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6月3日 Yoga: Gazing at Overachieving WobblersA lot of yoga poses require balance. This balance can be achieved through a combination of mental concentration and muscular engagement. The real concept, at least the way I understand it, is that the mind will lead the body. It starts with mental focus and the body shall follow. Hence, although a balancing pose appears to easy -- the stillness is merely superficial since a tremendous amount of effort is at work to maintain that stillness.
Mental focus can be accomplished by focusing the gaze on a still object such as the wall or a non-moving object. Sometimes, as the mind wanders during the pose, the gaze falls on fellow classmates who wobble. (Wobbling is most certainly part of the process. No one is perfect and even the instructor loses his/her balance from time to time.) As the temporary object of the wandering gaze is on the verge of losing balance, it immediately affects students within the 1-mat radius. It becomes particularly troubling when classmates, who clearly cannot balance yet, choose to over-extend themselves, thereby earning the title of "Overachieving Wobblers."
Besides endangering themselves by over stretching muscles that lack flexibility, overachieving wobblers also cause noticeable disturbances to their immediate neighbors. Try as we may, if someone next to you is losing their balance, you mind needs to seriously be on a different planet, or better yet a different universe, to ignore them. If that sounds selfish, well, what if the wobbler falls on the floor close to you? Now, that has not happened to me yet, but it's not entirely impossible.
One of the best ways of avoiding wobbling is to simply back off, or modify the pose to something more manageable by the body. Wobbling is a signal that the body may not be quite ready for the difficulty of the pose. When the time and set up is right, I always believe that the body will open and extend itself naturally. What's the big rush? You're supposed to be relaxing in yoga class, right? 5月27日 Yoga Student Profile: Darth Vader the Heavy BreatherIn all fairness, students are just as important as instructors in any teaching environment. In yoga classes, having very solid peers standing across the room helps with the balance poses. For example, if our wandering eyes fall on a wobbly classmate, our balance evaporates just as quickly.
Today's post is a tribute to "Darth Vader" in my class. No, he is neither garbed in an interesting outfit nor does he have an interesting headgear. He has earned the nickname of "Darth Vader" because of his heavy breathing. Don't get me wrong, deep rhythmic breathing is crucial in yoga to keep the blood flowing and calming the mind while doing challenging poses. However, all that pranayama breathing should not (at least to me) be disruptive to your neighboring classmates. Darth Vader has rendered that breathing exercise distracting, excessive, and just downright annoying. Let me give credit where credit is due because Darth Vader is actually a pretty good yogi. But, given that he's been doing yoga for a while, why is he breathing louder than the instructor?
Since yoga is picking up in popularity and becoming more mainstream, classes are getting more packed. Getting to class on time has proven to be an ongoing challenge, especially having to fight traffic on the freeway. Arriving late has its downside because I'm sometimes unable to secure a spot as far away as possible from Darth Vader. Fortunately, Darth Vader is easy to spot as he has his own designated spots, you see. At any rate, arriving at a cramped room and then having to stand anywhere close to the heavy breather is really the last thing on my wishlist. If I'm forced to set my mat right across from him, I just turn around so that the distance between my ears and the source of excessively deep breathing is increased. That's all I can handle. 5月19日 Yoga Instructor Profile: The Customer Service OrientedPart of the process of practicing yoga regularly is learning different teaching styles and approaches of instructors. Over the course of almost 2 years at the same gym, I've definitely found some both amusing and also insightful instructors. Inserted between all of them are occasional substitute instructors, who also add their own twists and turns to this interesting learning experience. I've personally decided that the profiles of these different yoga instructors deserve a brief moment under the spotlight. Let me start the series with the friendliest of them all, the "Customer Service Oriented."
A teacher who knows your name or at least tries to remember who you are, is always much more approachable and personable. Any questions you are itching to ask are easier to pose in a friendlier learning environment. As always, this instructor ends classes with a feel-good, warm and fuzzy, "It was great to have you in class, please come again!" Post-class chatting is also highly encouraged between the instructors and among students. This all contributes to a very positive outcome, after the class.
