Yoga For Real

What to do when your new yoga mat is slippery?

2010-05-23T10:17:00.003+02:00

I did my research on the internet andit is quite interesting how people said to put it in the luandry, or just soap it. I have the experience myself, I bought a new yoga mat to attend my 1 month intensive yoga course, the fisrt 2-3 days , my downward facing dog turned into downward slipping dog but then quickly after, it gained the grip!!! HOw? because our course was near the beach and the sand gets into everything everywhere, on the floor, therefore on my hands and therefore on my mat!

I bought yet another new mat when I relocate to Norway and once again, it was as slippery as the other one. This time I simply just, rub some soil on the surface and rinse the soil out and away. Instantly I have a new awesome, non-slip yoga mat!!

Enjoy the trick everybody.
BON

Yoga in Trondheim

2010-05-09T00:01:00.002+02:00

As the summer approach in Trondheim, I saw some greens along the side of the river and dreaming of doing yoga on the river, how cool would that be!! If you're interested join Yoga trondheim on facebook to get updated.

New Project with ISU

2010-03-29T20:41:00.003+02:00

It all started when I took a walk a long the river and thought, this place would be beautiful in the Summer . . . how nice it would be if I can get people to come do Yoga in the Park with me!! then I found ISU through Helene's rock and roll class, and then she introduced me to Micheal the president and he helped me work on asking permission to use ICOT basement and Ameen said YES.

It goes so smoothly like it is meant to be; yes it is. When everything is ready, we never have to strive for things.

I am planing to really educate my students to grow throughout our classes, learn together and grow together as group, group activity is so much more powerful than doing it individually, and that is what's so exciting about this project.

It is going to be awesome, this experience will make grow once again. Namaste

Another Lesson from the dog's whisperer

2010-02-09T11:17:00.003+01:00

Today Ceasar Millan faces another difficult case,a wild dog that loves horse but not people. The ownners found her outside with ther horses so they fed her for 2 years, but never be able to touch her. Ceasar brought DADDY, his awesome dog with him to help in the case, he let DADDY approach her first and see how she reacted, she seems friendly but scared... Ceasar stood there and observe, he chose the angle to approach the dog very carefully, and just copied what his dog DADDY was doing the a few moments ago.

Yet, another great quote from him " BEING STILL PRACTICES SUBMISSIVE, MOVING PRACTICES FEAR" my light bulb came on when the program finished. I'll tell you about it later but....let's just say, ceasar did get his hands on the dog and soften it up to an extend but not as magical as other cases, the owner seemed scared of touching the dog still and the dog seems to enjoy horses rather than human still.

Back to my lesson from Ceasar... Life is like our trainer, when something unpleasant occures we go crazy physically and mentally =MOVING PRACTICES FEAR= in a way it shows that we don't accept what this is happenning to us, how can such horrible thing happen to a good person like me but if we stay still.......submissive to whatever life presents you with, life will like you and treat you later with more respect.

Another great words from Ceasar this episode " Being the leader of the pack is to be responsiblt for their well being physically and mentally"

Ciao, I can't stop learning from Ceasar Millan and I'm scared of dogs, being bit when I was a little girl.

Go Ceasar Millan!!

2010-01-22T07:51:00.003+01:00

ONce again, after my boyfriend left for work, I'm here on the sofa watching the Dog's whisperer. Ceasar Millan said something interesting today" I never favor dogs, I favor state of mind" Where does this guy come from? All thoes insights about the nature of these beings!! I bet he meditates or even does yoga. I love the words he uses calm submissive, surrenders, calm aseertive. Basically you wanna put a dog into a calm submissive stage before moving on to anything eles.

Same as us... after a relationship breakup, you need to make sure you're in calm stage before going out on a date again, otherwise it's like an excited dog going on a roller coster ride. It's like topping hot boiling water with chunck of oil, there won't be many goods coming out of that.

Now how to create that calm mind? meditate!... sit comfortably, relax and just listen to your breath entering and releasing from your body. A monk once said to me " if you have time to feed your body with food, then you must have time to feed your mind with meditation."

