The lovely Mandi at Cherish productions has been hard at work again making another video clip at BYJ. To commemorate the end of the end of the February 30 Day Challenge students were asked to describe Bikram Yoga in one word. Here is the video, it's rather awesome & so good to see some of the students I teach speaking so passionately about this yoga. (sorry it's not a You Tube so hit the link)
http://vimeo.com/38750033
Friday, March 23, 2012
A breakthrough
Yoga is a life time practice. Sometimes you can't help it if you feel like you are in a rut and not progressing. I've mentioned before I've been a bit erratic with my personal practice this year. Juggling all my commitments and finding a balance. I was on a real roll the past few weeks, consistency had returned, I was practicing every other day and getting a minimum of three classes in a week. Great.
Then a slight set back last weekend made sure I could not get back to my mat for five whole days. Realistically I should have not worried about it but I did. What happened to no expectations, no disappointments hey! I fretted that my practice would be crappy, back like it was at the start of the year, no balance, no strength, no focus, nauseous. It was really hard getting up Wednesday morning but I did it. I nearly fell asleep before class laying on my mat. But I was there, I got through the door so let the show begin.
It was great. Complete opposite to what I thought it would be. Five days rest actually revived me. Awkward part 2 was probably the best I've ever done, balance was good, big toe planted and strong. SH2K felt effortless, no tight hamstrings, elbows well below calves, tight grip. Still I fell out before my forehead reached my knee.
Then the biggest breakthrough happened in head to knee with stretching. I have no problems with getting my forehead on my knee or even my calf with a locked leg and heel off the floor. It's my super tight shoulders that hold me back from getting my elbows to touch the floor next to my calves. I have no idea what I did but I felt elbow to floor contact!!!!! It was like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders and they had finally released! Shocked.
Okay this got me thinking. What had I done different to get further into this posture or do breakthroughs just happen unexpectedly? I should know the answer to this, which I'd say is that one day it will happen when your body is ready. I'm probably ready then. Also I've been taking good care of myself, I've had two amazing massages this month, nothing like a bit of pampering to get tired muscles awake again.
This small pep me up reignited a flame. I'm always telling my students yoga gives you energy and it's true. That is why despite teaching the 7pm last night (got home at 10pm) I was back up at 4:40am and practiced the 5:45am. Usually I am wacked by Friday and like nothing more than a lie in but not today. I craved my mat so bad I had to go. Another lovely class. I've never lost faith in this yoga at all, ever. This experience reminded me sometimes you have to spend a little time in the dark before you see the light again. The hard way is the right way, keep at it and reap the rewards.
Then a slight set back last weekend made sure I could not get back to my mat for five whole days. Realistically I should have not worried about it but I did. What happened to no expectations, no disappointments hey! I fretted that my practice would be crappy, back like it was at the start of the year, no balance, no strength, no focus, nauseous. It was really hard getting up Wednesday morning but I did it. I nearly fell asleep before class laying on my mat. But I was there, I got through the door so let the show begin.
It was great. Complete opposite to what I thought it would be. Five days rest actually revived me. Awkward part 2 was probably the best I've ever done, balance was good, big toe planted and strong. SH2K felt effortless, no tight hamstrings, elbows well below calves, tight grip. Still I fell out before my forehead reached my knee.
Then the biggest breakthrough happened in head to knee with stretching. I have no problems with getting my forehead on my knee or even my calf with a locked leg and heel off the floor. It's my super tight shoulders that hold me back from getting my elbows to touch the floor next to my calves. I have no idea what I did but I felt elbow to floor contact!!!!! It was like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders and they had finally released! Shocked.
Okay this got me thinking. What had I done different to get further into this posture or do breakthroughs just happen unexpectedly? I should know the answer to this, which I'd say is that one day it will happen when your body is ready. I'm probably ready then. Also I've been taking good care of myself, I've had two amazing massages this month, nothing like a bit of pampering to get tired muscles awake again.
