‘Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.’ ~BKS Iyengar
I had an interesting long talk with a member of BE Yoga during a quiet class earlier this week. Her name is Sue Ng, her cheeks glow with pink happiness, her words are honest, her presence and speech are as eloquent as a beauty queen and we can’t stop chatting on our business similarities and hardships as she just opened her restaurant about the same time BE Yoga opened.
We were exchanging stories about yoga retreats in India from what I read in Eat, Love, Pray spiced with secondhand experience from my fellow yoga teachers and her firsthand experience of having been to India earlier this year following this ‘dream’ she had one night.
She was sharing her share of ‘wanting to change‘ and ‘seeing the light‘ upon being there, as I shared my fear of, ‘what happens IF I don’t want to drive a car, wear fancy adidas yogawear and get married anymore?‘ upon returning back from India if I can collect enough guts to actually go to India (Mysore hopefully) in the nearest future.
We had a good laugh yet painful reality check as we traded and agreed on this irony,
- Sue opened her restaurant and shortly after, developed gastric problem she never had before AND
- I, opened a yoga centre and immediately after, my stress level shot so high that my body (immune system) is attacking almost everything I eat!
Given a choice now, I will be happier to stick to simply teaching yoga as when money is involved, it gets ugly.
Having announced that though, I would NOT trade this experience of having sold my car to keep BE Yoga alive, having sacrificed my dignity and sanity to ensure my team loves and looks yoga, having met wonderful people and angels in human form as I crawl my way up and struggle for another breath when I’m on the brink of drowning – for anything else in the world and I am very excited to face what else is lined up for me, BRING IT ON!
This tunnel I am still driving through still seems endless and so far, I am not sure if I have enough fuel to reach its end but I am sure I will still have my spine and my breaths to keep me alive.
This bumpy road (and expensive highway tunnel) will definitely make me a stronger yogi, a more humble yoga teacher and a better person when I do see the light and rainbow (in form of WETHER investment returned, being a personal yoga instructor to British rockstars ;D, getting to volunteer at a remote orphanage as long as I could OR even settling down as a mother with two beautiful daughters, I don’t know and get ever so curious) at the end, I’m sure.
I breathe this wisdom by one of the greatest yoga teacher in this lifetime (I hope I will be lucky enough to meet), Guruji Iyengar – everytime I feel so drained, tired and low
“Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.”
and I move by the love and kindness around me anytime I feel I have nothing else to smile for.
Love, hope and optimism (for RM400,000 to fall from my sky this weekend).
Article: ‘Be kinder to your body, and the planet – don’t eat meat..’
I came across this very interesting article on The Star today that explains almost every reason I gave up meat and chicken a couple of years ago: health, ethical issues and environment beyond anything else.
Everytime I tried to share the benefits of giving up meat in my previous blog at The Yoga Instructor Diaries, my comment boxes got bombarded by shallow remarks of “Islam doesn’t ban eating meat, why are you making a big fuss out of it?”. For me, it’s as simple as ‘bad food’ like junk food and carbonated drinks; they are not Haram per se but I know it’s not good for me and by not consuming it, I know I will live longer and healthier – it is not rocket science and I live just fine so why not?
For those who still have no idea on the list of diseases meat contributes to human digestive system and how consuming meat shortens the lifespan of our tired mother Earth, read this.
Be kinder to your body, and the planet – don’t eat meat this Nov 25.
By ALLAN KOAY
WHY is eating meat like driving a car? This may sound like the start of a joke, but it really isn’t. Consider this fact from the British Government’s Climate Change Programme 2006: If everyone in Britain were to abstain from meat one day a week over a year, this would save 13 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. The carbon savings would be greater than taking five million cars off the road.
Malaysian Meatless Day campaign chairman Pishu Murli Hassaram: ‘A lot of people come up to me and say: I’m eating less meat now.’We’ve always known that eating meat has impacts on our health, but few of us know that the consequences extend to our environment as well. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, livestock farming contributes significantly to the major environmental problems we face today. Think about this: a European cow emitting a year’s worth of methane is comparable to a family-size car travelling 70,000km. Cow and pig waste worldwide weighs 5.5 billion tonnes annually. The gas from that and from the millions of tonnes of fertilisers used in the Amazon to grow animal feed, called nitrous oxide, is a greenhouse gas 295 times more potent than carbon dioxide.All that, plus the fact that land is being deforested for livestock pasture, and you have more than enough reason to go vegetarian. But no, it doesn’t mean you should drop meat from your diet right away. The World Meatless Day campaign aims to get as many people as possible to go meatless for just one day, on Nov 25.