Introduction to YOGA

2010-01-15T14:43:00.008+01:00

"Yoga is for people and their doctors."
--Dr.KEV

Yoga is simultaneously: self-diagnosis, healing, prevention, and maintenance. Although it is not a replacement for your doctor, it has been developed and practiced safely and successfully by millions of people who never had doctors, for thousands of years. If you are under a doctor's care already, or are seriously out of shape, then by all means consult with your primary health care provider before beginning yoga practice! That way you can both monitor your progress. And your doctor will learn from you how beneficial yoga really is!

Think of "self-diagnosis" in this context: If you were perfectly healthy, you would be able to do most yoga postures and exercises easily with minimal effort! Therefore as you begin learning the basic stretches, you will immediately discover where your deficiencies are. Do not let yourself be discouraged by this. Your body has adapted itself as perfectly as possible to all of the things you have done (or not done) with it over the course of your entire life up until now. With a modest amount of care and patience, yoga will trigger your body's natural adaptive and rejuvenating powers. If you don't use it you lose it. If you start using it again, you can get most of it back. Some people claim that yoga gave them more vitality than they ever had in their lives. Even those who began later in life. If you are still breathing, it is never too soon, or too late to start!

The essence of yoga is to make the process as efficient and enjoyable as possible. In the beginning it is therefore essential that you learn not only what the stretches are, but how to stretch! How to relax! How to breathe! Then you will really be ready to workout -safely! Realizing the progress made often inspires yogis to sing for joy in praise for such divine providence! So there you have it. YOGA! The original song and dance!
Genuine. Wholesome. Compassionate. Yoga does not distill these qualities from you but rather instills them within you. It teaches you that love heals the giver at least as much as it does the recipient. And therein dwells the sacred power of community, union, harmony, yoga, and free and fair civilization. It is your birthright to have access to this information. A sign of your wisdom if you use it. And of your enlightenment if you share it!

yoga.tv.com

You guys wanna read my cover letter for job application?

2010-01-13T11:18:00.002+01:00

To whom this may concern,

My name is Bon Ratta, I'm Thai, 28 years old. I have just moved to Trondheim a week ago and I'm loving everything about it, except when it gets too cold. Being such a big city but still maintaining that realm of peace is outstanding here.
I have been a student of yoga for 4 years before I decided to take it to another level by joining a yoga teacher training by Santosha Yoga, a yoga alliance registered school and graduated a 233 hr. certified yoga teacher in October 2009. I also hold a Bachelor of Science ( Industrial and Organizational Psychology ) from Ramkhamheang University, Bangkok, Thailand.
My first year of practice was all about hot yoga, I was enjoying how much I sweated and how fresh it felt walking out of those classes until one day I just collapsed and faced the worst time of my life, I was really sick while all modern medical exams showed that everything was normal. It took me a week to get up and try to walk, months to eat properly and years to be recovered….that was my break from yoga.
I came back to yoga once again at a fantastic studio in Melbourne called Somachi, Yoga with Taichi infused. It was beautiful and it made me feel much stronger inside out. Wanted to learn more about yoga, I attended the intensive yoga teacher training where I learned so much more than I expected, the ayurvadic classes helped me realized why I was really sick before. The accumulated physical and emotional habit throughout my life, accelerated with a bit of heat from hot yoga led me to where I was.
Since then I have been giving private classes to friends and family and earned beautiful feed back. My mother got much more energized and see how yoga works with her inside organs just as much as outside and my friends appreciate how just breathing correctly makes so much different to their over all physical and emotional health.
My yoga class aims to calm the nervous system, and focuses on how an individual should practice yoga, not everyone should be able to do postures just like in the books, dvds or their instructors, students should be able to see their own individual postures within postures, and be willing to accept the limitations of our one of a kind body and surrender to the fact that we only move on when we are ready: when our body says OK , not when we say OK. The simplicity of postures that requires the least effort but maximum effect to our body and spirit is the real beauty of Eastern style yoga.
I would like to offer a course of gentle yoga ( Eastern style ) for beginners which consists of 4 sessions of 1 hr 15 min classes and also private classes. Please contact Bon for more information at 4545 9260.

Kind regards and Namaste,
Bon Ratta

Some influential teachers include Peter Clifford (Byron Bay Australia), Mark Rielly (Bali, Indonesia), Sebastian Bruno (Koh Pha Ngan, Thailand), Sunny Richards-Glasser (Schmander, Tasmania) and Zoe Trenwith (Byron Bay, Australia), Lianne Metcalf(Melbourne, Australia), Nicky Davidson (Melbourne, Australia).