Unfortunately, my service-oriented teacher is a little weak on the teaching technique. A lot about yoga instruction is hinged on giving good and explicit verbal prompts to guide the student to the pose. Like giving a business presentation, rhythm and transition are both very important aspects to the listening audience. My instructor also gets somewhat fixated on the music to play for different series of poses. I agree that the music can serve to increase the intensity of a series and help wind down towards the end. But, it's just an add-on or better yet, a low priority accessory and not a centerpiece of a showcase. Finally, due to this distraction and other possible reasons, the teacher occasionally forgets what the next pose is. I don't really think this is a huge faux pas because I've seen it happen when an instructor is so intent on one single pose, that it's very possible to lose their own train of thoughts. This is particularly common when the instructor is doing the pose with you and the class is very full.
All in all, I think the "Customer Service Oriented" instructor has much to offer and are particularly good for students new to yoga. I appreciate the genuine feel-good vibes in the classroom. However, I think that being able to delivery good verbal prompts and work on the rhythm of the class are quite important for students to profit from the benefits of yoga. Otherwise, students just end up getting confused during the course of the class. Being confused in yoga is rarely a good thing because it may end in injury. 3月17日 The Path of Friendship and Its SurprisesA critical part of a successful friendship and any human relationship, similar to IT projects, is the ability to set expectations in a timely fashion and engage in a reasonble amount of negotiations. As we grow older, we acquire and shed friendships primarily due to a change in geography, interest, and marital status. The frequency of gaining new acquaintances is very dependent availability of time as well as mutual affinity.
I believe there are two extreme approaches to the friendship building behaviour spectrum. Some choose to treat it like a popularity contest in which they provide stellar "performances" and hope for the most votes. Follow-through is rarely a priority. Others so timidly navigate the process as if they were sifting through sand for gold and no one makes the cut. Hopefully after such instense efforts, the friendship lasts for a while. And, of course, there is the rest of us who sit somewhere in between the two edges.
Once we pass the stage of acquaintance, we begin to navigate through the uncertain territory of understanding the friendship and hopefully gain some understanding about ourselves. We learn what to expect from the friend, for better and for worse. If certain expectations are not deemed acceptable, we distance ourselves and move on. In other words, we employ the avoidance tactic where we reduce exposure to the unpleasant experience to minimize discomfort. On the other hand, heaven forbid we learn how we chronically disappoint our peers and may choose to improve ourselves, or not.
When we choose to bravely continue the friendship by accepting mutual faults, we advance to a stage where there is a huge element of surprise -- pleasant and unpleasant. Learning the limits of the friendship, we try not to introduce strain into the relationship or have unreasonable expectations. On a more positive note, we also learn how friends can surprise us.
Talking about a more personal experience, one of the few childhood friends with whom I've kept in touch all these years recently asked me to be her bridesmaid. Although the request arrived 4 months before her wedding date and I felt a little bit like a plan B because of the late request, I'm still somewhat flattered. (My sister assured me that the last minute requests are typical of Taiwanese wedding dis-organization.) My friend wanted each of the bridesmaid to represent different stages of her life and I was the one that went the furthest back -- elementary school.
I can't say I expected too little from the friendship, but she certainly surprised me. Plan B or not, I've been quite delightfully surprised. 3月14日 Knowing When to Back OffOftentimes in yoga class, I meet people who have been practicing other sports for a number of years and sought yoga as means of recovering from a sports related injury. Coupled with its ability to increase flexibility and tone the body, yoga offers another frequently underestimated benefit -- meditation. The meditative aspect of yoga helps the healing process by increasing awareness of the mind and body. So, with such wonderful benefits to speak of, is it ever possible to get injured doing yoga? My answer to that is a resounding yes.
Although confidence and fearlessness helps in exploring yoga within the bounds of your own personal flexibility, the confidence and fearlessness must be used with caution. A large part of a beneficial yoga practice is awareness of your own body's flexibility. Once you honestly accept your own personal limits, then you can comfortably determine how to increase flexibility without causing injury. Yoga actually gives you the opportunity to make that conscious decision. Active sports usually do not offer that decision as some injuries are caused by uncontrollable events in a game. In yoga, there are no stretch goals imposed and no unpredictable external events. There is only one person who calls the shots and it's you. I also believe it's a personal responsibility to learn when to slow down.