This small pep me up reignited a flame. I'm always telling my students yoga gives you energy and it's true. That is why despite teaching the 7pm last night (got home at 10pm) I was back up at 4:40am and practiced the 5:45am. Usually I am wacked by Friday and like nothing more than a lie in but not today. I craved my mat so bad I had to go. Another lovely class. I've never lost faith in this yoga at all, ever. This experience reminded me sometimes you have to spend a little time in the dark before you see the light again. The hard way is the right way, keep at it and reap the rewards.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
He's coming back!
It's been so hard for me to keep this under wraps the past few weeks. Just in case it didn't happen but now it is!!! The posters have been finalized & printed, I'm gonna announce it in my class tonight at BYSB so it's a goer. I am so happy to announce here that Craig Villani will be returning to the sunny West Coast to conduct FOUR master classes.
Craig will be running an in depth two hour master class at each of the four Perth Studios. Dates are as follows:
Sign up QUICK at your studio reception as places are very strictly limited this year as they will be taking place in the actual heated yoga rooms this time. Only a full payment of $40 will secure your spot, no money = no place. First come, best dressed.
It's such a huge deal for us to get Bikram royalty here in WA as we are so far away from the States where all the senior/top teachers are based. We are very privileged that Craig has decided to come back a second time. I learned HEAPS from him last year so I'm very excited to be taking his class again which will be a lot more personal than last years sprawling event. Not to be missed!
Craig will be running an in depth two hour master class at each of the four Perth Studios. Dates are as follows:
- Bikram Yoga Joondalup - Saturday 14th April - 9am
- Bikram Yoga Scarborough Beach - Saturday 14th April - 3:30pm
- Bikram Yoga North Perth - Sunday 15th April - Time TBA
- Bikram Yoga North South Perth - Sunday 15th April - Time TBA
Sign up QUICK at your studio reception as places are very strictly limited this year as they will be taking place in the actual heated yoga rooms this time. Only a full payment of $40 will secure your spot, no money = no place. First come, best dressed.
It's such a huge deal for us to get Bikram royalty here in WA as we are so far away from the States where all the senior/top teachers are based. We are very privileged that Craig has decided to come back a second time. I learned HEAPS from him last year so I'm very excited to be taking his class again which will be a lot more personal than last years sprawling event. Not to be missed!
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Training Buddies Reunited
I keep banging on about how wonderful TT is for bringing me together with a HUGE international family of teachers. This week that theory was cemented for sure. My training buddy Lucy B flew over from the UK to visit Perth for a family wedding. It was touch & go whether we'd make our schedules co ordinate but we did it!!
Lucy was offered a last minute class at BYSB at a perfect time for me to go along and practice. It was only polite I take the afternoon off work so we could have a lovely lunch and gossipy catch up at the new Wild Fig in Scarborough. Over chicken salad and very delicious desserts we chewed the fat about the past four months and what has been going on in our teaching careers.
It was awesome. We are at the same point in our teaching, taught more than 50, less than 100 classes. We both teaching 3/4 a week so may not be as far ahead as our full time colleagues. Lucy's been on the road a lot getting as much experience teaching at different studios around the South of England.
Her class was awesome! I've never smiled so much in the hot room. It was so Lucy. Her bubbly, bold personality shined through like a bright light. She didn't give us a inch (but lots of fresh air!) in a calm, funny and professional manner. It's such a privilege to share an experience like TT and come full circle & take a fellow graduates class.
Such a great way to spend an afternoon. It was a perfect Perth day, by the beach, with lots of yoga related fun & a spin round Lululemon. I can't believe it had been four months since we last saw each other, felt like just yesterday. It's so true what they say, Bikram teachers are bonded for life :-)
Lucy was offered a last minute class at BYSB at a perfect time for me to go along and practice. It was only polite I take the afternoon off work so we could have a lovely lunch and gossipy catch up at the new Wild Fig in Scarborough. Over chicken salad and very delicious desserts we chewed the fat about the past four months and what has been going on in our teaching careers.
It was awesome. We are at the same point in our teaching, taught more than 50, less than 100 classes. We both teaching 3/4 a week so may not be as far ahead as our full time colleagues. Lucy's been on the road a lot getting as much experience teaching at different studios around the South of England.
