Stay Young with Strong Legs...

Joseph Pilates, the founder of Pilates fitness method, said we are “young” if our body is supple and strong even at the age of sixty.  On the other hand, you are told “old” if the body is stiff and out of shape even if twenty or thirty something only.

I think he was very correct.  I see all the time many “young” people in old body, many “old” people in young body.  But then, before and after Yoga, I consistently notice how fast people are changing in their overall appearances, getting younger and brighter by day, regardless of ages. 

Many people define “age” with “chronicle number of years” they have lived.  But I define otherwise.  “Age” is about how comfortable you are with your body, how strong you are in your legs.

Usually first half of our Yoga sessions are standings poses; the latter half are sitting and floor poses.  It is quite common scenes with beginners; they can barely stand 10 or 20 minutes of standing poses with wobbling jelly like legs.  Many drop to floor to catch their breath, before can stand up again to continue.  Those non-beginners…they can last, last, last…no problem.  They even feel much more energy after yoga classes.  That’s the difference between young and old, the level of stamina and energy, not the age.

Our two legs are meant for walking, not for sitting.  When you let your leg hang idle, leg strength decline over time and you will set in motion a cascade of events that could lead to disability or even premature death.  With weakened legs, you’ll first avoid activities that require exertion, like long walks or biking. Then, getting out of a chair or ascending a flight of stairs becomes a challenge.  As muscle further deteriorates, you may need a cane or a walker to safely get around.  Muscles weakened from age and disuse is also important risk factors for hip fractures.

Overall body strength is vital for maintaining independence, particularly for the lower limbs.  Strong legs, studies show, are your insurance policy for an active and enjoyable life in your later years.  Fit leg muscles also protect knee joints.  With age, thigh muscles weaken from lack of exercise, and more of the mechanical stress of walking, running, and standing transfers to the knee joints.  Strong leg muscles help absorb that stress, and prevent the breakdown of cartilage and the onset of osteoarthritis. 

And the Eagle Pose (Garudasana) is one of the best Yoga pose to strengthen not only the legs but also shoulders and arms while improving balance and focus.  Its pose will help you stay forever-young.

The Star Track

I have a confession to make.

Not many people know that I am a serious astrologer, not just an amateur, but rather a serious one who virtually breaths and lives with the stars.  Basically I am living in the star track, not the movie, but the real star track of the heavenly bodies, like the Sun, Moon…Neptune, etc.  They are always roaming around in my head as well as in my soul. 

In my head there are always the planets going around; I constantly keep track of their location, movements and changing energy patterns...  In Sanskrit term, the stars or planets are called “graha”, which means to “to grasp, to take hold of”.  I got hold of by them ever since 1992 and they never left my awareness thereafter. 

I always wonder whether knowing astrology was a curse or blessing in my life. 

Many a time it felt more like a curse.  Because, in life, you are better off by not knowing too much.  I don’t have all the answers in life, but, I feel pressured to know all the solutions to the endless problems, challenges our life present. Even if I know it, it’s also not straightforward mathematical kinds of answer, like A becomes B, becomes C and D...  it is rather fuzzy…

You see, life is the sum total of accrued causes and effects, governed by karmic rules. You can never know from where it started and how and when it ends.  But it sure will come to pass in whatever way is written in the blueprints.  However, most of what I see…I generally keep it to myself.  Or else it can easily cause unnecessary anguish to the listeners.  So it becomes torment to know, or not to know… a curse that I live with…  

But then, if I didn’t know astrology, I don’t think I could ever found ways of how to keep cool, stay collected and centered in the diverse facets of up and down life’s affairs.  I don’t think I could understand people and life as much as I do right now.  I don’t think I could live with this kind of positive, surrendering modes to the Force that is much larger than all the stars, all the people, events, emotions, things throughout the entire universe… So certainly it is more of blessing to know astrology, I think… 

Lately another major life challenge struck me…but, I am able to see it just as it is….rather than getting lost in it…I am waiting for the answers to arise…I know the planets, the Forces will guide me to it…

Will you, too, give me supports, your collective kind intentions?  So that I can sail through it safely??? 

Yoga Story 10. Cow Face Pose (Gomukhasana)

There are few closing yoga poses we do at the end of each Yoga classes.  They are all very sweet and delicious yoga routines to use toward the end.  They have much settling and nourishing effects to the all worked-up nervous system.  One of them is “Cow Face Pose (Gomukhasana).” 

You will sit with one bent knee placed over the other, forming the cow’s lip.  One arm goes laterally behind the back and the fingers grasp the fingers of the other arm, which is bent over the corresponding shoulder (forming cow’s ear).  This asana tones and strengthens the ankles, hips, thighs and shoulders.

The cow is one of the holiest animals.  You look at the cow’s face.  They are so cool!  The way they roam around in the fields, cross the highway super slow and steady, whether you honk or not, they just don’t care a thing in the world!  The cow is considered to be the giver of plenty. 

In Korea, the agricultural society originally, cows are considered the most valuable treasures for the farmers.  Day and night, they plow, carry and transport while alive and give their meat and skin when die.  So the farmers have to guard it with zeal as they are easy targets for burglary in old times.  We even have an old saying “fixing the cowshed door after the cow is stolen.”  That is, we often regret after already things are happened.   

In India, all of the cow’s products are used; its strength helps farmers plow the field; its urine is a strong antiseptic; its dung makes excellent fuel for stoves and its milk yields butter and ghee.  So they worships cows like Holy Mothers. 

In China, the cow is the vehicle of Guan Yin, the Merciful Buddha.  Thus Chinese Buddhists generally refrain from eating beefs.

Different cultures, different reasons, but generally cows are considered with special regards in all over the world.

