Sunday, November 9, 2008

Singapore’s Muslim experts say yoga is okay

SINGAPORE: A Muslim cleric in Malaysia has called on Muslims to stop doing yoga exercises, but some religious experts in Singapore do not share that sentiment.

They are largely of the opinion that yoga is harmless as long as its spiritual aspects are not practised.

Professor Zakaria Stapa, a lecturer at University Kebangsaan Malaysia’s faculty of Islamic studies, said recently that yoga is based on Hindu elements and could affect the faith of Muslims practising it.

That sparked a nationwide debate and the Malaysian National Fatwa Council may issue a fatwa, or decree, on yoga soon.

The country seems to be alone in its concern.

Yoga centres are flourishing in more orthodox Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

In Iran, yoga is so popular that there are classes for children.

In Singapore, Mohammad Yusri Yubhi Md Yusoff, 33, executive imam of Al-Falah mosque, said: “Yoga may have its roots in Hinduism. But if you take away the meditation and other spiritual aspects, it becomes just another form of exercise.”

Veteran religious expert Pasuni Maulan, 64, agreed. The former registrar of Muslim marriages said spiritual elements in exercises are not exclusive to yoga. Silat, which has its roots in Malay culture, can sometimes involve hailing spirits, a practice not allowed in Islam.

“Those who are not sure about what is allowed may want to do other exercises,” he suggested.

As a rule of thumb, avoid the spiritual forms of exercises and embrace only the physical aspects, said religious teacher and counsellor Abdul Manaf Rahmat, 50.

Teacher Hafiza Yahya, 26, who studied yoga through books five years ago, has been doing just that.

“In classes, instructors may ask you to say Hindu incantations. I simply did the exercises without all that,” said the mother of two, who shed more than 30kg through yoga after each pregnancy. She now weighs a trim 46kg. -- ANN/ The Straits Times

Above is an extract of news from TheStar newspaper.

It had always been a concern for Muslim and Christian about yoga. Yoga had always been misinterpreted as a spiritual form of exercise. No doubt, we all know that Yoga was found in India nearly 6000 years ago. However, throughout the times, Yoga had been practiced by people as a form of exercise for health purposes. Hence, the Westerners had done a lot of researches about Yoga and the Human Anatomy and Physiology. Most of the Yoga practices had been amended from the traditional practices and most of the Yoga practices had eliminated meditations (anyway, do you think that it is so easy to do meditation and keep yourself in a sub-conscious mind? Blah, B*** S***!!) and chants in order to let the world feel the benefits of Yoga. As for the Yoga postures, it were a movements or positions that can be done by our bodies (the postures is not spiritual), a body created by GOD. We’ll be amazed by what our bodies can do and be thankful to God for giving us the freedom to moves, breaths, bends and twists.



Monday, October 20, 2008

Japanese Cotton Cheese Cake Recipe

Ingredients A:
Cheese 250g
Milk 1oog
Butter 100g

Ingredients B:
Egg whites 6
Sugar 120g
Tartar 1/2tbsp

Ingredients C:
Egg yolks 6
Lemon juice 1tbsp
Self raising flour 60g
Corn flour 20g

Steps:
  1. Stir ingredients A in a heat-proof bowl and set it over boiling water until smooth and well combined.
  2. Whisk the egg whites, sugar and tartar powder until stiff.
  3. Beat the egg yolks and fold in sifted self raising flour, corn flour and lemon juice.
  4. Add in Ingredients A to Ingredients C and cream until well combined.
  5. Fold the beaten egg whites to the mixture. Pour the batter into a 9 inches cakes pan.
  6. Set a tray of boiling water below the oven. Heat up the oven to 180 Celcius and bake the cake until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Three Couples, Three Types of Relationship

For some couples, it may be a good idea to join an adventure trip together as it will help to strengthen-up the relationship. Somehow, for some couples, it may turnout to be a disaster to the relationship. Hence, often people said it is best for a couple to join an adventure trip or holidaying together to test the water first before they decide he/she were ‘The One’ for the rest of their life.