When the International Meatless/Animal Rights Day was started in 1986 by the Sadhu Vaswani Mission in Pune, India, it was borne more out of compassion for living beings and a view towards world peace than anything else. The social service organisation then chose Nov 25 because it was also Sadhu T.L. Vaswani’s birthday.
According to Malaysian Meatless Day campaign chairman Pishu Murli Hassaram, Sadhu Vaswani was a spiritual thinker, philosopher and educationist who also fought for animal rights and vegetarianism, so his devotees decided to celebrate his birthday by abstaining from meat.
As things progressed, they set up a new organisation called Stop All Killing which is the organisation driving the campaign now.
“Reverence for life is the first step towards world peace,” says Penang-based Pishu. “If you respect life, you create an environment where people respect all living things. When you respect all living things, you will have less wars and murders.”
Pishu stresses that the campaign is non-religious and is based more on ethical principles. It is aimed at creating awareness about the cruelties committed against animals, and creating a world of non-violence.
A vegetarian diet also has its bonuses; numerous studies have shown that vegetarians live healthier and longer, and have lower rates of cancer, heart diseases, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, kidney stones and gall stones. Some even argue that humans are not meat-eaters because of our physical features, such as our flat nails and the absence of incisors. Humans also have carbohydrate digestive enzymes in our saliva, which carnivores and omnivores don’t have. Also, our long intestines are designed for a high-fibre diet and ill-equipped for meat digestion.
“We have been conditioned to believe that we cannot survive without meat,” says Pishu. “Using environmental issues to ask people to eat more vegetables would be more effective. When you tell someone to cut down on meat for his health, he would discount it. It’s like how people will smoke even if you tell them it’s bad for them.”
Pishu observes that there is a growing understanding on how meat-eating contributes to pollution and environmental destruction. “There is a town in Belgium called Ghent that goes meatless every Thursday. The whole town takes part. There is a very strong movement now to start Meatless Monday (such a campaign was recently launched in Sao Paulo, Brazil). In Europe, the trend towards a vegetarian diet has increased tremendously.
“The main drivers were not the vegetarians,” says Pishu. “It was the non-vegetarians who wanted to have a change. Sometimes people don’t want to eat meat seven days a week. It’s a growing trend which we want not only the public to know about, but also the food industry.”
But today, in organic farming and biodynamics, there is a growing awareness not just of keeping our food free from chemicals, but also of viewing a farm as a complete living organism consisting of the land, plants and animals. Therefore, shouldn’t a vegetarian diet also mean a chemical-free production that does not damage the land?
“That’s the final destination but, for me, it is sufficient to get people on the road first,” says Pishu. “Once people are on it, that ideal will eventually happen.”
The Malaysian Meatless Day campaign started in 1996, with 800 pledges. Last year, it received 8,563 pledges. The most successful campaign to date is in Indonesia, with about 35,000 pledges.
In Penang, just like in previous years, there will be a charity carnival on the third Sunday in November as part of the promotion of Meatless Day. “Over the years, Meatless Day in the Penang region has become iconic,” said Pishu. “A lot of people come up to me and say, ‘I’m eating less meat now.’ The ethical part of going meatless is a very personal issue, but the environment problems are very important, and they have reached a very critical stage, such that we have to do more,” Pishu adds.
To make a pledge: e-mail meatlessday@hotmail.com or penangmeatless@yahoo.com / fax: 04-261 0126.
Although I personally don’t see how giving up meat just one day a year is going to be enough to help save the environment, but at least that ONE DAY WITHOUT will give you an idea of how you would still live without eating meat and how good you’d feel the day after.
DO YOU KNOW THAT?
- Because of its complexity, meat and its kind have to rot in our stomach first before they can be digested?
- Energy consumed for A PIECE of meat, lamb or pork to arrive to your plate is enough to light 100 watt lightbulb for three weeks?
- (from documentary film ‘Meat The Truth’) A kilogram of meat contributes 36.4 kilogram of CO2 and emission of CO2 from A COW for a year is equal to energy consumed to move your car for 70,000 km? Livestock farming generates more greenhouse gas emission worldwide than all cars, lorries, trains, boats and planes added together!
- If you don’t eat meat JUST FOR A SINGLE MEAL in a day, you save 7.6 times more and faster than your house’s energy consumption in one year?
