The title above is the question we often hear when we are just about to take yoga class. There are many choices that we can choose, from hatha yoga, vinyasa yoga, iyengar yoga, yin yoga, inside flow yoga, hot yoga or bikram yoga, aerial yoga and acro yoga which we do with a partner, and many more. So, how do we know which one suits us?

One way to know is by trying them all and choose which one that you like best. However, with this method, you might miss the type that your whole being need the most. I said your whole being meaning not only what your physical body needs, but also your mind and emotions as a person.
The other way to know is by knowing what type of person you are. You can check your Ayurveda type, whether you are a vata (air), pitta (fire) or kapha (earth) person. For example, a "type A" of person is a person who likes to be active, needs to do everything in fast pace, and doesn't like to be idle. For this type, being idle is boring and so unproductive. They feel guilty if they take time to break and their minds need to be stimulated all the time. These are qualities of "type A" or pitta in Ayurveda. This type has more of fire element and there are many people in this group, including me. There is nothing wrong with it. However, we need to balance the fire within us, otherwise we'll get burned out because we keep pushing and forcing.

So, in the case of choosing yoga type of class, it is almost certain that we will choose power yoga like ashtanga or vinyasa yoga that makes us sweating, because in modern society being sweaty always mean positive that you burn fat, you are detoxing, etc. whilst yoga is way more than that. Nonetheless, power yoga only cannot help us to be balanced in life. We need the opposite, which is a more gentle type of yoga that moves slowly and mindfully, or even static, of only slight movement, so we get the opportunity to know what is going on within our body, mind, and emotions. Checking-in .... that is what we need to harness. I know it is not easy and it might be so boring and give uncomfortable sensations. But once we can manage to stay within the pose until the end, there is this feeling of proud of accomplishing something and you can get to know your whole-self better. You have more loving kindness and gentleness toward yourself. You learn to let go of judgments you have about yourself and be surrender. So, this opposite practice actually helps you to release tension and become more relax, becoming more of who you are. Our "fire" is not getting scattered anymore, but is in focus. On the contrary, for those who are a kapha person, they are likely to feel more "heavy" and need more fiery practice, like vinyasa to keep them balanced.

So, the key to know which type of yoga that suits us is to know ourselves first. Do the practice of listening to your body. Your body is your teacher. It will guide you towards what you need. What you want and what you like do not necessarily mean what you need. Therefore, choose wisely and have everything in moderation a.k.a. balance.

​WHAT IS STRESS

Stress is a feeling of emotional or physical tension. It is your body's reaction to a challenge or demand that comes from fight or flight mode. In ancient times, human can get stress because of being faced with a tiger for example. He knows his life is in danger. His body is rushed with adrenaline and his only choice is to fight the tiger or to run away. This is called "Fight or Flight" mode. In modern times like where we are now, the fight or flight mode is not necessarily needed anymore. However since it has happened for a long time with our ancestors, it is now within our DNA too. When we are in stressful situations, our body will automatically be in fight or flight mode because it thinks we are unsafe.

The cause of stress is usually because we are not staying in the present moment. It's either there are unresolved issues or emotions in the past which we have not letting go completely yet or we are worried about the future which has not existed yet. Stress that is not handled properly can cause anxiety, depression, insomnia, headaches, high blood pressure, low back pain, body weight issues, and many more. It is important for us to understand ways to manage it properly through awareness.

Stress can be reflected not only on emotional level, like getting irritated or angry easily, or getting frustrated, but stress can also be manifested in the physical level. There are five areas where we usually hold stress:
a. jaw/neck/face
b. the shoulders/heart
c. the diaphragm/lungs
d. the stomach/gut
e. the pelvic floor/hips

Our body is made up of energy, and energy must be in motion (e-motion) and flowing to stay vital and clear. When we are having stress, the energy flow (chi) in our body becomes stagnant which causes stiffness, pain, tension, and rigidity in fascia or the connective tissues. The physical body is always trying to release emotion ~ if we do not express it, that energy gets stuck in our joints, tissues, and organs.


HOW TO HANDLE STRESS WITH EASE

Since stress is a reaction, we can CHOOSE how to react to it. There are many simple ways we can cope up with stress. The first and the most important step is to PAUSE and STOP for a moment. Be aware of where we are at the present moment, what we are doing now, how our body feels, where our mind goes, what our feeling is. Be MINDFUL, not MIND-FULL.
The second step is to BREATHE.  Breathing mindfully can help us to get centered or grounded again. Pay attention to how we breathe. When we are in stress, our breath becomes jagged, short, and shallow. We can change this breathing pattern into a longer and smoother breath by making the exhalation longer. So, the next thing to do is to inhale air from the nose and exhale from the mouth while imagining that we are also releasing any tension or negative emotion that is trapped within our body. Afterwards, we can do 4-4-8 breathing pattern. 4 counts on inhalation, 4 counts on pause, and 8 counts on exhalation. Keep repeating this pattern for a few times until we can breathe smoothly.
An idea that we can do is to check-in with our body every hour by taking mindful breath for 1 minute everyday. Therefore, we can take precaution and quick appropriate action when we feel we are in stress. Breath and emotion are closely related. When we change how we breathe, our emotion will also change.