Throughout my journey to Mount Kinabalu recently, I had noticed three couples with three types of attitudes. It made me realized that everyone’s relationship is different and making comparisons is always pointless. To build-up a strong relationship, trust and congruence will always be the main ingredients.

The ‘supportive’ couple:
It was Jane’s first experience to climb Mount Kinabalu under the encouragement of her boyfriend, Tom. Jane wasn’t an active person and hasn’t she done any training for the climbing due to Tom’s last minute decision. During the journey to Mount Kinabalu, Tom accidentally sprained his knee and felt mountain sickness on the way up to Laban Rata. Despite the tiredness she felt, she supported Tom and continued walking up the hill until they reach their destination.

The next day after they reached Laban Rata, Jane felt both of her legs muscles were terribly aching but the time wasn’t allowed them to rest as they had to walk down the hill and get back to Timpohon again. Both Jane and Tom supporting each other, step-by-step walked down the hill and reach Timpohon safely.

The ‘traditional big-man’ couple:
Felicia and her boyfriend, Ken, had been going through training together, months before their journey to Mount Kinabalu. Ken had always be the leader who leads Felicia during the training. On the way up to Laban Rata, Ken had tried his best to take care of Felicia who was also a first-timer climbing up Mount Kinabalu. Unfortunately, Ken felt mountain-sickness when they reached 4km (another 2km from their destination). Felicia takes the role to take care of Ken and continued their journey. Felicia gave up on climbing to the peak of the mountain and chose to stay at Laban Rata to take care of Ken.

During their journey back to Timpohon, Ken wasn’t fully recovered but he insisted on carrying their bag and leading Felicia all the way down to hill. He showed his concerned towards Felicia and tried to ensure Felicia reached Timpohon safely.

The ‘independent’ couple
Jack and I were both a first-timer to climb Mount Kinabalu. We started from Timpohon together, leaving the other two couples far more behind. Half-way through our journey to Laban Rata, I left Jack at a resting point as he wanted to take a longer rest. Without noticing my speed, I walked alone and reached Laban Rata earlier than the time estimated. Jack reached alone after 40 minutes later.

Both of us continued our journey to the peak together during the midnight and stopped at 8.5km (0.2km away from the peak) due to the bad weather and my energy level. As both of our stamina was quite good, Jack and I walked separately most of the time and only observed each other to make sure we were safe and still in a good condition on the way back to Laban Rata. Jack wasn’t worried much about me as he had asked the ‘guide’ to take care of me until I reached Timpohon as I was totally out of energy on the way downs the hill. Only right after he saw his buddy, Ken, had been lending me a helping hands to go downs the hill from Laban Rata, he tried to take the lead and walked together.

It doesn’t really matter whether we had successfully reached the peak of Mount Kinabalu, the most important things is the trip had bring each of us a significant memory and a lesson that can never be forget.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

What’s the trick that can turn anyone into your friend?

Talking to people has never seems tough. Some people said that no matter you are talking to a 3 years old kid or an 80 years old senior citizen, it will make no different if you own the communication skill. So, what’s the secret of the communication skill?

A friendly smile
The best way to break the ice is always by putting a warm and friendly smile while we talk. Once we smile, people will feel easier to approach us and talk to us. Very often, an unapproachable and cool look were created when we don’t smile, hence, strangers may find it hard to communicate with us.

Seek for common interests
Always probe for clues to the person’s interests and take times to analyze the people we are talking to. Our conversation will become smoother when we hit the “hot button”. People always love to talk to those who share the same interests as they do.

Make them feel good about themselves without being sarcastic
Most people need other people to ensure them that they are good and give them confidence. Sometimes, what we need to do in order to make them feel good when they are around us is just by giving them encouragement when they need it.