The cow is also the embodiment of different yogic qualities. They are ever so calm, peaceful and down-to-earth.  They are also generous and motherly and are in fact considered to be one of the universal mothers.  When the mother cow sees her calf, her milk flows freely and abundantly.  The relationship between the cow and her calf is therefore the perfect symbol for the relationship between the earth and its inhabitants.  Like a calf, we can give the earth our love while using her gifts in a sustainable and wholesome way.  

“Holy Cow!!!”  

You often exclaim like this when you are surprised.

“Holy Simmo!!!”

My cheeky hubby exclaims like this when he tries to be cheesy. 

As for me, who can’t enjoy any of the cow’s products due to serious lactose allergy or beefs due to upbringing, I substitute the enjoyments by just doing “ Gomukhasana.”…

Each day as a prayer, each day as an offering, and each day as a blessing...

I have just finished doing 108 times sun salutation.  It’s like as though I came back home after long, long journey…very sweaty and sticky, and whole body muscles are pulsating like fine ripples in a quite lake.  The heartbeat is surprisingly settled, the mind is lucid clear, and the emotion quietly surging upward with indescribable feelings of lightness, happiness and joy.

Then I remember our old yoga buddies in the Bukit Jalil center with whom we used to enjoy doing 108 times of sun salutation.  They were all in their 50s and 60s.  At first, they would get frightened (?) whenever I say “how many times of sun salutation should we do today?”  I would assure them that it’s okay to stop anytime whenever they need to.  Then as we go along, no one will stop but manage to finish till the end.  Then we would flat out in Savasana for 10 minutes or so, all sweaty and sticky, but, beaming with pride and healthy smile… 

That was heaven on earth.  That was one of those precious moments in life where we could be so satisfied, so content and so complete with just the way we are, just the way our life is. 

Then, life has to move on.  Nothing last forever and nothing can stay the same.  I moved to Putra Heights, and all those good and old Yoga buddies who felt so connected with each other, every time after sweating tons…I am not sure where they all have gone, while I am here, how they are over there…but I am sure they are doing fine and living each day as busy as they were before.

As for me, over the course of continuing this yogic path as a teacher at the same time as a student of Tao, I too go through fluctuation of good and bad days; good and fragile health, up and down mood of emotional swing, positive or negative spirals of inspiration.  While we are in the motion of riding those perpetual waves of changes, challenges, tasks that our life present, it’s so easy to forget the Big Picture feeling most miserable and constrained in the situations, caught up in the small minds.

But, like today, if I happen to remember after good dose of sweating and breathings, then, I realize the heaven is not far away.  It is always right at the tip of our nose, up and down…breathing in, breathing out…but we forget so often…

However as long as I am continuing the journey in this path, I have a place to come back home, the sanctuary in my heart, that I can count each day as a prayer, each day an offering, and each day as a blessing…

How about you?  Would you like to join me in the routine of 108 sun salutation?  You too will be able to find your heaven on earth…

Yoga Story 9. Hanumanasa (The Monkey God Pose )

                                            

This yoga story is continuation from the long overdue Yoga Story series that was last left at June 2011.  I won’t give any excuses for the disruption, but, just let me continue…

The hanuman pose, or Leg-split, is one of the most difficult yoga poses to master.  The hamstring muscles attached at the back of thighs are like the most stubborn bull.  It won’t budge one bit no matter how hard you try to pull it.  Attached like layered thick bands, hamstrings also work much the same way.  Even you succeed to stretch it a bit today, it goes right back to where it was yesterday when you wake up next morning.  The hamstring muscles are also the dumbest ones, because unlike other muscles in the body it doesn’t remember what it did before.  Every day is a new day, so you just have to stretch it every day for some years if you want to split beautifully.  That is with faith and courage like the Hanuman in the story of Ramayan.

Hanuman who is the son of Vayu (the Wind God) and the mortal woman Anjana, forgot his divine origin while leaving with the monkeys in the mountain, after the curse of the Sun God Surya.  As the son of the wind, Hanuman could do anything.  He could grow very large or very small, move mountains, and even change his shape all together.  But he was constantly forgetting his divinity.  The curse was to be relieved when he meets King Ram (the cosmic Lord Vishunu incarnate) to serve him as the main warrior in the war between Ravana (the bad guy who abducted Ram’s wife Sita) and Ram.  Sita was hidden in a secluded place of the island kingdom of Ravana.  While Ram was building bridge with his army to cross over the ocean, Hanuman was to jump over the ocean to confirm the safety of Sita, at the same time, to inform her Ram’s rescue is being on the way.  However in front of this important task, Hanuman again forgot his orgin.  So he turned to his faith, shraddha in Sanskrit, to give him the confidence to do what he knew mush accomplish.  With prayers, he was able to remember his powers and grew very large instantly.  As he flew over the ocean toward his destiny, one of Hanuman’s feet reached forward and one foot reached back like the Leg-split, hanumanasana. 

Many of us shrink before impossible tasks, even tasks that are just a bit hard, because we are just like hanuman.  We easily forget that there is a part of us that is also divine and can accomplish the impossible.  And we forget about the element of shraddha, which is ingrained in every human heart, just as it was within Hanuman’s.

Throughout human history, there has always been some form of prayer to give human beings the space and time to grow that element of faith within their hearts.  It is with faith and hope that we can go forth with confidence and leap across oceans, change the world, or simply fall back in love.

This story was somehow difficult for me to write…maybe I too wanted to forget for a while of writing too holly-molly God’s story only.  Instead, I turned to write a Korean book about Malaysia.  After devoting for solid 6 months to write, publishing it becoming another mountainous task…with high costs and work it needs…so I am turning to my prayer, shraddha…hoping Him to show me the way…for it to find its way to the deserved readers…