There are some stretching exercises or yoga poses that can help  to release tension in our body due to stress which can be done at our desk at work:

1. Neck stretch and neck rolls.     
You may look up towards the ceiling on inhalation and drawing chin to chest on exhalation. Do this slowly, mindfully, and with gentleness. Feel the stretch at the front and back area of your neck. For neck rolls, you can draw your chin to chest and then draw circles in clockwise direction and then anti-clockwise direction. Give yourself time to pause after doing the pose and pay attention to how your body feels.

2. Some people hold tension in the shoulders area, and without them realizing it, their shoulders are hunching and it makes the breath shorter because the heart and lungs area become restricted. There are few poses to help opening up the body and lengthening the spine:

a. Chest opener in seated or standing position.
Interlace your fingers behind your low back and squeeze your shoulder blades closer to each other. Stay for a few breaths and feel your heart opens up.

b. Shoulder rolls.     
When you breathe in, bring your shoulders up and when you breathe out, roll your shoulders back and down. Then you can roll your shoulders back to front. Repeat this for about five times for each roll.

c. Seated Cat-Cow Spine.
Interlace your fingers and reach your arms up over your head when you breathe in, and round your spine and bring the arms forward when you breathe out. You can repeat this for about five times. Make sure that you combine your breath and movement mindfully. The slower you move, the better you will feel.

3. Side bend.    
Reach both arms up over the head and grab opposite elbow. Breathe in and when breathing out, bend your body side to side. This pose is good to open up rib cage in order to help us breathe easily.

4.Twisting.     
Sit on your chair. Inhale here, exhale turn your body to one side. You can place both hands on the seat behind you or one hand on the back of the chair. Stay for a few breaths and then release on exhale and switch side.


There are also few more suggestions that you can do for when you are at home to release stress out:

1. Rebounding or bouncing.    
Stand with hip-width apart or wider and then bounce your heels up and down. This is a natural way to let the energy flow throughout the body. You may also shake your hands while doing this and remember to smile :) You will not say you are in stress while doing this. This pose is relaxing and fun. Even kids do this intuitively when they feel they are stuck. After you feel satisfied, you can take a moment to pause and feel the energy flowing throughout your body. It can be a tingling sensation.

2. Savasana.
Savasana or corpse pose is the most favorite pose in yoga. All you do is to lay down on a mat or big towel if you do not have mat, in a dark room. Place your arms out to the side in 90 degrees with palms facing up. Legs are open wide in relaxing position. You may also place pillows for underneath your knees and head. Close your eyes gently and pay attention to how you breathe. There is nothing to do at this moment. Just breathe and enjoy each breath. You can scan your whole body from top of the head until your toes. Feel your body is getting heavier and heavier towards the ground. When you inhale, you breathe in new energy into your body and you are aware of the present moment. When you exhale, you release all  tensions out of your body and relax, and soften to the resistance. Feel the sense of being at ease in the body. Savasana is excellent to be done everyday for 15 to 20 minutes because the healing process happens after 10 minutes when we are in this pose. Other than relaxation effect, it helps our digestion system to function properly because the Parasymphatetic Nervous System (PNS) that is responsible for rest and digest can flow nutrition throughout the body optimally.

Hopefully the tips can help you to reduce your stress and you can maintain a healthy life style without stress. If you feel that you need to ask for help, then please reach out. YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Life is meant to be experienced in joyful way because life is amazing. So, do not let stress hold you down because deep inside you know that YOU ARE AMAZING.

nYin yoga is one part of the TRIPLE Y method I teach. Some people are familiar with yang yoga already. It is a common type of yoga that we see in a yoga class. However, let me remind again that yoga is not about folding the body like in circus performance. NOT AT ALL. And we are not being demanded to be flexible before we practice yoga. In fact with continuous practice FLEXIBILITY becomes THE RESULT. Anyone from all ages can do yoga.

Returning back to YIN YOGA. What is yin yoga and how does yin yoga impact our body?
Yin yoga is a combination between Hatha yoga from India and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) from China. The purpose is to smooth the meridian pathway or qi/chi system in our body which is also clearing the chakra system from Indian tradition. When our qi and chakras flow smoothly, we will gain vitality and well-being is improved. We become a healthy and balanced person.