Other people who made yoga popular in the West?

2010-01-10T19:31:00.002+01:00

Other people who made yoga popular in the West
There were many other people who helped popularize yoga in the West beside the Beatles. The yogis Sri Krishnamacharya, Swami Sivananda, Sri Yogendra and Swami Kuvalyananda all tried to make ancient yoga texts applicable to modern culture. These teachers made efforts to include women and foreigners in their circles. They promoted Hatha yoga, the yoga of physical processes. They also believed that Indian philosophy could coexist with Western science and medicine.

Violinist Yehudi Menuhin observing as Yogi Vithaldas practices yoga.
The yogis helped establish connections to the Western world. However, it was their students who really helped spread the study of yoga. Some of Swami Sivananda's students included Swami Satchitananda, who presented yoga at Woodstock, and Swami Vishnu-devananda, who established ashrams around the world. The influential Bellur Krishnamachar Sundaraja Iyengar was a student of Sri Krishanamacharya.

B.K.S. Iyengar was born in 1918 in Bellur, India. He was a sickly child who fought to overcome influenza, malaria, tuberculosis, and typhoid fever. Doctors believed he would not live past age 20. Iyengar studied yoga under his brother-in-law, Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, who is credited with modernizing Hatha yoga. By 1937, Iyengar was teaching yoga himself, hoping to spread the study that he believed had saved his life.

Iyengar's teachings spread to the West when he met the famous violinist Yehudi Menuhin in 1954. Iyengar demonstrated the yoga poses that eventually became known as Iyengar yoga. Menuhin was so impressed by the yogi and the study that he arranged for Iynegar to travel with him and spread yoga. In 1966, Iyengar wrote "Light on Yoga," which described and illustrated over 200 yoga asanas, or poses. Three million copies have been sold since the book's publication. In 2004, Time Magazine named Iyengar as one of its "100 Most Influential People" for his role in brining yoga to the West. Iyengar continues to supervise classes at his institute in Pune, India.

http://people.howstuffworks.com/beatles-yoga.htm

Did the Beatles introduce yoga to the Western world?

2010-01-10T19:23:00.001+01:00

Yoga is an integral part of many peoples' exercise regimens. Students attend yoga classes at their local studio or gym, watch instructional DVDs at home and purchase books to broaden their knowledge. People around the world enjoy the health, mental and spiritual benefits of yoga. But while yoga has been practiced by some Eastern cultures for millennia, it was only introduced to the West in the 20th century. How much did the Beatles have to do with the West's sudden interest in this ancient art?

Yoga actually made its first appearance in the West in the early 19th century. It was studied as an Eastern philosophy in the early 20th century and gained popularity as a part of the health and vegetarian movement of the 1930s. But it wasn't until the 1960s that yoga really began to take off. Prominent Indian yogis began moving to Western countries to extend their teachings.

It was around this time that the Beatles were first exposed to yoga. While the group was filming "Help!" in the Bahamas in 1965, they met Swami Vishnu-Devananda, the founder of Sivandana Yoga. He presented them with signed copies of his work, "The Illustrated Book of Yoga." George Harrison was fascinated by the book and began studying yoga and Eastern religion. His wife, Pattie Boyd, encouraged him to study Eastern mysticism, Indian philosophy and become a vegetarian. By 1966, Harrison journeyed to India to study sitar, a type of stringed instrument, under the master Ravi Shankar.

While Harrison studied in Bombay, Boyd heard of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of Transcendental Meditation (TM). The Maharishi, born Mahesh Prasad Varma, wanted to make meditation easy to understand and practical. In 1955, he wrote his first book, "The Science of Being and the Art of Living," and began teaching TM in 1958.

Harrison and Boyd were struck by the Maharishi's teachings and bought tickets for the Beatles to see him in London. The group followed the Maharishi to Bangor, Wales to learn more about meditation. They eventually traveled to his ashram, or religious retreat, in Rishikesh in the Himalayas where they were joined by other celebrities like Mia Farrow, Donovan and Mike Love of the Beach Boys. The Beatles studied as a group until certain members of the band began to lose interest in TM.

