress your entire structure, which defeat the whole purpose of reducing stress.
8. The best attitude to cultivate when in practice is to be tolerant and accept your limitations and not become enraged by it. Everyone has a bad day. Honor the things you can do and do not fret about the things you can't .
9. Practice your asanas with an intention, not with tension. Have the intention to be kind to your own body and trust your breath to keep you safe.
10. DO NOT BE SHY about coming to a resting pose and not being bothered by how people would judge you. If you don't take care of your own body, who would?
I hope those are useful for you and helpful when you go to your next practice. If 10 is hard to remember, just choose 1 or 2 of the above first and remember them well and choose 2 more after that and repeat what you did and so forth with the rest. Once you have , put it to practice the next time you come to class, I can guarantee that you will experience a lot more awareness towards your own body and discover new things about your body's potential.
Have a great weekend peeps.
Namaste,
Azmi
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
Possible Yoga Retreat before Portugal
Dear Yogis,
http://www.losaricoffeeplantation.com/
Some students and I have been thinking about this resort in Magelang, Indonesia for our next retreat. I used to work here for 7 months in 2005 as a spa consultant and resident yoga teacher. It is the ultimate sanctuary to find stillness and tranquility. 6 active volcanos majestically stand around it in a distance to form its 360 deg view of the surrounding. If we were to have 5-8 people, it would be great. Please do share your insights on it and revert back your thoughts to me. Thank you!
Namaste,
Azmi
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Yoga ban for Malaysian Muslims
Common peeps, its been almost 3 years and incredibly massive amounts of post have been published in internet and social networking sites about this. I mean are people THAT asinine to think that Yoga is banned? I am not even talking about the ban lift because the so called 'YOGA BAN' didn't even get past the Council of Malaysian Rulers, so it wasn't banned in the first place. Yes the word is 'TRIED', the council tried. But embarrassingly failed.
And this following article shows that either the Fatwa Council's chairman had not done a complete research or he blatantly lied to the public about Singapore and Egypt's non-existent yoga ban.
One of The Star's columnists have written an article about being a Muslim and Mu'min. In his article, he wrote about the 3 most destructive unjust deeds. They are:
1) LYING
2) BREAKING A PROMISE
3) BETRAYING A TRUST
But all comes down to THE most destructive - LYING. And there are 3 different degrees of lying:
1) Lying in speaking
2) Lying in not fulfilling a promise
3) Lying by breaking someone's trust
He also wrote that as far as Islam is concerned, "Dishonesty is simply antithetical to true belief, real faith, and conscious submissions to GOD who has confided trust in human beings." - (QURAN 33: 72-73 - Al-Ahzab)
A Mu'min or a Muslim can never be a habitual liar nor a betrayer of trust as far as his ethics and morality is concerned. The Prophet Muhammad S.A.W. said that the one, who does not possess faith, and the one who does not keep his pledge, IS NOT A MUSLIM.
La imana li-man la amanata lahu wala dina li-man la 'ahdalahu.
So, if Datuk Dr Abdul Shukor is lying, would The Prophet recognize him as a Muslim? No no.. I didn't say it. The Prophet did.
Believe in yourself everyone. God is in each and everyone of us.
Love,
Azmi
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