My favourite parts of Yoga

On physical asanas, I love the:

– wheel pose and handstands: because this brings me back many childhood memories of my gymnastics and dance I did when I was young.

– headstand: because after learning the right techniques through this course, I realised upside down on my head that I have never been this engaged coordinating so many things together in 1 single activity – keeping my balance, shifting my weight, using the right muscles, maintaining correct posture, remembering to breathe, listening to my breath, gaze, relax and making sure I don’t bite my teeth hard. No wonder headstands are called the king of asanas.

– crow pose: because I wasn’t able to do it before because I didn’t have arm strength and so I worked hard everyday in building arm strength. 3 months later and I realised I was able to do this pose during the course, it was a feeling of reaping the fruits of dedication, belief in myself, hard work and labour for me.

On the pranayamas that I’ve learned so far, I enjoy:

– Kabala bati: because it helps me to wake up in the early morning when I’m feeling sleepy;
– Ujayyi breathing: because it helps me to keep my energy and stamina when I’m doing Ashtanga yoga;
– Bastrika breathing: because it helps me to breathe properly when I’m doing forward bends;
– Anuloma Vilom: because it is very relaxing and I can do it before I sleep to calm and cool my body down.
– Half Yogi breath: because it is a relaxing breathing exercise I can do lying down on my bed before I sleep.

On the philosophy part of yoga, I love how our trainer, Sree, breaks down Patanjali’s sutra in sanskrit more understandable in simplier and more digestible format for our class to understand in english terms. Without which, with Sanskrit language barrier, I wouldn’t be able to gain and learn valuable insights, precious gems of knowledge of this ancient Vedic wisdom that is so useful to know.