Her class was awesome! I've never smiled so much in the hot room. It was so Lucy. Her bubbly, bold personality shined through like a bright light. She didn't give us a inch (but lots of fresh air!) in a calm, funny and professional manner. It's such a privilege to share an experience like TT and come full circle & take a fellow graduates class.
Such a great way to spend an afternoon. It was a perfect Perth day, by the beach, with lots of yoga related fun & a spin round Lululemon. I can't believe it had been four months since we last saw each other, felt like just yesterday. It's so true what they say, Bikram teachers are bonded for life :-)
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| Lucy outside BYSB before class |
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| Ready for action at reception! |
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Madness Goodness
This week started with a nice long public holiday weekend & a migraine. Super! Left me with a migraine hangover that lasted nearly all week. Lots of water & less sugar. In an ideal world I would have spent a day in a dark room sleeping it off but that wasn't a option. I soldiered on.
The title of this blog is spot on, after a slow, sickly start to the week it turned mad but in a good way. I taught Sunday, Monday & Tuesday which was great I don't usually get consecutive days. Wednesday off but I practiced. Then taught my usual Thursday night class.
I'd heard one of my dear friends and colleagues was sick, sore throat, fever, cough = not good for teaching. I casually offered to cover her 5:45am on Friday morning. This broke my rule of not teaching an early after a late. (Only because I still have to do 8 hours in the office day job) I got the text as I was getting home at 10pm. Quick re order, grabbed some clothes for the next day (in the dark as The Man was sleeping), threw together my bag, lunch food & was all ready to go.
Five hours sleep & some Energy Tea off I went. Class was great. Everyone arrived under ten minutes before kick off, total of about 14 students. I was worried no one would turn up! Finished on time, everyone was showered & out the door so I could do the same with an extra five minutes to spare. Usually when I teach I can't get parking at the station & have to park at my friends house & walk down. Not today! I got parked. Bonus. Day job was nice and stress free. Not much going on & some down time to get some in house work finally finished.
About lunch time I got a text from another instructor who needed cover for the 6pm at Scarbs. Usually I can't teach 6pm, especially at the beach, as I wouldn't get there on time but as it was Friday and work was quiet & managed to get off a little early and cover the class. Unfortunately I had to wear my teaching clothes from the morning that had been festering in my hot car all day. Gross!!! Stinky, wet tops are not nice.
Pulled it off, taught a good class, I wasn't flagging as I thought I might. I had left my teaching notes at Joondy that morning so was without anything interesting to read out in savasana so let them be in silence which was probably fitting.
The night didn't end there. I hot wheeled it down to Cottesloe Beach for a drinks party with the other instructors. One is leaving full time teaching to get a city job in order to stay in Australia a while longer. Really fun, great to get to know the girls on a personal level. Instructors come and go at top speed, the way of the gypsy traveling teacher. The teachers we have now are sticking around a while which gives us chance to get to know each other. You never know we might end up on the same coast again, building global friendships.
Finally making it home at 1am. Grand total of 20 waking hours. I have no idea how I did it. I even woke up on Saturday morning feeling quite chipper. Must be the Full Moon working in my favour this month!
The title of this blog is spot on, after a slow, sickly start to the week it turned mad but in a good way. I taught Sunday, Monday & Tuesday which was great I don't usually get consecutive days. Wednesday off but I practiced. Then taught my usual Thursday night class.
I'd heard one of my dear friends and colleagues was sick, sore throat, fever, cough = not good for teaching. I casually offered to cover her 5:45am on Friday morning. This broke my rule of not teaching an early after a late. (Only because I still have to do 8 hours in the office day job) I got the text as I was getting home at 10pm. Quick re order, grabbed some clothes for the next day (in the dark as The Man was sleeping), threw together my bag, lunch food & was all ready to go.
Five hours sleep & some Energy Tea off I went. Class was great. Everyone arrived under ten minutes before kick off, total of about 14 students. I was worried no one would turn up! Finished on time, everyone was showered & out the door so I could do the same with an extra five minutes to spare. Usually when I teach I can't get parking at the station & have to park at my friends house & walk down. Not today! I got parked. Bonus. Day job was nice and stress free. Not much going on & some down time to get some in house work finally finished.