At this point in time, let's not ignore the other major influencer on your decision and that is the yoga instructor. Having to deal with a roomful of students with varying degrees of flexibility, the instructor has to actively engage seasoned yogis and also provide careful guidance to new students. It's no easy task and the honest truth is some instructors do a better job than others. As a student, it's important to be cognizant of the shortcomings of the instructor and always err on the side of caution. All caution aside though, instructors are a rich resource about the different yoga poses -- learning about the right and wrong way to do them, how to enter and get out of them, the full potential of the poses and the goal of the poses.
As you practice more frequently, your yoga practice becomes a blend of different progressions of strengths and weaknesses, applied tips from various teachers, and a continuous learning experience. Put simply, the key to yoga really is yourself. 3月10日 Managing in a Crowded Yoga ClassAt the beginning of every year, gyms and yoga studios witness a jump in membership and/or attendance. To encourage the folks sitting on the fence about joining, gyms shamelessly throw in the temptation of waived registration fees and reduced rates. (I am slightly bitter about this because I'm stuck at a higher monthly rate...) I, myself, have been part of that flood of eager yet undisciplined and starry eyed crowd of new year's resolution makers. This year, with my somewhat regular attendance to yoga classes, I'm glad to say I'm merely a spectator of this phenomenon. As I rush my tardy self to my yoga class, I look around and see the busier workout machines and wonder to myself how long these new members will last. That thought occupies my mind even more as I step into a very crowded yoga class, which used to be severely underattended. Yoga classes do get crowded and its popularity usually depends on the timing of the class and the instructors. Some instructors are more popular than others where as some classes occur too early or late for office workers. As I mentally adjust to the presence of a distractingly large number of wobbly beginners, I also put together a mental list of things yoga students should keep in mind when space is limited. This list serves as a guideline but all points really boil down to enforcing the very basic concept of respecting another person's space.
Any pet peeves on behavioural guidelines in a crowded yoga class are welcome! 11月24日 Adulthood: Lost and Found SectionAs the holiday season kicks off and everyone either gets caught up in, overwhelmed by or left out of the swirl of activities, this seems to also be an appropriate time to reflect upon our present state. As most of us have achieved adulthood unscathed, the challenge that awaits most of us is managing adulthood and the setting realistic expectations for ourselves. As we weather the vicissitudes of life, we invariably get lost in its meandering paths. The hope is that we find our way back to where we all need to be. Though time consuming, the process of being lost and found is not entirely futile because it helps define who we are and confirms values that we treasure. We often leave the more naive and self-doubting shell of ourselves behind. All the while, time continues to pass us by swiftly. I'm inclined to believe that time is a critical factor for the success of self-definition/rediscovery. There is always no telling to what will happen in the future. The unknowable events serve as a catalysts to propell the search forward or set us back. Difficult as it may be, we should always keep an open mind for these elements of surprise and regard them as opportunities to learn. Interestingly enough over the span of the past six months, I have encountered plenty of people who have successfully held down the fort on their own. Their social circles are supportive, personal drama kept minimal, health is sound, and jobs are stable. However, I still recognize the syptoms of a lost adult. This observation simply confirms that no one is completely free from confusion that comes in varying degrees. All I know for myself is that as I meander through the web of existence, I have my friends, hobbies, and job to keep me company. 10月14日 Out, Out Damn Slice!It's certainly been a while since the last posting. My legitimate excuse is work obligations and my more pathetic excuse is Facebook. That said, I haven't been entirely derelict of my other duties regarding yoga, chinese painting, SFBGS tours, and golf. I guess, you can assume that they haven't been neglected in the order mentioned above.
I recently took a golf lesson and was very pleased with the outcome, currently only visible on the driving range and non-existent on the course. What really inspired me to sign up was the fact that a fellow golfer, who is way more solid than me on the golf course takes lessons on a regular basis. If she is serious enough about the sport to be signing up for lessons, I have even less reasons for not signing up.
Lessons have changed its format with more readily availability of digital equipment. First off, digital camera does an excellent job at capturing the swing and allowing a fairly thorough evaluation -- showing the good, bad, and ugly. I am still somewhat skeptical about exclusively depending on off-driving range digital equipment because there is no way of immediately seeing how the ball is reacting to the swing. I don't think the mind registers corrections until it witnesses how the ball has altered its projectile path.