But after John Lennon accused the Maharishi of molesting Mia Farrow, the Beatles fell out with their former master. The allegations were unproven and no charges were ever filed, but the damage was done. Proponents of the Maharishi suggested the split was not the fault of the yogi, but was instead caused by the Beatles' use of LSD and other drugs in the ashram. George Harrison was the only member of the Beatles to later make amends with the Maharishi.

However, the Beatles had been profoundly influenced by their time with the Maharishi. Much of the music on the White Album was inspired by the yogi's words and their experience with TM. The Maharishi also profited from the connection. By the 1970s, more than five million people practiced TM [source: Times Online]. Because the Beatles had helped popularize the yogi's teachings, they were partly responsible for popularizing yoga in the West.

But of course the Beatles aren't solely responsible for the Westernization of yoga. In the next section, we'll learn about other influential teachers and practitioners.

http://people.howstuffworks.com/beatles-yoga.htm

Hidden Massages in the water by DR. Masaru Emoto

2010-01-08T14:44:00.004+01:00

My friend sent me a really awesome website about mudras and other cool new ages all things are connected website. I was just overwhelm with all the information at first... I went through all the secret of water youtube clips and just really went for it. I then took a break and came out with my solution. If according to Dr. Emoto, all water in the world is connected and always communicating, you can join any of his ceremony at different lakes around the world with simple intructions, plus there are loads of products to improve water quality based on the fact that water gets effected by its enviroment. Us human being 70% water at least...if we purify ourselves, we'll never need any water purifier ever! because everything will be purified, possitised( if that's even a word) by you. In the end, it is the law of Karma, make possitive cause get possitive effect.
Shall we meditate, shall we chant more to purify ourselves

mayall be free.

LOFOTEN-TRONDHEIM 16.5 hr.

2010-01-03T12:16:00.004+01:00

7,30am we left Ronny's parents... Ranveig, his mother was teary as gave us goodbye hugs! I drove out looking at the bright fullmoon in the sky, I prayed out loud "may we safe, may we be in peace,may we be happy". Ronny likes to have music on at all times, and I like to be in the quietness most the time too, and when I do have music on,its not the same kind of music that pleasures us both,so we do it half half,his music, my music and silence.
I had to ask Ronny to stop at a public toilet once cause I didn't wanna hold it too long, I got out the car, draging my thai ballet flat shoes through the thick snow, open the door... the lid was closed so I used my feet to open the list....20 degrees it was opened and I saw some unwanted lines and colors I drop my feet and walked back to the car, happy to hold it until we hit any decent toilets.
Half way we stoped at a petro station to get something to eat as everything's closed on the 1st of Jan, seemed everyone on that road, that day was at this ESSO fast food place! I ran to the toilet and waited for a while, as soon as the lady walked out, a guy came in and pushed me in the back, I said SORRY? and went in the toilet, sat down, that dude kept knocking on the door non-stop. I wraped things up and opened the door, thinking" he is probly a druggie who needs to poo badly" more of sympathy towards this person and I just left, once I walked out, he did say" SORRY". Anyway, we finished our dinner and off we go again!
This is we put an audio book of Dan Brown on! It's good, kept us quiet and interested... at the 12th hr. we got really tired, knackered!!! Ronny was driving and start scratching him self " It's ichy" and I turned into a zombie by the time we got home, we were on our pilot mote.

Christmas

2009-12-25T17:51:00.002+01:00

Such an awesome time to share love and positive energy in such a cold atmosphere. In some cases, after years of difficult relationship, Christmas is almost forcing people to reinteract again and sometimes we do need thoes positive forces to get some positive works done huh?

I was surrounded by my boyfriend's family

Norway

2009-12-16T14:06:00.001+01:00

I got here at about 2 o'clock and an hour later it was dark. I slept from 8 to 3.39am then I just walked around in the apartment. I got my mat out to do some yoga... at 6 o'clock when there's no sun to do salutation to... I now just realised I'm in another country!! It's fun.

Greetings

2009-11-28T13:43:00.001+01:00

Hi, my name is Bon, I'm a Thai and I'm moving to Norway this coming 11th December 09. Apart from myself, I'm bringning my love for yoga with me. I'm a certified yoga teacher from a yoga alliance member school, yes... I did that intensive teacher training on a remote island of Thailand. It was my life changing experience.... I'd love to share that with anyone who's interested.