About lunch time I got a text from another instructor who needed cover for the 6pm at Scarbs. Usually I can't teach 6pm, especially at the beach, as I wouldn't get there on time but as it was Friday and work was quiet & managed to get off a little early and cover the class. Unfortunately I had to wear my teaching clothes from the morning that had been festering in my hot car all day. Gross!!! Stinky, wet tops are not nice.
Pulled it off, taught a good class, I wasn't flagging as I thought I might. I had left my teaching notes at Joondy that morning so was without anything interesting to read out in savasana so let them be in silence which was probably fitting.
The night didn't end there. I hot wheeled it down to Cottesloe Beach for a drinks party with the other instructors. One is leaving full time teaching to get a city job in order to stay in Australia a while longer. Really fun, great to get to know the girls on a personal level. Instructors come and go at top speed, the way of the gypsy traveling teacher. The teachers we have now are sticking around a while which gives us chance to get to know each other. You never know we might end up on the same coast again, building global friendships.
Finally making it home at 1am. Grand total of 20 waking hours. I have no idea how I did it. I even woke up on Saturday morning feeling quite chipper. Must be the Full Moon working in my favour this month!
Monday, March 5, 2012
Raw nori rolls
About two years ago I was gifted with the Raw Food Reawakening recipe book, can't call it a cook book as it raw food!! I was slightly put off trying anything a most of them involves dehydrating for many, many hours (we have a dehydrator so no excuse really). When I cook it's usually because I'm hungry for that food right now, if I wait 24 hours to eat it I'll probably not want it.
It might be one of those things that at the time of receiving the book I wasn't ready for it. Now I am. Yesterday I made raw food nori rolls. So simple, so quick, so much better than using rice. Yoga people love sushi. It's one of those foods that seem really 'healthy', which it is, kind of, better than Macca's but it's chock full of white rice. Not good for the blood sugar. I love regular sushi but it kills me. Bloating, sugar rush and then an energy slump. This sushi uses cauliflower & cashews blended up instead of rice. So tasty. The texture is sticky like rice and looks like rice! Awesome.
Nori Rolls:
Raw nori sheets (I just used the regular one's as have no idea if they are raw or not!!)
Half a cauliflower
Small handful of raw cashews
1-2 Avocadoes skinned & sliced
1 cucumber cut into round slices
Small bowl of water for sticking the sheets
1 carrot cut into strips with a veg peeler.
Method:
Blend cauliflower in chunks with the cashews till grainy in texture (Thermomix speed 8 for 10 seconds). Lay nori sheet on chopping board. Cover about 0.5 cm of cauliflower mixture over all except 1 cm of outside edge facing away from you. place layers of sliced vegetable down the centre & roll. Wet outside edge to stick.
I'm so bad at rolling sushi so they split a bit but try not to over fill them. I also made some rolls with some chicken (cooked obviously!!) as I needed some protein in there.
It might be one of those things that at the time of receiving the book I wasn't ready for it. Now I am. Yesterday I made raw food nori rolls. So simple, so quick, so much better than using rice. Yoga people love sushi. It's one of those foods that seem really 'healthy', which it is, kind of, better than Macca's but it's chock full of white rice. Not good for the blood sugar. I love regular sushi but it kills me. Bloating, sugar rush and then an energy slump. This sushi uses cauliflower & cashews blended up instead of rice. So tasty. The texture is sticky like rice and looks like rice! Awesome.
Nori Rolls:
Raw nori sheets (I just used the regular one's as have no idea if they are raw or not!!)
Half a cauliflower
Small handful of raw cashews
1-2 Avocadoes skinned & sliced
1 cucumber cut into round slices
Small bowl of water for sticking the sheets
1 carrot cut into strips with a veg peeler.
Method:
Blend cauliflower in chunks with the cashews till grainy in texture (Thermomix speed 8 for 10 seconds). Lay nori sheet on chopping board. Cover about 0.5 cm of cauliflower mixture over all except 1 cm of outside edge facing away from you. place layers of sliced vegetable down the centre & roll. Wet outside edge to stick.