That first lesson was focused on correcting a slice which unfortunately developed into a bad habit over the past year. To my delight, the slice was nicely corrected on the range, post-lesson. However, it wasn't completely gone on the course. I think this may be a function of time before the slice gets reasonably corrected. Time and practice will tell, but I realize that practice cannot be limited to the driving range, as I just witnessed the slice's regular appearance on the course. 9月18日 Time for Some LessonsEvery so often, the process and/or outcome of a golf game is humbling. A bad tee off may be hard to recover from, or a lousy chip can cause some confidence deflation that impacts the rest of the game. One thing that helps is playing with people on the same level as you, so all the errors don't snowball into just one awefully embarrassing event, leading to the swearing off of the golf altogether.
Recently, my golf game has been a little humbling as it is slowly becoming apparent to me that I can't hit straight. After discussions with a seasoned golfer, I decided to sign up for some lessons but have yet to set a time for the lessons. At any rate, below are a list of items I want to make sure my lessons cover:
1. Correct the slice
2. Hit from the slope of a hill 3. Chip efficiently 4. Increase hitting distance I just remember having a "How to Hit Out of a Sand Bunker" lesson a while back and it was great. I am hoping that #1 will be covered as soon as I find the time for lessons. 9月11日 Focus and Concentration: Toe Stand (Padangustasana)There are always some poses in yoga where seasoned yogis extend themselves beyond what appears to be humanly possible. The intense amount of focus and concentration that enables a balance or the superb flexibility boggles the mind. Over time, one of the most rewarding aspects of yoga is the ability to reach this personal edge during the course of developing a practice. At all times, the key point to remember is that yoga is about exceeding personal limits. It is rarely about the other people in class and always about advancing to a new level of self-awareness. Although that may sound rather trite, once the focus is outbound, the mind loses touch with what the body is or is not capable of. The externally driven competition becomes a distraction from the goal of independently striving for reaching the personal edge. Toe Stand (Padangustasana) is one of the poses I enjoy immensely because of its ability to encourage me to exceed myself. It challenges and rewards me at the same time. It is challenging because the pose keeps reinforcing the importance of quiet concentration and inward focus. Transitions into and out of the pose require mindfulness of my body so the joints are not strained. This mindfulness also demonstrates kindness and respect for my own body to acknowledge its limitations and prevent injury. It feels rewarding because when I started practicing yoga, I never would have imagined being able to come close to doing the pose. This pose starts with the traditional tree stand and a careful transition to the toe stand. Then, the balance starts when the entire body is balanced on the toes, as hands are lifted from the mat and in front of the heart. The finish is equally challenging as it requires a careful transition back to standing. The knees and ankles can get into very awkward positions, so slow and careful alignment is important. Mostly, it is the mental challenge of focus and concentration in this pose that I always look forward to. It certainly keeps me on my toes! What poses keep you on your toes? 9月9日 Restorative YogaI get a snicker or two when I tell some people about my regular yoga practice. The question that stirs this mild contempt is very simple. It's usually, "Do you even break a sweat in yoga??? How can you call that a workout?" If one measures a workout based on the quantity of sweat, Bikram yoga classes which are conducted with a room temperature of over 100 degrees fahrenheit will cast no doubt in anyone's mind about the intensity of a yoga workout. Sweating bullets is the norm.
Restorative yoga, on the other hand, caters to a more relaxing aspect of yoga which leaves you feeling renewed and energized at the end of the session. Poses usually make use of more props, including my personal favorite -- the bolster. The bolster is a firm pillow that supports the body in the poses. This support enables the body to engage in active relaxation as the muscles don't have to work as hard. This is the yoga where you would likely not break a sweat.
Poses typical in restorative yoga inlcude the supported inversion (legs propped against the wall and the bolster at the lower back) and a supported back bend (bolster supporting the mid-back as you lie down.) Poses tend to be held for a longer duration, so that the body can actively relax into the pose.
