Photo from here |
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Vipassana Meditation Retreat
Ετικέτες
meditation,
retreat,
vipassana
Yesterday's Dream Is Today's Reality.
Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana |
Monday, November 26, 2012
It's Time For Ashtanga!
After of a long period of self practice due to lack of funds and a few
months unemployed I finally found a new job. I spent 9 months more before I
finally signed up for an Ashtanga yoga class and during that period the first 3
months I did go on home
practicing but the last 6 I didn't. Something really intense happened to my
life and I went through a period of letting go of everything. I just went to
work, got back home, ate and sleep. I even started smoking again, a bad habit I
managed to let go years ago. After reaching bottom line I decided I had to do
something for me. I stood up, gathered my pieces together and searched for a
studio of Ashtanga. I talked with 3 different ones till I decide and this
September I got my very first lesson.
Friday, November 23, 2012
Hello Mr. Rodney Yee! Nice to Meet You Mr. Bryan Kest!
As soon as
I quitted the Hatha Yoga class I took at the studio in my neighborhood I knew I needed to
keep practicing until I find out more about yoga and studios and get myself a good
teacher. That was when Mr. Rodney Yee came along.
The first
DVD I tried was Power Yoga Total Body which I loved at that time. It was
exactly what I needed. Challenging power yoga with progressing exercises,
beautiful setting and great description of the poses and how to get into them.
It was perfect for my level at that time and I used it for a long long time.
Diving Into a Hatha Yoga Class
After home practicing
with the Power Yoga & Five Tibetan Rites DVD for a while I started needing
something more. I accidentally found out that there was a new yoga studio just
5 minutes walking distance from my house and decided to enroll. I dropped by
and the teacher informed me that they had
daily Hatha Yoga classes, beginner and intermediate level, and two times per
week they had a Vinyasa Flow class while every other weekend they would do
seminars on meditation, chakras, traditional medicine, ayuverda etc.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Power Yoga, the Five Tibetan Rites and How a DVD CAN Be a Starting Point!
Yoga. Such
a magical word!
I will
never forget the first time I heard it. I was around 18 and I had no idea what
yoga was, I just overheard someone mentioning it on the street. And I felt
something moving inside me. I knew I had to learn more! I read a little general
information about it but at the time I knew I could not commit to it due to
college and working responsibilities. Kept it on the back of head.
Eight whole
years later, in 2009, I had just came to the point describing in my previous
post. I finally achieved being promoted in a managerial position which was my
dream for years and felt that everything I did to get there was for nothing. I
needed to start fresh, give my own self some time, get it all back together. I
started again dance lessons (which I had dropped for 2 years in order to focus
in my job and so-wanted promotion) and although dancing did make me feel a lot
better I felt I needed something more. One day I got a free Yoga DVD with my
local copy of SHAPE magazine, it was my first one ever. I felt that something moving
inside me again. So I got home, put it in the player and watched it. It was a
beginner’s power yoga sequence followed by the Five Tibetans Rites and a 15
minute relaxation in savasana. The setting was great, the background music was
amazing and the voice of the woman featured in the DVD (famous local trainer
that was one of the first to bring power yoga in my country) was peaceful and
calm. I liked what I saw and I decided that I would try it on the first day I
had enough free time.
That
Saturday night I didn’t go out. I stayed home, made some space in the living
room, lighted up 2-3 candles and an oil burner with jasmine incense, put a mat
I had on the floor (foam mat I had for crunches, not good for yoga) and put the
DVD on. As soon as I started I felt a strange kind of energy inside me, like
electricity. By the time I finished relaxation I was feeling lighter, less
worried, happier, tranquil. I could not explain how it was possible to feel
this way after just one hour of practicing but I didn’t care. The fact was that
I did. I was feeling that something is changing, I was feeling that what I did
was right and that feeling was way too strong to question it. I went to the
bathroom and looked at the mirror: you could see it in my face, I looked calm!
Next day I
ordered a yoga mat and I kept practicing with this DVD for a while doing my own
ritual: turning off most lights, lighting my candles and burning jasmine .
(Photo from here.)
Ετικέτες
aboutme,
DVD,
Power Yoga,
practice,
yoga
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
The Beginning of the Journey – The Voice Inside Me
I believe
that we all have a voice inside us which speaks of personal growth, self
acknowledgement and inner self discovery. We just have to hear closely to
actually listen to what it has to say. The daily life of most people living in
western part of the world is so fast paced and demanding that we rarely have time
to do so. However, this voice is so persistent that it never stops. And when
the time comes that we actually hear it, it is our own decision if we will
embark on this journey or not. We may then begin but somewhere along the way
lose our path, forget our goal and abandon. But the voice will still be there
and remind us that at some point, the point when we will be ready to hear it
again, we must get back on track. This is what has happened to me the last few
years.
Namaste!
And welcome
to my blog. I am very pleased to have you with me on my journey. I will use
this blog as a journal in which I will keep my notes through the road to
myself, the various paths I take and the crossroads I face. It will be a way of
describing my inner thoughts and emotions, my hopes, my fears, my realizations,
my drawbacks and my progress and I hope that some of you may find similarities
and (in the future) some of you might get inspired of embarking on your own
journey. Most of all I hope that through this journal I will have the blessing
of meeting common minded people, co-travelers of a similar parallel trip with
whom I can share, discuss, help and be helped in becoming better and taking
steps further down this rocky path.
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