Travels with my yoga

I always preach to my students, don't leave your practice behind when you go on holiday. Take your yoga with you. And this is me doing what I preach: practising yoga everyday whilst cruising the Mediterranean on my friend's yatch, Langano...as well as having lots of fun. In the end, I got my crewmates hooked on yoga too!

Journey to class

En route to my yoga class in Kensal Rise:

On becoming a yoga student

I resonate strongly with what Jessie wrote about being a student. I love being a student, and this is one of the main reasons why I love being back home in London or New York (apart from my family!).

The first thing I did was I headed straight for the Bikram studio in Fulham and signed up for the 30-day challenge. It's a good excuse - Fulham is so close to my home in South Kensington.

However, I decided to do something new too this time. I signed up for 10 consecutive days of yoga in a strange part of town, that required me to take two underground trains and a bus to. I gave myself an hour to get there, and was early for once in my life. As I lay in savasana in the studio, it gave me time to reflect on my journey. I never had this luxury as a teacher!

And despite the carbon miles I burned up to get here, it was worth it. When I got out of the studio, invigorated, I was hit by the sights and sounds of a new place. Kensal Rise is so different from South Kensington! There were Middle Eastern and Asian supermarkets selling exotic fruits and vegetables that I take for granted in Asia but cost a bomb in England. So I bought lots and did an italian antipasto for dinner, as well as luxurious mango lassi.

A yoga student's life is glorious!

I hope my new recruits are looking forward to the August training as much as I am.

Love from London
jk

Thoughts of " Learning Yoga "

My beloved teacher, I'm waiting for Georgina's burger :P !!! She is just so real; real at the moment she told you that. Hahahahaha!

Ya, truly agreed that learning ain't happen only on the mat and should not only be applied on the mat. When we are eager or craving for something in life, there is always a possibility that we may losing the peace in our mind, in our heart, in our life.

Always be a student in life and reborn through every breath.

Yoga keep us CONSCIOUS, help us to equilibrium our strength and flexibility which enable us to live, to love, to learn, to let go and then reborn again consciously yet unconsciously...

"Let Go" does not equal to "Give Up".

Thought for the day for trainee yoga teachers and yoga teachers

"The true purpose of life is to open your heart, purging it of negative influences so that you become a pure channel of God. The burning candle that illumines the path for others serves and uplifts humankind. The true idea of life is to serve and uplift others from the power of your heart."
Dr. Joseph Michael Levry, (Gurunam)The Code of the Masters

I, Me, Myself

What a glimpse and now it's 1st of July...3 days later is my 28th birthday. Time passes so fast.

I am going to step into my first and only 30's soon. And I'm still very clueless what is my path going to be then. I had worked as graphic designer & visual merchandiser. I always ask myself, "Will those be the job that I am still going to work as in future 10 years times?" My answer is "No." I do not consider myself someone who is very creative. And every year, there are bunches of design students graduate, well equipped with all sorts of design knowledge and ideas. How am I, a 30 plus old guy going to compete with them, while I'm growing older? Sure my ideas aren't going to be as fresh as them.

I know I can design out something good and nice. But that is when I am having the "good mood". I am not someone who is very confident. When I got credit for my work, I will feel shy and just reply "oh"...but on the other side, if I am not doing well, I will start to lose that "fire" in me and tend to switch to "give up mood". I do admit that I'm quite a emotional one compare to guys out there(I am a Cancer), my emotion do control a lot of my actions.

I used to realize that working is where you keep climbing up and earn tonnes of money. So I climb slowly to a certain stage with quite a decent paid. But it's then when I start to feel unhappy. I know money isn't something that can fulfill the emptiness within me. Every time I spent fiercely, I just had that moment of excitement. But after that, I get nothing!

I got this favorite singer who had gone through depression few years back then. She shared her experience in her book. She refused to admit she is 'sick'. She is so defeated and stuck in "shadow", can't get herself out. She got the fame and wealth. She is unhappy.

I do had this kind of feeling sometimes. Am I a depression victim? I can't give a clear answer. I am a bright and drama guy while on the other hand, I can be so unhappy with everything around.

