The Himalayan international Institute of Yoga Science & Philosophy organised a Yoga Retreat,ith the theme "Yoga for Self Awareness" in Kundasang for about 60 participants.
Voo , Vun Fui and I attended the retreat. This Yoga centre focus on meditation and all the yoga asanas are deemed as preparation for the body for meditation. The long periods of seating on the floor for lectures, asanas and group meditations were very taxing on our body, especially on the spine for the 3 of us. This is mainly because
we only practice yoga for the physical exercise ONLY and have not done meditation.
The main speaker was Swami Nityamuktananda Saraswati, a British resident of German descent.A swami is a Yogic monk and is not bounded by Hinduism or Buddhism.A swami has taken a vow of obedience to the "HIGHER SELF" and has opted OUT OF SOCIETY
www.athayoga.info
A.SWAMI gave a series of talks on Self Awareness as follows:-
1.Our mind is all powerful and can manifest to the body eg through dreams. Everything that happens to the body happens to the mind first. We need to be AWARE of our body.
2.Our emotions and experiences in our lives are the memory files in our brain. We are the product of other peoples 'opinions, a bundle of past experiences.
3. Light is constant ie it is the same and des not change. Our eyes cannot perceive the frequency and so we do not see light at night ! Change is the only other constant in our life.
4.Behind all of us are the higher self but we live in the little self.We are all connected to the ONE higher self.So we are all the same in this ONE light.
How do we change?
We can write down all the negative experiences and habits that we want to forget in a piece of paper and then burn it.
How do we find ourselves?
Through self awareness.
Practice a 2 min breath awareness daily. Just be quiet and concentrate only on your breath.
Talking to your body?
use love and not agggression when you talk to your body eg when you want to heal yourself from a sickness.
Datin Judy
We enjoyed all our sessions with Datin Judy, a very lively, warm and charismatic teacher.
B.Hatha Yoga By Datin Judy
1.Stretching before Asana.
a.Lie on the floor to stretch the body- interlock fingers above the head and walk the upper body to the R, then followed by lower body as you walk the heels to the right. reverse.
bend both knees to chest and push to the right, then left.
b.Stand and do the Butterfly twisting - focus on one point in front and twist your waist side to side.
Roll right shoulder to the back and grip your right wrist with your left hand. Tilt your head to the left.
Hand criss crossing in front using 3 different palm positions - facing each other, facing up and down
2.Mermaid Pose
Sit on the floor and bend both knees pointing to the right. Cross left ankle over right. Look to the right. Extend right arm straight up & bring it down by placing elbow on the floor. Use left hand to pull left ankle to the back (feet not higher than left knee). then adjust the hold on ankle as you swing left leg forward and straighten to go across the body towards the chest.
Repeat for other leg.
Datin also taught us various poses like the Dolphin, The Lion, and poses for the Shoulder.
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