Joowonsome? - You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf. - Joseph Goldstein

Wonderful class today with yogi tea to top it off

I just got home from a fantastic yoga class today. Everything just went well especially considering that my last class was a bit chaotic.

I turned on the music on low volume and it helped my teaching flow better.  The homemade yogi tea that I have brought was still being warmed up in the new electric pot I bought and it was filling the room with aromas of cardamoms, gingers, and many other goodness that went into the tea..  (I replaced the black tea with the green tea..a lot milder taste)

Many of the yoga sequence today included engaging your mula bandha.  Some of the postures are several variations of Shalabhasana(locust), Navasana(boat), and variation of reverse crunches…(I led them gradually going from their legs pointing to the ceiling to 60 degrees, then back to the ceiling to 45 degrees, back to the ceiling to 15 degress….till they were barely touching the ground…) The ending Pranayama was Breath of Fire to wake them up from drowsiness of Savasana.  

After the class, I served the yogi tea to the students.  I brought the soy milk and honey and it was a hit.  It not only nourished our body with good ayurvedic benefits, but also made the students hang around more after the class which built a good energy in the classroom… Having that 5 minutes sipping their tea, they had the opportunity to ask each other about how they felt after the practice and reviewed what made them feel better and what was difficult (I sometimes eve dropped on their conversation…which was kind of fun actually..) The power of yogi tea: it builds the yoga community…  The best part of today was seeing people smile and telling me how their body feels so much better each day and especially today..It made me feel so happy and I am growing deeper love for doing what I do. I feel very privileged and lucky that I can share the knowledge I learned from my teachers - thank you Sadani, Wayo, Mark, Prema, and many other teachers of yogayoga studio in Austin.

From a photoshoot 2 years ago - a good friend of mine who’s also my photography mentor just sent to me after some updates. 

This pretty much sums up today.

Butterfinger Pancakes with G, had cappuccino, then to K. Univ for some PS3 fun (finally played Little Big Planet), had good conv. warm jacket-yey, handmade soaps-sweet, ate delicious samgyupsal at donenu then to marble slab with S talking about industries and yoga and yoga industries (in that order), pomplamoose-love.

Fun sunday.  another new wondrous week begins.

Good day

Today’s an excellent day.

I had two classes back to back and both with excellent groups of students.

The Hospital English Conversation class was a tough class as my Physical Therapy students missed two classes due to their orientation and meetings.  I told them they have a lot to catch up and our pace was pretty fast. The good thing is that they are enthusiastic about learning English.  I can actually discuss vocab terms like menopause, estrogen, etc. with these guys because they are adults. I really enjoyed explaining them the difference between testosterone and estrogen.  I think I am an effective teacher - I can feel it in my gut.

After the two back-to-back lectures, I had to teach English to the professors in my department.  To my surprise, Justin was the only one there and it was our second time together.  He ended up evaluating my postures and gave me a really good insight on how to improve my posture. He said my left shoulder has anterior rotation and I knew exactly how it happened.  That’s the side I sleep on and for the past year, I propped up my body using my left arm to use the computer for many hours.  I knew it wasn’t a good idea and when he mentioned it to me, I could definitely see it.  

Justin said he heard from the department head professor that I want to learn more about anatomy and physiology.  I casually joked about the old thick Gray’s Anatomy book he had in his bookshelf.  He then said to me, “take it.”  I could’t believe it!  I have always wanted this book…..

 Gray's Anatomy Book

I can’t wait to get cracking on this book and learn some medical terms.  I love the illustrations in this book..very colorful and detailed.  I may start to do some anatomy illustrations like Albinus and Vesalius…hehe…they are awesome if you haven’t seen their work..

Anyhoo…heard the great news that my English yoga class is a hit (my class is anywhere between 15-20 students) among the professors and I feel that all of their eyes are on me.. oh the pressure.. This will only push me to study harder and prepare better classes for them.

Today is Friday, time to eat some galbi and chill out with friends over Hite! Yes..that’s my choice of beer..not Cass.  hehe. Cheers.

Happiness is the result of inner maturity. It depends on us alone, and requires patient work, carried out from day to day. Happiness must be built, and this requires time and effort. In the long term, happiness and unhappiness are therefore a way of being, or a life skill.

Matthieu Ricard