As always, the breath is important and aids in self-awareness. One of the problems with restorative yoga may be the wandering mind that refuses to focus on the deep relaxation. This is when the breath plays a role at drawing the focus inward to make the restorative yoga complete and successful. I always leave these classes restored, refreshed, and stress-free. 9月6日 No Yoga Due to Forgetfullness...Showing up at 8am for work when you live 40 minutes away from work can cause some forgetfulness that impacts a much needed yoga workout. This forgetfulness makes one feel extremely foolish, especially upon discovering that all yoga accoutrements is missing from the gym bag when in the locker room. Here's how it all unravelled:
I excitedly left work, looking forward to the one-hour yoga workout in a packed room. I actually dislike the packed room and the short 1-hour workout, but that's all my schedule currently allowed. I pulled into a vacant spot of the busy underground parking lot, analyzing the trade-offs of parking further away from the gym. I arrived at the lobby of the gym, narrowly missing the elevator that takes 5-minutes round trips to the third floor. I signed in, strolled to the locker room, secretly rejoicing in being 10 minutes early for class. I planted my gym bag down, peered into its dark depths, and discovered that I didn't bring my yoga clothes...
I was a fool. No yoga for me. 9月4日 Expiration Dates on Packaged FoodWhat better way to appreciate the passage of time than a simple expiration date on packaged food? Unless it's junk food with zero preparation time, packaged goods that find their way into my cupboards usually meet their overdue demise in the garbage bin. Usually found in the same condition as when it was originally purchased, these products rarely meet my goals of healthily nutrition primarily because they never make it past the packaging.
How does any of this relate to time management? It merely emphasizes how poorly I am managing my time to keep myself healthily fed. The goals are lofty and the vision admirable. Execution, however, has much to be desired. I am always promising myself that I will do a better job at keeping myself healthy by making home prepared meals. Apparently convenience ranks higher than personal health. This misplaced priority needs to be revisited. In the mean time, I am going to sparingly stock up on packaged goods to minimize wastage. 8月26日 Soapbox: Importance of Self-PresentationIn a world where judgement is frequently passed based on appearance, how should we deal? Should we bow down to societal pressures and chase every hot new trend or should we rebel against all societal expectations and personify urban decay at its peak? Or, as a do-nothing option, should we maintain status quo and ignore verdicts from the self-annointed social matrons?
I believe self-presentation is as important as good table manners and proper posture. Since the scope of self-presentation is usually subject to interpretation and consequent artistic/creative application of fashion, I believe we should simply strive to do ourselves justice. That will certainly prove to be challenging since our egos tell us everyday how we are God's most prized creatures walking on the face of planet Earth. So, how do we strive for a realistic self-presentation without self-destructing and/or over-indulging?
Success ultimately boils down to self-knowledge and followed by self-acceptance, both of which require a heady dose of realism and humility. We should present ourselves in a realistic way, but also allow for occasions when we need to indulge society with marginal embellishments of the truth. Say, what? After all this discourse of being "true," why succumb to embellishments? Well, as much as some of us realists find it distasteful, we still need to acknowledge societal pressures and bow down to it without compromising too much of our integrity. Now is the time when we depend on our personal values to set the frequency and the latitude of the boundaries for embellishments. We only go as far as we are willing to let ourselves.
To those firm believers of personifying urban decay, the excuse of "keeping a low profile" and "not wanting to be judged" to account for a bedraggled appearance is poor. How can we fault someone else's poor judgement of us, if we strive to give a poor first impression? It's akin to blaming a person for not wanting speaking to us because we refuse to brush our teeth in the morning.
On the other hand, if we lived in a fictitious society that prized minty fresh breath and we failed the minty breath test even after thoroughly brushing our teeth, then clearly the judges are on a different plane. Chances are, it's a plane that we don't need to be on as well. 8月25日 When Work Interferes with YogaAs with any workout schedule, doing yoga 3 times a week after work becomes challenging when work competes for precious time. This week's work schedule forced me to sacrifice a yoga class. Skipping yoga and continuing to work at home late into the evening made me wonder about practicing yoga at home for an hour. Desperate time calls for desperate measures. I could basically modify routine in class and do the following: 1. Warm up for 5 minutes with breathing and some stretches Equipped with a spare yoga mat at home, that goal is definitely within reach. The yoga room in the gym doesn't have mirrors, so my body has slowly learned the alignment of each pose in class on its own. That makes practicing yoga at home without a mirror even easier. Bikram classes, on the other hand, usually have mirrors to assist with the balancing and alignment. In the end, I didn't go through with my imaginary make-up yoga routine because I thought it would feel too weird. There wasn't a spare bedroom/den with sparse furnishings and the least amount of visual distractions in which to practice yoga. If this work schedule persists, I may have to take action. I would consider practicing with minimal vocal prompts but still without a video. I start checking out yoga podcasts that someone mentioned to me. In the meantime, if anyone has practiced yoga at home without the guidance of a video, please let me know! 8月20日 Great Seats for SF Symphony Scored!I can hardly contain the excitement of my recent purchase of SF Symphony tickets for this coming season. The best part is that my seat is in the dead center of the section. Nothing can ever beat good seating. Good seats always help justify the time spent leisurely enjoying good performances to divert the mind for the mundane chores and other time-wasting activities.