 I attended my first ever yoga class last year in a fitness center. At first yoga for me is just some movement and jumping on a mat. My first class is such a torture, as a 27 years old guy who having all muscles and hamstring that been tighten all the years. I was just following instructions and do the poses. After sometime, I realize that yoga gradually changing my mind and my thinking. The moment I got onto a mat, I can automatically switch off my working mind. Sometimes it does malfunction. Haha. All my work stress and pressure will be left outside the mat.

So I had crush on yoga so much since then. At the very beginning, my mere thoughts of taking yoga TTC is to learn all those difficult asanas, trying to earn some extra income while doing yoga. But things are going to be as easy as i thought.

After some classes with JK, I had a new ideas what yoga is. Yoga isn't you just jumping on a mat. That 2 classes really given me some sparks what I am going to go through. I am sure it's a tough path. I think it's a must for me, myself. Like I always tell my friends, "If you are sick, please let it sick all the way, you will be recover in a better way compare to you fall a small sick."

"Should I get myself all defeated by the darkness, and get up stronger?"

Who knows what had God prepare for me?

I am joining yoga TTC this August. I hope I will discover myself. No more Nidra(sleep walking), kill those suffering Vrtti, living just for myself without caring those perceptions people had on me.
Besides that, I hope I can enlighten someone too. Just like JK and Zen,my beloved yoga instructor.

JK sure is a cool lady :D

Love y'all ^^

Yoginomics

I will be on radio today.....and today I will talk about yoginomics.

YOGINOMICS = I help you, and in some unfathomable, convoluted way, long after we forget our association, I will be rewarded. If you grow and do well generally, I will benefit too from your success. This is super-macro economics, the new generation economics. I am so excited and passionate about it. This is huge, and not widely understood. But look at Wikipedia: everybody contributes anonymously and freely to the community, and everybody benefits. Scientists who studied the improbably astronomical systems like Stephen Hawking is now mainstream – in time, yoginomics will too. It’s mind-boggling. Believe it, it’s happening. I know someone who is building Ze Villages, to link together communities that are already practising this. This spiritual revolution thing I am banging on is actually bigger than one woman’s crazy ideals. It’s just that we don’t go around marketing it and promoting it like zealots.

Let me give you a personal example. When I graduated from Oxford, I lived a terrible life for a while. We could not afford to live in London, where I was working. I commuted and worked crazy hours. I was permanently exhausted and bad tempered. My kids never saw me and my personal relationship was at rock bottom. So we began shopping for a place in London, near my place of work. We looked and looked, and could not find anything. The flats were either too small, on a busy road, on the top floor with no lift or on a high floor which were a danger to small kids. To find a home for 4 young children on a very low budget was sheer impossibility.

The young estate agent showing us round was as disheartened as we were. Then one day, as we were driving around furtilely, she said, “This one just came in, it’s in your price range, not suitable for you but let’s have a look anyway, since we are in the vicinity.” It was advertised as a two bedroom flat in need of complete modernisation. How to fit 4 kids in?

But it was mis-advertised. The place we walked into was old, yes, but a sumptuous family home with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and two reception rooms. Its high ceilinged rooms were as grand as a ballroom, and it had lovely chandeliers. Our neighbour, with whom we share a courtyard, was the Sultan of Oman, no less. We sometimes see him contemplating the peaceful stone fountain outside our window.

The agency gave it to us at the advertised price. We rented it very happily for two years, renovating it and decorating it with love. And then, at the end of the two years, the owner wanted to sell up. She was a Lebanese lady who wanted to return home and was selling up to simplify her life. She gave us first right of refusal to buy the property.

Of course we couldn’t afford it. We started looking for a new home, very depressed. The owner phoned us and asked us why we were looking for a new place. Didn’t we like her flat? I told her we couldn’t afford it, not even if she dropped the price by 50% or a few hundred thousand pounds.

“What can you afford?” she asked. I was too embarrassed to tell her.

Then she just said, “Just give me what you can afford.”

NO WAY! We gave her a week to change her mind, but she came back a week later to say, “I am an old woman, I don’t need more money. This flat is very precious to me, because it was a gift from my late husband. So I often stand outside here. And I see your family, how happy you all are here. So please, it’s yours if you want it.”

Isn’t that amazing? We sold that flat when we moved out of London, and with the proceeds, we bought a historic house with its own river and island. But I still have great love for the place, and often walk the pavements of Prince Consort Road remembering one stranger’s kindness and generosity to my family. Yoginomics at work!!!