Look at most yoga instructors, today’s biggest rockstars and Hollywood actors that are vegetarians: Chris Martin (Coldplay), Thom Yorke (Radiohead), Brandon Boyd (Incubus), Jack Johnson, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Avril Lavigne, Alanis Morissette, Christy Turlington, Pamela Anderson – they still look good if not better than most other celebrities without eating meat and their bodies are not graveyards for dead animals.
For more reasons and evidence,
- Famous Celebrity Vegetarians, Are You Next?
- Kentucky Fried Cruelty
- Vegetarians Have Better Sex
- Why Red Meat, Cow Milk and Low-Fiber Diet Are Bad For You
- Why You Should Turn Vegetarian (too)
- Would You Still Have The Heart To Eat Meat After Watching This? (sadly this clip has been removed due to evident violence towards animals)
Just imagine the whole process of bringing that piece of steak to your plate and tell me if you are still confident that no cruelty done whatsoever at all during the process.
Love and blessed lives to all living beings.
I don’t need long yet damaged hair to accentuate my femininity and I don’t see my body as a graveyard for dead animals nor dumpsite for empty calorie.
I am NOT the type of girl that asks this type of questions:
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- Which dress do I look better in?
- Does my make-up look alright?
- Should I buy that pair of shoes or this one?
- Would a MINI or a 4-wheel-drive suit me best?
I know my taste, I understand my body type and I respect myself enough well to not let others decide on what looks and feels good for me.
So when I still do get “Why did you cut your hair? You look so much better with your hair long..” and “Why do you look so skinny now? You lost so much weight since I last saw you?”,
it offends me a lot as I will never be heard voicing out, “Why are you so negative? You always sound more so bitter everytime we meet. What unjustice has the world done to you that you only see ugliness and the worst in others?“
I have wasted too much time, money and energy in painstakingly blowdry, highlight, colour, relax, perm, be put toxic chemicals onto my innocent hair that I earn my right to choose to let it recuperate and heal for the next couple of years.
Hair spiked up for Tatler shoot
Big earrings always complement short hair
I have always weighed 42 kg and been a US size 0 and UK size 6 for the past 10 years and I know my body better than you do. I am simply happy that I am strong enough to lift up my own body weight (and others), I don’t depend on unhealthy substance to enjoy life and that my body is not built of dead animals.
Lifting up Azmi in BE Yoga’s Partner Yoga class every Saturday 4pm
Standing on my elbows for our Partner Yoga performance for Breast Cancer Awareness Karma Yoga
I am more than happy with my short hair and I know I am healthy with 13% body fat percentage. If you are not (happy with my hair and my body fat count, I mean), kindly exhale them now or hold your destructive comments to yourself forever.
I’m surrounded by liars everywhere I turn
I’m surrounded by impostors everywhere I turn
I’m surrounded by identity crisis everywhere I turn
I’m the only one who’s noticed
I can’t be the only one who’s learnedI don’t want to be anything other than what I’ve been trying to be lately
All I have to do is think of me and have peace of mind
I’m tired of looking ’round rooms wonder what I gotta do
Or who I’m supposed to be
I don’t want to be anything other than me~ GAVIN DE GRAW (I Don’t Wanna Be, 2004)
Love, productive Monday and sweet November ahead.
Interview: ‘Find serenity at BE Yoga’
By Willy Wilson
At 27, yoga instructor Ninie Ahmad is all set to take over the world. Turning her love for yoga into a money-making business is what she aims for and she may well be on her way to achieve great success.
There is something almost otherworldly about Ninie’s BE Yoga Studio in Damansara Perdana. Part of it could be due to its stunning design, while the other could be because of its enigmatic owner.
The opening of BE Yoga, in May 2009 marked Ninie’s journey as a business woman. Together with her business partners and three yoga instructors, the petite lass established an exclusive yoga centre located at Metropolitan Square in Damansara Perdana, Petaling Jaya.
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Ninie has an impressive track record – an 8-year teaching experience and a cult following that include who’s who from the corporate world to the entertainment industry. Her glowing reputation, along with her tastefully-designed yoga studio, spells success.
Breathing space
BE Yoga has a cohesive concept and is well-structured. It is a spacious 6,000 sq ft studio that occupies two shop lots on the ground floor of Metropolitan Square.
There is a reception counter, two large sitting areas, three big yoga studios, a mezzanine floor, two locker rooms and an office under the same roof. The space does not – by any means – feel cramped. In fact, the studio has an airy and inviting feel to it…plus, it’s also visually arresting.