Having been a subscriber quite a few seasons ago, I already have a routine for ticket purchase, availing of subscriber services, and performance day procedure. With this upcoming season, I'm sure my routine will have to be revised and upgraded a little. The subscriber perks seem much better this time around or at least I'm noticing them. In a few days, single tickets go on sale for subscribers only, so I have a task to identify other concerts worth attending.
My initial reluctance to renew the subscription after my first two seasons was because going to the concerts became an unwanted production. Driving up to San Francisco for an occasional weekend concert when I would rather be hanging out at home proved to be a nuisance. Then, there was also the predicament of going to these concerts alone. There are times when having a regular companion to go with helps make the logistics slightly more bearable.
In spite of that, I still signed up for this season by myself because I didn't want to tackle the task of recruiting another regular for the season. If I did, I would have to tackle differing budgetary expectations, scheduling conflicts, and finally carpooling options. Recruiting an occasional companion should not be an issue, but finding another regular could prove to be more challenging. In the mean time, I took the selfish shortcut of taking care of just myself. Although it seems kind of pathetic, it's not that bad to be resigned to doing these things on your own. However, I forsee organizing a leisurely group outting for a concert or two in the future. 8月19日 Finding the Time to ReadWith all the distractions in the everyday life, maintaining a healthy regimen of good and informative reading is challenging. The internet offers opportunities to stay informed by providing a wide variety of sources at a mouse click, but it also opens the door to all sorts of time wasting alternatives. Facebook is a prime example of a fun social networking site where plenty of time is wasted.
Just like any diet out there, feeding the brain with diverse stimulations and reading materials is important for personal growth. After identifying target reading materials, it takes effort and discipline to develop a reading habit at the end of a day, especially when it competes with chores, TV, and the Internet. I believe that the best time to read is one hour right before bedtime, when the evening has wrapped up. To assure that nothing "important" has been missed, the VCR or DVR has to be set up for the TV shows. With the frequency of websites being updated and powerful search engines, Internet surfers need not worry about missing the latest and greatest headlines or searching aimlessly for older articles. The bottomline is that time spent reading is time well spent and warrants the initial effort.
Every Sunday, I make time to finish the Sunday newspaper or at least catch up with articles on WSJ. It's also the same time I take out all the week's unread newspaper. It's an incredible waste of money on unread newspapers, but it's a larger waste of space and lack of tidiness for unread newspapers lying around. It's time to think about the reading list and how to monitor progress on the reading list... 8月17日 In an Overflowing Yoga ClassWith some recent changes in my post-work activities, I had to modify my yoga schedule a bit. What that left me was an occasional attendance to a one-hour yoga class known to be packed to the rafters. My primary hesitation about attending that class was the duration. I personally doubt it's possible to have a comprehensive yoga workout within an hour, with the expectation of getting deep relaxation followed by a thorough muscle toning workout. Coupled with that doubt is the dismal teacher-to-student ratio tpyical of an overflowing classroom.
As a more advanced student, I could easily still lead my own practice with minimal guidance. But I couldn't help but question the quality of attention the teacher could spare the beginners. Maybe that's one of the reasons why the poses in the class were rather simple, mostly focusing on the Sun Salutations.