The thing that differentiate yin yoga with other types of yoga is the stillness, yet we still get our body stretched. When I teach yin yoga, sometimes I get comments like "It is boring. Can we make it shorter?" or "I am impatient". Yin yoga actually helps us to understand more about ourself, dive deeper into who we really are. Perhaps, now we are more aware that we are an impatient type of person. So, what's next? How can we learn to have more patience, especially with ourself? Yin yoga gives effect not only on our physical body, but it also works on mental, emotional, and spiritual level.

Lets discuss the main principles of yin yoga:

1. Find the edge.
Once we are in a yin pose, we need to find our edge meaning we need to know whether we force ourself too much (strong sensation) or too lose (no sensation). Stretching is there but still within limit. There is no forcing. That is why STILLNESS is very important in yin yoga. By being still we are able to listen and be aware of our bodily needs.

2. Be Still.
Once we find our edge then just stay there. There is nothing else to do. Just be present with our breath and body. Paying attention to the tendency of moving or mentally distract ourself is the purpose of being still. It is like a mirror. How we behave and act on the mat will show how we behave and act off the mat in our everyday life.

3. Hold the pose.
Once we are settled in the pose, it is time to hold the posture for three to five minutes. For beginners, it is advisable to hold it starting from one and a half minute. This way, we train our mind to become still. The longer the body is still, the more the qi becomes concentrated in the deeper yin tissues (the bones and ligaments which are the target of yin yoga). As we are setlled into the stillness, our yin aspects of being- our contemplative, receptive qualities -are also enhanced, and so is our capacity to surrender.

4. Feel the sensations.
The sensations that being mentioned about her is mental and emotional sensations. Whenever the mind is going everywhere whilst we are in the pose, just acknowledge and return it to our breath. It is normal for the mind to be wandered around. This practice helps to anchor the mind and be grounded.
Now how about emotions? Emotions often come up when we are being calm enough and we can see things or events that we have experienced clearer. This is the time to release unwated emotions or emotional baggage. Surely we do not want to carry unnecessary burden throughout our life. We want to feel light and free. Yin yoga helps us to get clarity and letting go whatever that does not serve us anymore. We are allowed to cry and be vulnerable. It is a safe haven as a teacher holds the space for us. Therefore healing process is taken place as well with yin yoga and we can become a much better person.

Yin yoga is also about balancing our feminine aspect that is usually has been repressed for a long time. The wounded feminine causes jealousy, gossip, low self-worth, the need for external validation, and manipulation. The mature feminine results in creativity, flow, movement, sensuality, and nurturing. Take a moment to reflect what we are observing within and around ourself. Our external world is a reflection of our internal world, steering us in the direction we must examine and heal.

​
Adapted from the book:
1. "Yin Yoga: Stretch the Mindful Way" by Kassandra Reinhardt.
2. "Insight Yoga" by Sarah Powers.
3. "A Yogic Path Guidebook" by Sahara Rose.

Weight loss, a topic that will never goes out of date. Everyone wants to have an ideal body weight commonly. It will make us look good, confident, and of course healthy. We feel ashamed of our body when we gain weight and out of shape, and we can be the subject of body shaming by colleagues, friends, and even by family members, as I experienced it myself years ago when I was 62 kgs.

We try all kinds of diet, we avoid eating too much carbs and fat as most of us believe that they are unhealthy and can cause us gaining more weight. Diet works temporarily, however if it does not followed by healthy life style, it will become a yoyo diet. We lose weight for certain amount of time with lots of efforts, energy, and sacrifices, but we need to work so hard to maintain the weight which can be exhausting in the end.

So how can we lose weight without feeling miserable? The key is lifestyle changing. It is not only the action that changes, like eating healthy foods, drinking more water, getting enough sleep, etc. Yes, they give tremendous results when we do it consistently and make it as habit, but more than that it starts from WITHIN​. It starts from the changing of our perception about having a healthy body. It starts from our mindset and heartset. What does it mean?

First of all, we need to decide what a healthy body means to us. Is it just about losing weight and looking slim, but less energized and keep maintaining unhealthy lifestyle like drinking or smoking? Or we want a complete change and be a NEW ME. After we make the decision, we create our specific goal and actions we need to take. It can be lessen sugar intake, not to skip breakfast, lessen alcohol intake, exercise, etc. We need to know our own body, so we can create the actions that is suitable for our body needs. Every person's body is different, so lets say if a certain diet works for one person like only taking certain amount of calorie per day, it does not mean that our body can also take the same amount of calorie. Perhaps it needs more or less depends on our activies. And how do we know what our body needs? That is the heartset part a.k.a. awareness.

I am not talking about awareness of the mind only but also awareness of our emotions. When we eat sweet food, such as chocolate or ice cream, do we feel guilty that we are going to gain weight? Are we aware that we eat comforting food when we are in stress (emotional eater)? Often times we see food not as it is, but we give emotions towards it like bad, guilt, shame, regret, cheater, break my diet, etc. We keep eating the food with those feelings, working out so hard the next day because of the guilty feeling and the cycle repeats again. So, how can we break the cycle?