“It could be because of the high ceiling concept,” Ninie says of her stunning yoga studio. The concept usually encourages peace of mind. It works well with relaxing hues, which is how things are at BE Yoga. Earth tone shades are used for the floor, walls and lightings making it easy for one to relax.
Added to this harmony of colours and design is the use of the five earth elements namely wood, fire, earth, metal and water.
“I wanted to have the five earth elements incorporated to the design because I believe the harmony of these elements help sustain and renew the energy of the people around them,” explains Ninie.
Each element is well represented: teak wood strips in the yoga studios represent wood, flame-like lightings symbolise fire, concrete flooring signifies earth, a sleek bronze interior embodies metal while a mini water feature with the iconic yin-yang symbol represent water.
The awe-inspiring modern interior gives a clean and minimalist feel. It is hardly ostentatious but you could easily find yourself drawn to its pristine serenity.
The Zen-like concept at BE Yoga beautifully marries the philosophy of yoga and design innovation.
Damansara Perdana: A prime location
Such tranquility and beauty come with a price. According to Ninie, the total cost for the renovation amounted to almost RM500,000. Apart from that, the monthly rental for such a prime location is equivalent to the cost of renting at least seven shop lots on the 10th floor of the same building.
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View from the mezzanine floor (left), modern sofa on the first floor (mid-top),
rattan furniture from Barang Barang (mid-bottom), water feature and stairs (right)
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But why would Ninie fork out so much money for the renovation and monthly rent?
“I would not have paid so much had I not believed it would be a worthwhile investment,” she says. Ninie maintains that what she offers at BE Yoga are not only yoga courses, but also a lifestyle service, especially for the yuppies who “are the ones with disposable income for lifestyle products and services.”
Ever the go-getter, Ninie is not one who does things without careful consideration. She’s done her homework and says that potential customers are typically young urban professionals who flock to the surrounding trendy neighbourhoods. Nope, she isn’t referring to Bangsar or Sri Hartamas.
“Thirty percent of my Facebook contacts, who fit my customer profile, live in Damansara Perdana,” she says. And what does that mean?
“Well Bangsar was the Beverly Hills of KL in the late 90s, as was Sri Hartamas in early 2000. But now it is Damansara Perdana that takes home the title.”
With the burgeoning responsibility of a yoga centre and million dollar investment, Ninie shows no signs of slowing down. She is already even planning for two new branches, one in Petronas Twin Towers and the other in Bangsar – to leverage on the professionals and old-moneyed market respectively. That’s not all. The industrious lady also wants own the BE Yoga shop lots. “I’m looking at buying the shop lots where BeYoga is now within the next two years.”
Great aspirations indeed.
( Source: Star Property )
Interview: ‘Ninie Ahmad: Being the best that she can be’
Excerpt from SHAPE website.
Being the best that she can be |
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Petite Ninie Ahmad proves that size really doesn’t matter when you have the passion and belief to pursue your life’s calling.
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For full interview, get your copy of Malaysia’s SHAPE November 2009 out in newsstands today.
I love yoga for it is the only sport I can be my own judge, set my own rules, be my own cheerleader and break my own record. Everytime I play.
Guess which footballer still rocks and scores at an impressive 36 years old?
Guess what is his secret to stretching the life of his career?
Yoga-ta check this out to believe me.
The hottest, fittest and most inspiring Brits that are rocking the field and stage have found their path to yoga – I hope ours will too.
Love and Malaysian (Footballers & Rockers) Boleh!
‘Gravity release me, and never hold me down. Now my feet won’t touch the ground’ (LIFE IN TECHNICOLOR II)
Those close to me will know that my car and iTunes only rotate Coldplay (and occasional Radiohead / Padi ) CDs and those who have visited BE Yoga’s website would have noticed I intentionally used Coldplay’s lyrics to introduce my beloved yoga teachers.
With MTV World Stage (Astro Channel 713) premiering Coldplay’s VIVA LA VIDA: Tokyo tour this week, it refreshes me of my day trip to Singapore in March this year solely to attend VIVA LA VIDA: Singapore.
During VIVA LA VIDA: Singapore, my jaw dropped when I witnessed Chris Martin dropped back to Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow pose) from standing! Only if you practice yoga, you will understand how preposterous this stunt can be unless you have perfect balance of lowest two chakras (feet and hips) strength, open back flexibility and of course, balance.
