Queen Of Bee

This post has nothing to do with full moon. Can't think of a better title, and since today is 4th Month of 15th day (Wesak day too!), so full moon it is lah. So, I have asked to be excused from my part time job in Bangsar South since mid-March. Since I didn't have to go to office, I have more time, either to be at home, or out playing. As of now, my Tuesdays have been filled up nicely by spending time at Sue Ann's house watching Netflix or doing random things with her. I did think about going home in between classes, but the drive back & forth.... I think I will make myself comfortable at studio, in case Sue Ann starts working or not free to layan me.   What have been I up to? Well, we went to karaoke on one Monday afternoon -- the happy hour promo ie RM 30, with free flow of drink and sing from 1pm to 7pm. We set a theme and went all out. We worked hard, we played even harder!!  Back to School theme And of course, I went to cut my hair and looked...

We start quiet and still in a seated posture at the beginning of our practise.  Just as Winter is poised for Spring .  The gradual warming of Spring will lead us to the full exuberance of Summer .  The power of Summer peaks, then moves toward the descending energy of Autumn .  Autumn folds inward, releasing back to Winter and its silence. ~~~~~~  Love love love! I forgot where I read this. Maybe from those old edition of Yoga Journal.  Putting them in my digital diary so that I can reread again. 

(Photo credit : Annis Ho)  Last Saturday morning, my cousin sister who is usually very quiet in our chat group sent two photos. When I saw the photos, I smiled.  This was taken in end of April.  In conjuction with International Yoga Day in June, the editorial team of Malaysia Tatler wanted to feature yoga releated stories. One writer used to attend aerial classes at Aravind Yoga Studio and she wanted to feature aerial yoga. We sent her a few shots of our studio, but she wanted photos with students practising aerial yoga as it was too plain to feature an empty studio. As we did not have any, she offered to come over to our studio with a photographer to take a few shots. Of course ok lah!  I did a few poses for them. Camel, Half Wheel, Candy Wrap and a few more. "Gaze forward, smile...can you put your palms in front, looking relax. Take your time to balance", said the photographer. It was not easy leh! But thank you for your patience, Mr Photographer...

Tuesday is my busiest day in the week. 2 classes in the morning, and 2 classes in the evening. Morning class at 9am used to be very quiet, but now it's livelier.  Tuesday with Mi Mi is quite predictable. They will come for class. I will "torture" them with TLC for 1 hour or sometimes 2 hours. After class, most of the time we will have brunch. If it's not at Warung Soho , it will be at Bestari. Sometimes, Lorong Aji Don for mee rebus , once in a blue moon at Hachi Bakery  If you are around the corner on Tuesday, around 1130am and looking for kaki to makan with, you can hunt us down. We have decided what we will be eating next Tuesday after class. Korean food! Sedap or not, we don't know! (we saw that shop when we were on the way to buy bread from Aroma Bakery). Before someone say bojio , I hereby jio you for brunch next Tuesday. Open invitation to join us for Yoga (Hatha / Aerial), or Makan Or both Yoga + Makan! See you when we see you!

Y2016, I have decided to resign. After 14 years, I needed a break. It's not that I didn't like what I was doing, just that I would like to take a break. And just do nothing. Or maybe something... As I handed my resignation letter to my 2 bosses (ex now), both accepted it quite calmly. Only one was more surprised. But nevertheless, she accepted my reason for leaving. So, what reason did I give them? I told them my sisters & I were discussing of opening a yoga centre on our own. Since it's own business, there is no reason for them holding me back. My sisters and I were not the aggressive type. We took our own sweet time in making plan. Where should we open? Kajang? KL? Near home? Far from home? What type of classes? etc.. We even consulted a friend (a fengshui master) about our plan. He said, "Just do it! What are you girls waiting for??" He even advised us to open in KL area as the return will be higher and we would have different exposure with different ...

i helped a friend to teach yoga class recently, 2 tues, while she was away for holiday with her family. it was arranged in june. i was stressed when the date got nearer. would i be able to handle it? my sister told me just do it! the first class was a bit nerve-wrecking. the owner said that they love my friend because she teach different thing every week, and not just sun salutation. *gulp*. i planned to start the class with sun salutation wor!! first class ended smoothly, i think! second class, we laughed more compared to the first. since my friend said this group is a fun group, so i made some silly jokes during the poses. and when the class ended, it was a relieved for me. haha. there was an additional student in the class. he didnt come on the 1st class. young man, maybe around 20+. when he walked out, he said " i like your class! thank you! "... *grin* happy! then he added " oh, btw, what's your name? " ... hahahaha! will i be teaching again ther...