Always be positive about life
Nobody will love to be around people who are pessimistic and always complaining about how bad their life had been going. Our emotions were easily affected by the people around us. Therefore, if we are always optimistic and feel contented with our life, people around us will feel more relax and enjoy talking to us.

Use an appropriate language when communicate with different groups of people
Bear in mind that every group of people had their unique ways of communication. E.g. when we are talking to kids, often we shows a commanding way which will brings up a tense environment and make them felt hard to communicate with us. Hence, if we want to mix well with them, we must learn to speak in their language when communicating with them.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Big corporate VS Small corporate

No doubt, as an employee, we will always prefer working in big corporation compare to small corporate as the brand name of the corporation itself shown our sense of achievement and capability. Our impressions for big corporation are always better remunerations, higher possibility of promotion, easier for job’s hoping in future and greater satisfactions.

We always overlooked the prospects in big corporation and neglected the future prospects in small corporate. Always we had forgotten that every big corporation was once small. Some of the higher management people in the big corporation were once a small soldier in the corporate multitasking and fighting hard for the corporate to grow. Thus as the corporate grew, they were being promoted.

From a better point of views, working in a small corporate although might have more work loads, somehow, it helps to train us to be more efficient and increase our productivities. If we are capable enough to handle all the tasks given, our boss will always felt heavy-hearted to let us go, hence, he/she will tend to offer us with a better remunerations just for the sake to keep us staying in the corporate. Sometimes, the remunerations offer might be better than what we can get in big corporation. “My boss bought me a Toyota Wish after I accidentally banged my company’s car which is a Perodua Myvi,” says Jane, a 28-year-old sales representative in a small corporate.

Few years back, when I was a new grad from school, paying high hopes to work in big corporation was my first priority. As I was lacked of experiences, I was only able to get into a small accounting firm which offers ‘peanut’ pay. I was a newbie then, everything seems to be fresh and I’ve to start learning from zero. It takes me few months to pick up everything and to handle full set accounts for seven companies individually. The work loads is much and the period given were always short.

Sooner, I was given a few opportunities to enhance my skills. No longer have I needed to stay in the office’s desk all the time. I was being sent out for extra training. In additions, I was being promoted as my boss’s assistant whom responsibility is to train-up new staff in newly start-up big corporation, checking errors of the job done by colleagues and to ensure all the accounts to be completed before the due date. Also, I was given an extra advantage to work only three days a week with a higher pay.

Being sent to newly start-up big corporation, I was able to see the capability of the staff. Although my experience wasn’t as much as the trainee’s staff in the corporate, my knowledge was more as my job scope were larger. The trainee’s staff were only be able to handle part of the company’s accounts, therefore, their knowledge were very limited. Their office politics were much more complicated as everyone was trying hard to prove their capability and striving hard for promotion.

After all, maybe we should start thinking of working for a small corporate the next time we plan to switch job.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Nice men always finished last?

No doubts women nowadays are getting more financial independence as well as more careers minded. Many women may not settle down for anything less than the best. No longer had they felt the need to get married just because they had reached the marriage age.

Let’s Admit It: No matter how strong a woman shows, still she had her own weaknesses. At certain times, she still needs someone to support her. And yet she is still single. WHY?

Some of my friends are pretty, smart, capable and have the qualities which should have not kept them from being single. Somehow, they are still single and yet they always asked, “Where have all the dateable men gone?”