So I was looking forward to see the same pose from him as I immensely enjoyed MTV World Stage – Coldplay: Tokyo. To my surprise, he didn’t drop back in Tokyo (or I could have missed it / maybe he did but the clip was just for an hour) but – to my very eyes, I caught him rolling back to Chakrasana (Rolling Wheel posture) in between the finishing of Viva La Vida and to start Lost! Only if you practice yoga Ashtanga, you will have an idea how almost impossible it is to perform this Chakrasana vinyasa gracefully let alone onstage with concert costume and in front of twenty thousand people.
I know Gywneth practices yoga since she used to be bestie with Third Series Ashtanga practitioner, Madonna so I googled Chris Martin and yoga. And found out, Chris Martin not only does practice yoga (I have had enough of “I do yoga but the my last class was three years ago and I was doing it like once a month for a couple of months”, right..) but he practices Ashtanga at least an hour everyday for the past five years, a vegetarian (and vegansexual!) and for the world’s biggest if not coolest rockstar, HE DOES NOT DRINK ALCOHOL AND COFFEE EITHER!
Among my favourite online findings of Chris Martin and yoga is this article whose first paragraph ends with “.. but Coldplay’s Chris Martin is too nice.“
(FIONA) APPLE Hi, Chris. God, I’m depressed. I’m at the top of all these critics’ best-of-2005 lists. If only those old creeps bought records.
(CHRIS) MARTIN I wish I could be so fucking depressed! Maybe my lyrics would improve. Just turn that frown upside down, Fiona. Don’t you know Apples are my favorite fruit?
APPLE Hey, you stepped on my granny-apple-doll wood-carvings!
MARTIN Have you ever tried piyoga for that bad attitude?
APPLE I hate you.
I stand by my review of X/Y last year: The trouble with Coldplay is that, despite the calming, balanced, almost Enya-esque beauty of their music, they’re so denuded of danger, risk, grit, rebellion, and sexuality (apart from Martin’s ADD-style hip-thrusts behind his piano) that they threaten to become the musical equivalent of St. John’s wort.
So what is at play with Coldplay? What drives the music, the vision, and, oh, those much-maligned words?
I believe it’s yoga, and Martin’s ashtanga teacher Anthony Carlisi can confirm. Shortly after Coldplay’s Shoreline date, I tracked down Carlisi via e-mail and asked him if he believed the practice leads to good music and, really, decent rock ‘n’ roll — which most would probably associate with unhealthy and downright antisocial antics like rolling around in broken glass and doing lines of coke off speaker cabinets.
He replied: “Absolutely !!!!!!!!!!! (sic) In fact I just saw Chris in Phoenix before the concert there. He has been practicing now for several years. I visit and teach him and Gwyneth when I am in London. He was telling me that he loves how it has enhanced everything he does. His energy was electric at the concert…………….Great Show!!!!!!!!!!!!”
See? It’s not rock, after all, but yoga. All of which probably explains Martin’s greatest feat at the Oakland appearance: bending over backward while playing keyboards and touching the ground with the top of his noggin. Brings a whole new meaning to the lyric ‘rush of blood to the head.’
I don’t need to look elsewhere for a yoga rockstar inspiration when I can find one in form of Brit rockGod with yoga master’s mind and words (it doesn’t hurt that he definitely has a yoga body too).
I am praying with my fingers and lotus feet crossed to be able to live long enough to witness Coldplay live in more concerts, continue seeing lights / hearing enlightenments in their future albums (“Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones, I will try to fix you”) and hopefully practice with Chris Martin in Mysore (the Mecca for aspiring Ashtangis) in the future if not in my nearest yoga nidra.
I Eat, Pray, Love. And Yoga. At least five times a day.
I might be the last person in the world to have only started reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling and much talked-about memoir Eat Pray Love last week (I got it for my birthday from the fabulous Joseph Teoh), but really – how did you guys manage to read it without wanting to pick up / start / do YOGA immediately as you flip the pages?
I laughed so hard at the ninth page as I read this,
I am alone, I am all alone, I am completely alone.
Grasping this reality, I let go of my bag, drop to my knees and press my forehead against the floor. There, I offer up to the universe a fervent prayer of thanks.
First in English.
Then in Italian.
And then – just to get the point across – in Sanskrit.
..until I teared up and had to stop reading for a good couple of minutes for my stomach hurts from laughing so hard.
For a yoga teacher who has been trying to grasp as much Sanskrit (albeit, mostly of yoga poses) as I can, how can anything else be funnier than that?