There are some ways to break it, like meditation, writing on a journal, and YOGA. I am not writing this because I want to force you into yoga and forget about other types of workout, but I already prove it myself that I can maintain the health not only in physical body, but in overall wellbeing, and I want you to have the same. Some of my friends told me that they have done yoga a few times and it was too difficult for them, and so they quit. They wonder why at my age (I am 38 and not ashame about it, there is nothing to hide) I even look healthier, have better posture, reach ideal weight than I was in my 20's. It is all thanks to yoga.

By doing yoga with commitment and consistency, yoga can give many benefits. It does not necessarily involving advanced postures. Even with basic postures everyday we will feel differences in the body. Yoga involves stretching to increase flexibility and tone up our muscles, take downward facing dog for example. It stretches and strengthens the hands, arms, shoulders, lengthens the spine, works on abdominal muscles, stretches the hamstrings, and calves, and lets the blood flows back into the brain, meaning taking in more oxygen and increasing the brain's function. They all happen within one pose. Stretching also improves range of motion, creates better posture by lengthening the spine, improves our mood, and makes us sleep better.

The other benefit of yoga is in its deep breathing. Breathing correctly has many benefits including losing weight (indirect benefit). When we breathe in, we bring our attention to the present moment and when we breathe out, we relax and release tension out of our body, including uncomfortable emotions, like sadness, anger, guilt, shame, etc. because pur breath is closely related with our emotions. When we breathe, we soften the belly meaning soften to resistance and inner tension. When we can accept things as they are and not resisting it, we will be less stress, relax and more peaceful which will have impact on our decision making which is to choose what kind of food we want to eat for example. We are energy and food is energy. Whatever we put into our body will be transformed into energy and it molds us. Therefore, the saying "We are what we eat" is true.

In conclusion, yoga is a great addition to our healthy lifestyle checklist. It has indirect benefits for weight loss physically and also for mental health for they are interconnected and inseparable. Yoga can help to increase range of motion and flexibility of the body if it is combined with another workouts like running, fitness, or even martial arts to get us losing the unwanted weight. And one more thing that yoga does is to help us appreciate who we are and to appreciate our body. Yoga reminds us that we are enough, that we do not need to compare ourselves with others, and yoga reminds us to be grateful with what we have. Our breath, our body parts and the organs, and the bodily systems that work 24 hour for us without stopping. So, it seems unfair if we judge that we are fat or I hate this body while it has worked very hard to sustain our life. When we are being grateful for what we have and send love to our body, it will return us the same. Just focus on being healthy instead of losing weight, and do whatever it needs to be healthy with light and joyful heart. So, what healthy choices have we made today?








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Looking at the picture above gives me soothing feeling. Calm, peace, and relax. All the feelings that we tend to forget when we are dealing with our daily life. Too many activities to do, chasing targets, think ... think ... think ... work ... work ... work ... and do ... do ... do ... to achieve something which we think will give meaning to our life.

We forget to take a break, to give our mind and body time to rest. We even work overtime for the reason of productivity or perhaps avoiding things we don't want to face. If we stop and take a break, we would waste our time because time is money. That's what often said by business people. But NO. Taking a break to rest is not a waste of time. In fact it will increase productivity. The mind is clearer and ideas start to flow.

In yoga, we rest in Savasana or Corpse pose. The reason it is named corpse pose is because all you need to do is be still and silent like a corpse. Do you know that savasana is the most important pose in yoga? From the outside it might look like that you are just laying down, but once you try to be silent and still for 15 to 20 mins, it is not that easy for most people because the mind keeps wandering around. Resting in savasana is not the same as resting when we sleep. When we sleep, sometimes our mind is still active through dreams. That is why when we get up in the morning, we do not always feel fresh and energized.

Savasana is a fully deep rest if you do it properly. Meaning you will need props like bolster/pillow/cushions to support your body if you do this at home. Turn off the light to have the room dark or eye cover so our brain would regard it as time to rest. Then just focus on your breathing and feel the ground supporting your whole body. Let the body releases all the tensions with every exhalation. Pay attention to whatever may happen with your breath. Is it short and shallow or deep and long? Do you let go when you are breathing or do you control your breath? Do you enjoy the moment or do you want it to be over soon? Whatever happens on the mat also reflects who we are in our daily life, off the mat. Do we trust and surrender or we tend to control things? Are we patient enough and enjoy being in the present moment or are we impatient and want things to move fast so we can jump into next activity?

Only by this one pose, we can learn about ourselves. What if you do yoga with all the poses? What can you dig deeper about yourself?