Story 1: DATING WITH THE NOT-SO-NICE LEFTOVERS
Kate, a 29-year-old manager, bumped into an Indian guy (let’s called him Mr. X) while she went to the gym for RPM classes. Mr. X got her contact number from the class’s registration sheet and started to texted her. Kate was curious to have received the text messages from a stranger; hence, she replied and asked for clarifications. Mr. X introduced himself as a 39-year-old ex-lawyer switching to be a businessman and insists on making an appointment to meet Kate in the gym. Out of her curiosity, Kate agreed to meet him. Kate wasn’t interested in Mr. X but wouldn’t mind of keeping him as a friend as he seems to be quite a gentleman after all. Therefore, Kate didn’t want to miss out the future possibility. Things gone worse when Mr. X sends tons of text messages to Kate everyday and Kate couldn’t even bother to reply. Mr. X turned out to be a stalker when he found out that Kate refused to accept his flowers and avoiding his text messages. Moreover, Mr. X started to lose his temper over Kate by sending her annoying text messages everyday, insisting that he was a good person who doesn’t even mind to be a homemaker and reminding Kate not to miss out the chances.

Lessons:
Guys being too aggressive and loses their patients in a short period of times is a totally turn off behaviors. Women can survived being single yet living happily and therefore, they would never allowed any men to threaten them for losing up a chance to settle down. Those men who claimed themselves as too-good-to-be-miss are always the not-so-nice leftovers; hence, it is always the right choice to eliminate them as soon as possible.

Story 2: DATING WITH EQUALLY-RIGHTS JERK
Vivian and Justin used to shared every of their expenses during their outings. Both of them were working in a listed corporate with a high-pay job. At the beginning stage, Vivian wouldn’t mind to pay her own shares of expenses. Soon as they proceed, Vivian moved-in into Justin’s house, Justin begins to divide every single cents of the household’s expenses equally and asking Vivian to pay. In additions, Vivian will have to do most of the household’s chores as Justin was always working overtime in the office. Also, she was only allowed to hang out with her girlfriends after she got the permissions from Justin. As times passed-by, Vivian realized that her expenses were getting higher, spending on some unnecessary stuff that Justin insisted on buying and she lost her freedom and happiness she used to have when she was single. She decided to break up with Justin and back to her single life. To her surprise, Justin requested to collect back all the gifts he had given to Vivian as it was paid by him.

Lessons:
It is a totally jerk’s behavior for taking back all the gifts given after a broke up. In a relationship, not everything can be divided equally, it is always give-and-take. Although women nowadays are more financially capable, they are not meant to be taken advantages of. It will always leave them with doubts to stay in the relationship for long term if everything were to be share equally. When a woman got pregnant, can the man split up the months of the child in the mother’s womb and share the pains?

Sometimes I wondered, if the phrases of “Nice men always finished last” is true, where do all this nice men gone? My girlfriends told me once, most nice men were either married or in a serious relationships, therefore, what’s left in the market are only the not-so-nice leftovers.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Love Quote

“Don’t worries, from now on, I’ll never let you walk alone anymore…” she smiled as she listened to his words clearly. She was truly touched by every word he said but she was too afraid to express herself and hence, she gone speechless.

She was a girl who hardly shows her expression. Deep inside her heart, she just wanted to say thank you. It was a blessing in the skies to have him around, always by her side.

“I was neither an angel nor a gift from the God but you saw the best in me and I’m grateful to have your love. Thanks God, I found you.” she whispered to God as she controlled the tears in her eyes.


There is no surprise more
magical than the surprise
of being loved: it is God's
finger on a human being's
shoulder.

Charles Morgan

Friday, September 5, 2008

Perfect Diet

There are lots of diet plans and weight-loss programs that we can see in the market such as Mediterranean Diet, Glycemix Index Diet, Atkins Diet, Slim Fast Diet, Vegetarians Diet and etc. Somehow, people had always neglected the facts that the perfect diet program is which we can continue to follow throughout our life.

Most of the diet programs help us to control the daily calories intake as well as fats intake. We will tend to lose few pounds at the beginning of the new diet program but the result will soon become stagnant when our bodies get immune to it. As we are satisfied with the results, we will always switch back to our normal eating habits and thus gained back the weights that we had lost.

To find the perfect diet program, we must understand ourselves clearly. It is always hard for a person to let go of their favourite foods for long term. Hence, the effective way to lose weights and keep the weights that we had lost is always by following a healthy diet and healthy lifestyle.