And this book got me, when I got to page 27 (can you imagine my excitement, PAGE 27 on the book I got and read on MY 27th BIRTHDAY?) and I don’t think I breathed blinked at all as I read this,
..the old man asked me in person what I really wanted, I found other, truer words.
“I want to have a lasting experience of God,” I told him. “Sometimes I feel like I understand the divinity of this world, but then I lose it because I get distracted by my petty desires and fears. I want to be with God all the time. But I don’t want to be a monk or totally give up worldly pleasures. I guess what I want to learn is how to live in this world and enjoy its delights but also devote myself to God.“
Ketut said he could answer my question with a picture. He showed me a sketch he’d drawn once during meditation. It was an androgynous human figure, standing up, hands clasped in prayer. But this figure had four legs, and no head. Where the head should have been, there was only a wild foliage of ferns and flowers. There was a small, smiling face drawn over the heart.
“To find the balance you want,” Ketut spoke through his translator, “this is what you must become. You must keep your feet grounded so firmly on the earth that it’s like you have four legs, instead of two. That way, you can stay in the world. But you must stop looking at the world through your head. You must look through your heart instead. That way, you will know God.”
Within those lines in this Book, what I have been feeling all my life – is worded almost perfectly.
With this gift of Yoga, what I have been wanting in my life – is achieved closer everyday.
I eat generously, I pray wholeheartedly, I love honestly, I yoga purely to prolong my life and extend the happiness I get to experience and give others – for as long as I live.
Love and prayers.
I’d do whatever it takes, give (up) all I have to – to BE cancer-free.
Last Sunday, I conducted my usual Karma Yoga (free class for public) class to raise awareness on breast cancer as October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.
I was grateful and blessed as the turnout was amazing (and almost everybody showed up in pink!). A number of our local celebrities did show up to support the cause as well including the usual Atilia and the familia Henry Golding, Yasmin Hani, Xandria Ooi, Aishah Sinclair and Stephanie Chai that is gracing the cover of Harper’s Bazaar this month with spicy Breast Cancer feature and fashion spread inside.
As Karma Yoga classes held every Sunday at BE Yoga are themed, before asking the participants to set their intentions and dedicate their practice that day, I asked these questions with everyone’s eyes closed
- Has any of us experienced breast cancer first hand?
- Does any of us have immediate family member that have / had breast cancer?
to tailor-make my class whether the class should consist of deep twists to eliminate (physical / chemical / emotional) toxins that might trigger cancer cells OR ‘loving’ and heart-opening poses to expand our hearts’ capacity with love and support for our loved ones in times of trial.
To my (not-s0-pleasant) surprise, out of almost 20 participants that day – a quarter raised their hands for the first question and more than half raised their hands for the second, BREAST CANCER IS NO JOKE!
No amount of yoga / exercise / fancy pink ribbons / expensive lingerie can help us if we call upon cancer by smoking!
Our lungs and breasts are so near to each other – the thousands of chemical and poisons (you know I am not making these up) in evil cigarette that are trapped in our lungs might trigger cancer cells that require just one stimulant for the cancer cells to be activated.
Socializing with smoke-stained breaths, growing old with blackened teeth and dying painfully slow with all sorts of cancer are NOT glamorous.
I love my lungs and my breasts. I know you do (love your breasts, I mean ;D) too.
I have successfully quit smoking and so will you.
Peace, pink love and healthy breasts this October.
I celebrate every day. Every movement. Every breath.
On my 27th birthday yesterday, I managed to
- sing 27 karaoke songs (pranayama)
- stand on my head for 27 minutes (Sirsa asana)
I thank Almighty High Above for 27 years of life, breath, strength, clarity and light.
I promise You I will take good care of Your gifts lent to me; this mind, this body, these lungs, this spine, these lips, these hands
- by respecting my body enough to not simply dump anything in my mouth in the name of gluttony / to not have to kill other living being for my survival (Non-harming in any way – Ahimsa)
- by performing enough physical execise (Poses – Yoga Asana) to not let toxins and excessive fat govern my system
- by speaking only words of positive encouragements and truth to preserve your gift of truth (Truthfulness – Satya)
- by allowing my heart to let go of material things (Non-Possesiveness / Non-Greed – Aparighara) that do not help me be a better person / live longer (Inner contentment – Santhosha)
- by planting only positive thoughts in my head (Illumination – Tapas) to keep my whole system’s energy clear (Self-realization – Samadhi).
to hopefully be able to live another year in health, happiness and with Your blessing. Insya Allah.
