Having vs Losing

A favourite saying of Boss [as in Bikram, versus studio manager, boss] during training was “You have nothing to lose… when you had nothing to begin with!”.

What DOES it really mean – “having nothing to begin with”? Does it mean to abandon all hope that

– I’m “born” with a stiff body and I could never do a [beautiful] backbend

– When I die I most certainly can’t bring my material possessions with me to the afterlife

Well, yes and yes. The last one being obvious, IMHO.

Boss’ little saying reminds me of a story I read in Joy Luck Club yonks ago : The girl was crying bitterly when her mother refused to buy her a walkman. “Why are you crying for the walkman, child? Why are you crying for something you haven’t even lost?” asked the mother.

Bear with me I paraphrased. Read the book 13 years ago.

What matters most to you in YOUR life right now? More money, more time, more and more and more? Yet, as human beings, when we can’t get what we want [the money, the car, the girl / guy], more often than not we feel… disappointed. Why?

Was it THAT important to possess more money? What can you do with more money? “Oh, if I earned more, I could do MORE things! I could take time off, spend more time with my family, this and that”. Well, if they WERE important to you, you would NOT be stuck in this predicament, would you? In fact, you’d MAKE TIME for your family instead of chasing material wealth in the [foolish] hopes of providing a better quality of life for your family, when all they want is to spend more time with you while you whittle your way at the office.

More often than not, when things go awry, we tend to look inwards and blame ourselves. But really, as we scratch away the surface, peel away the ‘layers of the onion’, you will find that yes, we are crying and moaning about what we have yet to lose, when there’s SO MUCH to gain in this world.

M*

Hello, World!

Oh how I’ve missed you!

Thanks to incomprehensibly SLOW interweb speeds from Streamyx, Malaysia’s Most Popular & SLOWEST Broadband Provider [honestly, it’s like Streamyx is battling it out with SLOTHS to see who’ll take home the title of “Slowwwwweeesst”] … I am finally BACK ONLINE!! YAY!

In addition to teaching full-time, practicing full-time, a virus has taken residence in my body, leaving my poor physical body in a perpetual state of tofu-ness. I’m also pretty sure that for the past 2 days, I practiced Bikram’s Beginning Yoga Class with an additional Blownosenowasana every 4th posture. Eww.

In other teaching news, I have discovered [and I use this term loosely] a new way to fall off the podium – slipping on the thermometer, sliding 3 inches before regaining composure to teach the next posture. I will say this again : Dialogue saves your ass. Repeat after me. Dialogue. Saves. My. Ass.

Unfortunately, I don’t feel very cerebral today so I humbly apologise for the lack of updates [and coherence].

M*

Eeeeek.

So TheMissus tweeted the other day asking for guests bloggers for the Bikram101 blog.

Before I could even get a hold of myself, my fingers fumbled in the dark on my trusty phone’s keypad and typed an answer : ME ME ME.

I woke up thinking, “What on God’s gracious EARTH possessed me to do THAT?”. I mean, logically, I don’t even update this blog as much [I confess, I log in, stare at the screen, wonder what to write – cause honestly, I can’t talk about the things I used to talk about as I now am a TEACHER!- for about 2 hours, log out and promptly shut down].On another hand, an evil bitchtastic voice goes on in my head and screams “MY NAME IS MEI, I AM YOUR YOGA TEACHER, AND YOU WILL DAMN WELL READ TO WHAT I HAVE TO WRITE. EXCUSE ME, HELLO, DON’T YOU DARE ALT+F4 ME.” [er, doing that causes you to close your browser. Try it later. Preferably when you’re not reading my blog. Hehehe]

No use trying to mickey out of this one just because I’m.. afraid. Nosiree, nopes!

In doing so, what sort of approach should I take? Funny, hilarious? Serious, inspirational? Or should I do a little ditty / dance? Or maybe, if I’m really adventurous, a vlog [though I doubt anyone wants to hear me speak coupled with the fact that I don’t have the proper lighting and I cannot be arsed to wear make up]?

Now, off to finish my draft[s] and send it off.

M*

Falling Off, On, Over, Backwards.

The podium, that is.

Ya’d think that standing on TWO FEET on a podium whilst not doing any balancing postures [hello, Standing Bow!] will make me nimble and steady on my feet… but noooo. Oh no.

As of 1st March 2010, I have fallen 3 times off the podium, twice onto the podium [which I will go into detail soon] and once backwards.

For all ye future #bktt trainees, posture clinics is where you can learn how to stay on the podium. Basically a large towel from the lovely Hilton serves as a podium marker, and god knows how many times I have “fallen off” said podium. “Very good Mei, but please stay on the towel”. But I can’t see my students [poor hapless volunteers], I protested, as I am vertically challenged.

How to fall off : Basically, it goes something like this : as I’m trying to get a closer look at my students, I lose my footing and fall off. Sounds something like this : Blah blah blah, dialogue dialogue dialogue… OOF [that’s the sound of me landing on- thank the stars- my feet]. AND CHANGE.

To add insult to injury, I once fell off, and fell off again as I attempted to get back on. Biggest insult ever was when I fell off the podium while being given feedback by my mentor. As he made me ‘teach’ him Bhujangasana again [I’ve been having problems with my voice and pacing…], I crept up to get a closer look and whoopde doo, I fall off the podium. Jakob could not help but laugh his ass off at my predicament – falling off when not even teaching a legit class.

Now, how do you fall ONTO the podium? Isn’t that a little more… DIFFICULT?

Well my friends! It turns out – it is not the case.

As I was walking back towards the podium after milling around the room [apparently just standing NEXT to a person can make them suddenly remember correct alignment], I forgot to uhm, ah, get up on the podium and my thighs crash landed against it, making me go DOWN like a tree being chopped in the Amazon. Timberrrrrrrrr. Yes, it happened the second time I tried to get back up but instead miserably timberrrrr‘d onto the podium.

Falling backwards is a new… skill I have recently acquired – and one that I have ABSOLUTELY NO INTENTION of keeping. As I was teaching class, I took a few steps backwards to see a couple of students standing in the back row. Apparently I took a few strides too large backwards and soon I found myself flailing my arms as I flew backwards. THANK GOD for the mirrors behind me that caught my fall. By mirrors, I mean, heated mirrors that slightly burned my ass as I landed on the mirrors.

And there you have it – more teaching adventures! Next time you hear an OOF coming over the speakers, you can bet that you’re taking a Mei class who has hopelessly fallen off the podium. Maybe I should start putting barriers over the edge of the podium. HA!

M*

Signs, Part 2

Just the other day I was setting up my mic to teach, and out popped the battery that said boldly : MADE IN SINGAPORE.

What a coincidence, just as I was thinking of the Asana Championships, figuring out how to fit teaching AND practicing Beginner’s AND advanced all in 1 day [along with a friend, whose Self I’m a little worried for…]

Maybe the universe IS hitting me on the head with a brick.

oh what am I saying. Signs can’t be that loud, can it?

In a feeble attempt to distract you about how … slack I have been on updating, please enjoy my current obsession – Lady GaGa’s “Alejandro”. Been looping this song like a MANIAC.

src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/AVDvrzCWuzM&hl=en_US&fs=1&” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″>

ENJOY! *bounces off to read more books.

M*

p.s : Yes, that’s why I was on a blogging hiatus. I’ve got so many good books to read, namely “A Brief History of Time” and… wait for it… THE SOOKIE STACKHOUSE SERIES.  Growl!