since april till now, i have done thrice 108 surya namaskar. my very first round was on the last day of my ttc in April, followed everfit open day in June. yesterday was my third, in August. we were invited by Jo, from SuryaYoga to lead the 108 surya namaskar session, in conjunction with Surya Yoga 10th Anniversary Open Day. #1 : the invitation card elaine & i and together with nicholas, three of us led the class. i was very nervous as i was the one who did all the talking in front. it felt like assessment time. butterflies in the stomach. whatever that i have learnt during my ttc came back to my mind. intention of the class. any injuries. any questions. in order not to confuse ourselves with the counting, i did the talking and elaine did the counting. i suggested to use sticker to indicate every 10th set that we have completed. #2 : mat sticked with hearts (sticker) before the session started, i explained briefly about why 108 surya namaskar. i have made notes and placed it i...

last sunday was everfit yoga studio open day. to bring good chi to the studio, we decided to practise 108 sun salutation. it was the first in the itinerary. it was a good session! happy!!! but the next day.. aching on the shoulders!! hahaha. although i have been working towards 108 , yet still ached the next day. sigh... # 1 : us at the front, facing our students 108 was in the morning. later in the afternoon, we offered free classes! many people came for the yin yoga! feeback was good for the whole day. there were some kids who came on the open day. i spent 3 hours with them. and it was fun! their energy was high! really high that they could play non-stop for 3 hours. age range from 3 - 6 years old. adorable!!! #2 : with the kids the last session was agnihotra, to bring good chi to the environment. #3 : everfit founder (lady in grey, seated second from left) overall it was a long & tiring day. but it was fun playing with the kids!!! cheers to everfit! "more business in years ...

i have been "good". why? i have been "saluting" 54 times on monday morning and this morning. i'm training myself, to salute 108 times on 12 June 2011. everfit yoga studio has shifted from one corner to another corner of the club. we bid goodbye to studio A & studio B after 10 years. from 2 studios, we became 1. #1 : studio A & B from sweet purple & fiery red walls, to white wall. we painted aum on the white wall. our feature wall. hehehe. at first, we were thinking how to draw it on the wall. such a big wall. such a big word, sure will be distorted if we draw it free hand. (because we failed Art!). a friend, (artymedia!!) then suggested to project the word aum on the wall, and draw the outline. brilliant! that's why she is in art, we are not! we were very happy with the outcome of the drawing. * pat on the back to elaine who suggested this drawing * #2 : wip & the finished work opening day will be on 12 June 2011. we want to do 108 surya nam...

i posted daily during my teacher training course. from day 1 till the end of the course. after that i only posted randomly. i posted daily because i want to remember what i have done during that period. i said i would write more about ttc. here it goes... i was informed about this course last year in october. it was during our private class that the teacher informed us about this course with lance schuler from inspya yoga . my sisters attended his workshop before and they liked his teaching. we didnt have much time to think about this because we had to register by the next day in order to catch the early bird package rate. it was quite costly, so decision has to be made very carefully. my only concern was, would i be able to take 20 days off to attend this course? it would be an intensive course. i had to decide fast. it was sunday when we were informed about the course. the next day, i informed my boss about my plan to take 20 days off for the course. she asked a few questions : q :...

my ttc final was on 15 april . this morning was my first class, teaching the adult. i only started preparing this morning. i know it's not good. i will REPENT!!! i promise. but this morning was not bad. i did my favourite poses with them. as i was the replacement teacher, i didnt do any OUT OF THE WORLD poses. just simple poses, but emphasizing alot on the breathing. inhale... exhale... i hope they liked the class. do i prefer kids or adult class? adult : they listen and follow your instruction. kids : they will (TRY!) to listen to you while doing something else. adult : they only practise, hardly any two way communication. only i talk. they dont talk. kids : they will TALK the minute they step into the class. i guess both are fine... Loka-Samasta-Sukhino-Bhavantu (may all beings attain happiness & freedom)

some photos from ttc... #1 : sticker to differentiate my manual #2 : my name in sanskrit #3 : decoration for final assessment #4 : my notes which i put in front of my mat during final assessment. #5 : my final assessment that i submitted #6 : triple yoga?

hahaha... i am super happy!! my last day of ttc. this morning 108 suryanamaskar was fantastic!!! awesome!!! i was very worried that i might not be able to complete the cycle. last round 54 set almost died. haha. (no kua cheong, ok). this morning, lance and phil led the class. their breaths lead the whole group. we all did it together in unison. on the last set, tears dropped. happiness. and after class, we went straight to the pool for a dip. to cool us down and also to relax our muscles. and we did our philosophy test in the pool. what??? he wanted us to swim to the centre of the pool, grab the block to answer 1 question. once correct, then pass! waa.... cool. we fought to grab the block.. had a great laugh at the pool. those who didnt go to the pool were 'punished' in the classroom. they had to do suryanamaskar and answered 2 questions instead. fair.. during graduation, we sang gayatri mantra together. suddenly i was choked with tears. i dont know why. but i just cried half w...