To pack a powerful workout within such a short duration, I suspect the teacher cranked up the heat a bit. Doing flows with a slightly elevated room temperature intensifies the workout noticeably. Or, maybe a roomful of sweating bodies increases the room temperature. For beginners, a challenging workout with a less than ideal guidance can easily result in injury. Although yoga seems slow moving and still, it requires poses to be maintained for half a minute or more. If the body's alignment is incorrect, it won't be difficult to pull a muscle the wrong way while transitioning into/out of a pose or even while holding the pose.
Given that I don't have a choice (short of just not showing up for this class, ) learning how to manage my practice in a crowded yoga class is going to be inevitable. Here's a few things I'm working on to make the one-hour class as fruitful as possible:
1. Focus on Breathing: Once again, coming back to the breath and its rhythm forces the mind to turn inward and ignore the environment.
2. Visual Focus: Focusing the vision on a fixed spot during and in between poses helps in ignoring the other closeby classmates. I usually make sure my mat is staggered with the person across from me, so the line of vision does not intersect.
3. Minimize Fidgeting: After completing each pose, always try to minimize any extraneous movements so that the mind's focus does not get distracted by the body's movements. 8月14日 Early Morning ErrandsWe try to squeeze productivity into every conscious and breathing moment of our daily lives. A frequently overlooked time of the day to run errands is the early morningtime, when stores are just opening their doors.
I find that the early morning is a good time in the day to get a headstart on the checklist of chores. Unless it's the day after Thanksgiving, crowds are scarce. Those who are also running errands in the morning tend to be a little more patient because they know they have the whole day ahead if more time is needed when something goes wrong. They're not rushing into the shop 5 minutes before closing and then expecting to pack the grocery basket with a week's worth of food. Early morning is an unusual time of the day to run errands for the average person. Hence, the sights and sounds are different from those during peak business hours.
For example, during one of my early morning trips to Trader Joe's, I noticed baskets full of the the fresh and colorful flower bouquets sitting right by the entrance. During my usual lunchtime trips to Trader Joe's, the flowers outside didn't attract my attention due to the the bustling shoppers and glaring noon sun. My mind was usually preoccupied with making a mental list of shopping items, planning my route in the store, and exiting as soon as possible. My early morning walk felt more leisurely than the lunch errand runs. Just the quiet walk in the crisp and cool morning air cleared my mind and relaxed me.
The inevitable chores required to run our own little lives without a hitch can be accomplished with reduced amount of stress, as long as we find ways to manage the chores. Maybe morning errands can become a viable option so that by the time evening rolls by, the checklist doesn't appear as long. Finally, if we let our minds wander a little bit, we can pay some attention our surroundings and enjoy the dreadful chores a little more. 8月13日 Two Tours on a Weekend DayRather than leading tours on two separate weekends each month, I recently decided to lead two tours on a single weekend day. This decision was made primarily to save myself an additional trip to San Francisco for another weekend as the traffic on 19th Avenue proved very frustrating in the afternoons. To deliver two tours in one day, I had to sign up for the 10:30am and the 2pm tour. I hesitated with this plan at first because I worried about being too tired for the afternoon tours. However, a 2.5 hour break to feed myself, sit around and review the tour material should be enough to energize me.
In general, leading the morning tours has been a more leisurely activity for me as they rarely attracted a big group. The morning temperature tend to be cooler, so this makes the walk through the garden more enjoyable. In terms of attendance, the 2pm tour departing from the Friend Gate have been a real hit or miss for me, as I usually get no one. I don't know if the Friend Gate just doesn't have plenty of foot traffic, or if the signage isn't as apparent. When this happens, I am usually torn between relief and disappointment. Part of me is glad that I don't have to do my disjointed reverse tour from the Friend Gate. Yet the orator in me wants an audience to captivate (hopefully...) and inform.
At any rate, yesterday marked the beginning of my little two-tours-per-day program. I didn't encounter traffic issues because of the early hour but parking still proved to be a challenge due to some park activities. I guess the free antique paper show and monthly plant sale attracted quite a crowd. Fortunately, I arrived early enough so that I wasn't out of breath from my sprint from my car to the bookstore/Friend Gate. I cannot count the number of times I've been slightly late for my tour because of traffic/parking issues. I am hoping this new tour schedule I'm implementing will ease this problem.
As expected, as my 2pm tour usually did not disappoint -- nobody showed up. This time, I was relieved. |
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