Quite often, we don’t practice what we preach. This happens as we can’t change our old lifestyle completely overnight. To start switching into a more healthy diet and healthy lifestyle, it doesn’t mean of letting go our favourite food completely. For example, we can start from cutting off ¼ of the normal serving portion of meats from our meals. Follow by adding more vegetables and fruits into our daily diet. By this way, we can slowly practice eating healthily without the needs to sacrifice our favourite foods. Also, we can always try to opt for a lower calories or lower trans-fats foods as a substitute to our routine diet. For an example, we can choose to have skim-milk instead of full cream milk when drinking freshly-brewed coffee, using sugar-free fruits jam instead of normal jam on our toast or eating noodles with clear soup instead of fried noodles.

Simply by choosing our foods wisely and practicing a healthier lifestyle, we can lose the extra inches effectively and keep it for long term.

P.S: Always bear in mind, by frequently switching to a new diet program when the old ones are no longer useful is similar to a yoyo-diet which is harmful to the bodies

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Faith

Yes, I have doubted. I have wandered
off the path. I have been lost.
But I always returned. It is beyond
the logic I seek. It is intuitive--an
intrinsic, built-in sense of direction.
I seem to find my way home.
My faith has wavered but has saved me.

Helen Hayes

Life is not a level, smooth path, but rather a series of hills and valleys. There are times spent on the mountain top, when everything seems clear and perfect. Then there are times when we’re wandering around in a dark cavern, feeling our way along and trusting God for every step of faith.

During a marathon run, often the feeling of giving up will appears in my mind as I felt tired and exhausted. If I could force myself to go on, I will get a “second wind” to move on to the finish line. As I choose to continue in faith, no matter how I feel or what’s going on around me, God will lift me up and carry me on.
I may feel lost at the moment but I’ll always return as I believe in faith and faith will lead me home.

Monday, September 1, 2008

Zen stories

Zen Story 1:

Two monks were once traveling together down a muddy road.
A heavy rain was falling. Coming around the bend,
they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash,
unable to cross the intersection.

"Come on, girl," said the first monk. Lifting her
in his arms, he carried her over the mud.

The second monk did not speak again until that night
when they reached a lodging temple. Then he no longer
could restrain himself. "We monks don't go near females,"
he said. "It is dangerous. Why did you do that?"

"I left the girl there," the first monk said.
"Are you still carrying her?"

Zen Story 2:

Hogen, a Chinese Zen teacher, lived alone in a small temple
in the country. One day four traveling monks appeared and
asked if they might make a fire in his yard to warm themselves.

While they were building the fire, Hogen heard them arguing
about subjectivity and objectivity. He joined them and said:
"There is a big stone. Do you consider it to be inside or outside your mind?"

One of the monks replied: "From the Buddhist viewpoint everything
is an objectification of mind, so I would say that the stone is inside my mind."

"Your head must feel very heavy," observed Hogen,
"if you are carrying around a stone like that in your mind."


Do you understand the meanings that lie within the Zen stories?

Both of the stories came with a same meaning which is, letting go. If we can free our mind from things that bothering us, life could be happier. If we could let go the angers, let go the jealousy and let go the negatives thoughts, our life would be easier.


If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything;
it is open to everything. In the beginner's mind there are
many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few.

Shunryu Suzuki-Roshi

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

The secret of lucks

“Do you feel lucky?

Believe it or not, the way that you answer that question is a predictor of your level of success and joy in life. Dr. Richard Wiseman, head of psychology research at the University of Hertfordshire in England, was curious about people who are consistently blessed with good fortune. For eight years he studied 400 people who considered themselves either particularly lucky or unlucky. As a result, he has proved scientifically that luck isn’t a coincidence. Lucky people think and act with specific behaviors that open the way for good things to happen. They expected success, moving beyond the “glass-half-full” power of positive thinking. They are skilled at noticing and more open to new possibilities.