this morning pranayama assessment was smooth. Happy that we went through. Just to refresh back what we have learnt. Good way to force us to remember all the info. Or else, everything will be gone when they are gone. Just hope that we can teach more than 25% of what we have learnt so far. Haha. Because phil said usually people can only take 25% of information during one workshop. Asana this morning was fun. The intention was bring out the inner child in you. We have a problem applying our intention into our sequence. Hence, phil created one for this morning asana so that we can understand more. First time i tried monkey bar. Only managed to swing abit, then i fall off. Needed alot of strength wei. Phil forced me to go up again. He did it with me together. But of course, some one was holding me from the bottom so that i wont fall off so fast. Now... Hand pain lor. Hahaha. Lousy me. Tomorrow is our last day of ttc. It was like last week we just started the course. 108 sun salutions will b...

i think my energy level was at the lowest level today. after the final assesment, energy all gone. hahaha. this morning, we were made to sit in hanumasana for 30min. we were allowed to use bolster, blocks, whatever we wanted in order to stay in the posture. 15min for each side. i just closed my eyes. we were not allowed to move the legs at all. only yes for upper body. i just stayed put. and luckily phil played a mantra song, and that eased me a lot. survived the half an hour spilt with a bit of numbness. during asana, we were asked to self practise. lance and phil adjusted our postures accordingly. we were left in our own world to do whatever we wanted. i did 27 set of suryanamaskar, a quarter of 108, which we will all do together this friday. almost dozed off during philosophy. tired.. really tired. had to stand up in order to keep myself awake. afternoon was group a assessment time. we practised along, and i had expected a tougher sequence from them. but it was ok. all of them did a...

we did our sanskrit test this morning. happy that i managed to answer 12 correctly out of 14. i passed the test. phew. 2 failed. phil spoke to them privately on this matter. then we continued with our pranayama. and he told us we had to sit in hanumasana tomorrow morning for 15min each side during meditation. hai.... so early in the morning sit spilt... how to kangkang lah??? i think i need lots of bolster to support my un-split legs. hahahaha. today's asana was partner yoga. we had some fun in the class. kind of destress us a bit too. everyone was too engrossed, trying to memorize all the sequence for the final. we only got to know that group b would be the first group to be accessed. i was HAPPY! very happy because i could get over it by today! and no need to worry about it anymore. during philosophy, phil forced us to put away all our notes for the final and just concentrate on his class. fair.... whatever that we wanted to do should be in our head already. my group assessment w...

i was too tired to write. although we had a day off on sunday, but it was spent digging information and mapped out a 20min sequence for the final. would this posture jived with the theme? what about the flow? i picked the abominal, lower back and hip sequence. not my favourite but i still had to do it. at least i was the second person in our group. so, it was fine with me. maybe the universe wanted me to strengthen my "weakness". we regrouped to discuss and reaffirm everything and hoped for the best. yesterday morning , we had blind-fold asana. interesting!! as we didnt bring any blind-fold, we used the strap/belt and wrapped it around our eyes. we had to feel the movement of the posture. verbal instruction given by lance, and slowly we moved one posture to another. our sanskrit was not that good, but some of us were bad until they didnt know what lance was talking about. that has created a "last minute sanskrit exam" on day 20 (the next day), during pranayama sessi...

3 weeks down! 1 more to go! it has been a very tiring week for all of us. we started teaching in our group since last friday. though it was just for 15min, it was still hardwork for most of us who have no experience in teaching. i lost my "touch" after a few years break. teaching kids is totally different with adult. have to take into consideration of many things. and i still feel nervous whenever i stepped in front of the mat. i thought i would be calmer, but i was wrong. i wanted to be the best, and yet it didnt happen, especially today. my inhalation was not very "correct". should inhaled, but i exhaled. and i only noticed when phil pointed it out. damn malu lor!! hai... 2 practical assessment done. we will have our final next week. tue-thu afternoon for 3 groups. we will not know which group will go first on tuesday. lance and phil will only take the draw on tuesday morning. so, all groups have to be ready by tuesday. feeling the pressure as i want to do my best...

interesting day as we had our 15min of practical teaching in the afternoon. yesterday's 5min sequence was nerve wrecking. today, we were more 'calm' as we had time to prepare for our asanas earlier. tomorrow another 15min sequence. we wont be doing the same sequence though. today, mine was backbend and twist. overall comment was ok. just that he wanted me to improvise my explanation when coming out from the pose. tomorrow is chest, shoulder and upper body... and it's saturday already. end of week 3. next week is our final assessment... woooo... 

we didnt do much asana today. lance only explained how to start a beginner class, what we should take note of and so on. all of us were lying on our back while listening to him. most of fell asleep in between. why? because the night before, all of us did revision till late night because we had to prepare for 3 different classes in the next few days. this afternoon. we had a taste of teaching in front of the class. we were divided into 2 groups. we were just asked to start a class. no particular poses. we just needed to continue from the person before us. wah.. i was so nervous. i did suryanamaskar. i guess i was too nervous until my breathing was out of order. hahaha. after this session, i guess we felt better and more ready for tomorrow.