I'm so bad at rolling sushi so they split a bit but try not to over fill them. I also made some rolls with some chicken (cooked obviously!!) as I needed some protein in there.
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| ta dah! Finished rolls! |
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Byron Bay Tea
I am hopeless at resisting spur of the moment purchases. The one's that if I don't get it right there & then, there isn't a chance I'll be going back to that shop so I might as well get it, type of purchase. Usually I'm quite good, I take a step back and think really hard whether I really need that thing I am about to buy. Last year's die hard savings plan made this even easier. This year however, even though there are still bills to pay, I'm allowing a little bit of indulgence now and again. Starting today.
It's been over a year now since I treated myself to an amazing massage at the Bodhi J day spa. I discovered this gem of a place just before I made the pledge to go to Fall TT. Alas the savings plan could not justify trips to day spa's, despite how much they would actually have benefited my well being leading up to teacher training. I made do with weekly physio that I could claim on my health insurance.
Today I returned. It was just as amazing. My shoulders & lower back loved the deep tissue massage. My legs however are carrying a lot of toxins. They needed a good strong pummeling. The cottage cheese on them is surely evidence enough.
Anyway, my impulse buy today was some herbal tea. After the treatment you're always served with a fruit platter and the tea of the month. Obviously said tea can be purchased. Usually I'm like, yes nice tea but I have hundreds of boxes of herbal tea at home. I'm a bit of a sucker for it. Buy a box, drink it for a bit, then never finish it, my pantry has many a half full box in it.
Today however the tea was amazing!!!! From the superb Byron Bay Tea Co. - Energy Tea - green tea and berries. YUM! I tried a lot of this brand's tea whilst on a retreat there a year ago. It's good stuff and organic. It's described as ' a healthy alternative to coffee.' Perk you up any time of day with Siberian Ginseng, blackcurrants, strawberries, blackberries, hibiscus, rosehips, bilberries and elderberries. It may seem pricey at $17 a box but that's only 48 cents a cup. You wouldn't get 35 Starbucks coffees for $17 would you? (come on, I have to justify everything you all know that!)
Worth every dollar. It's an nice attractive deep pink/purple colour too, which is great whilst in my glass defusing pot but I'm not fancy enough to have those glass tea cup/glasses things ;-)
It's been over a year now since I treated myself to an amazing massage at the Bodhi J day spa. I discovered this gem of a place just before I made the pledge to go to Fall TT. Alas the savings plan could not justify trips to day spa's, despite how much they would actually have benefited my well being leading up to teacher training. I made do with weekly physio that I could claim on my health insurance.
Today I returned. It was just as amazing. My shoulders & lower back loved the deep tissue massage. My legs however are carrying a lot of toxins. They needed a good strong pummeling. The cottage cheese on them is surely evidence enough.
Anyway, my impulse buy today was some herbal tea. After the treatment you're always served with a fruit platter and the tea of the month. Obviously said tea can be purchased. Usually I'm like, yes nice tea but I have hundreds of boxes of herbal tea at home. I'm a bit of a sucker for it. Buy a box, drink it for a bit, then never finish it, my pantry has many a half full box in it.
Today however the tea was amazing!!!! From the superb Byron Bay Tea Co. - Energy Tea - green tea and berries. YUM! I tried a lot of this brand's tea whilst on a retreat there a year ago. It's good stuff and organic. It's described as ' a healthy alternative to coffee.' Perk you up any time of day with Siberian Ginseng, blackcurrants, strawberries, blackberries, hibiscus, rosehips, bilberries and elderberries. It may seem pricey at $17 a box but that's only 48 cents a cup. You wouldn't get 35 Starbucks coffees for $17 would you? (come on, I have to justify everything you all know that!)
Worth every dollar. It's an nice attractive deep pink/purple colour too, which is great whilst in my glass defusing pot but I'm not fancy enough to have those glass tea cup/glasses things ;-)
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| Rather nice packaging too |
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