Fortune often emerges from the ashes of a problem. During the acceptance speech for his first of thirteen Grammy awards, Duke Ellington said “I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and wrote some blues.” Wiseman’s findings agree. Lucky people have automatic psychological techniques to cope and thrive in unfavorable situations. Besides openness to external cues, lucky people also listen and act upon their gut instincts.”

Again, an old article I found in my previous blog.

Nowadays, there are lots of self-improvement books such as Secrets and Law of Attraction to stress on the advantages of positive thinking. Somehow, to practice staying optimistic in real life is always easier to be say than done.

“Just put yourself in my shoes, can you still keep yourself staying optimistic when you are having a hard times and feeling stuck in your life?” was a frequently asked question by most people.

When we feel stuck in our life, it’s important to take stock of what is going on and find out the causes that keeping us stuck. Sometimes the situation is out of our control, and we need to look within to find the patience required to wait with equanimity until things move forward again. Very often, we will find the source of our stagnation in our own minds and hearts. The fear of changes is always the reason that keeping us stuck as humans always prefer to stay in their own comfort zones and always afraid of changes.

We just have to think out of the box, think of it as part of the process, a necessary step on our lives journey, rather than as a problem that shouldn’t be happening in our life when we feel stuck. This will give us the space we need to take a deep breath and figure out what’s going on. Hence, our minds will be more open to new possibilities to happen.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Shih Tzu

Shih Tzu is often referred to as a ‘small lion’. Originated in Tibet but are most associated with China where they were highly revered as a palace pet and prized companion. The Shih Tzu is well-known as an active, happy and affectionate breed. They are stubborn and clever. This affectionate little dog needs to be with people and are generally good with other pets. They make excellent watchdogs. However, they expected to be treated as royalty and are easily spoiled.

As I missed my cute little doggy, Mikey, I browsed the webs and googled about Shih Tzu. Looking at the photos and descriptions, the memory of my precious moments with Mikey keeps playing in my mind like a movie clips that never end.


I want fruits,please........

Mikey is a 5 years old Shih Tzu. He had been following me since he was 2 months old. He is a cute little doggy that had been spoiled and pampered all the time. Love to be around people and love to play with soft toys. Just like the owner, he loves to eat fruits and bread. He is a very smart doggy who will always cheer up people around him but will be naughty if he was left alone.




Me and my favourite soft toy!

With Mikey around, I’ve never felt lonely. He will always be there to greet me when I’m home, sitting by my side when I’m watching TV, sharing my fruits when I can’t finish, cheering me up when I was down and licking my tears away when I cry. He had been a very good companion to me and I can say that dogs are not men’s best friend; it should be human’s best friend.

I'm too tired playing with my toys...Zzzz


Been three months since the last time I saw Mikey. He knew I’m going to leave him again during the time when I was still in KL. Everyday, Mikey will try to stick by my side as much as he can. His behavior is much more like a human being, a baby that never grown up.

I’m looking forward on the day that I’ll be seeing him again. Hope it will be very soon…

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Ups and Downs in Life

It’s been two days since I was back to teach at Yfitness. The feelings I had were totally different. I can truly felt the warmness welcomes by the members. Although this were a times when Yfitness are having a serious downfalls, it was my pleasures to have come back and helps around by replacing some classes.

During this bad time, you can really see the true colours of the people. Some members will chose to appreciated the innocent staffs for still working and keeping the club operates but some, will chose to scold, made complaints and spread out more rumours about the innocent staffs. Seriously speaking, it got nothing to do with the staffs, they are just working.

I did learn a lot by observing the downfalls in Yogazone as well as Yfitness. I’ve been working for them since the beginning of their glory times until the downfalls came. The experiences I had, have really open up my mind.

For people who were affected by Yogazone or Yfitness downfalls, I hope this simple article I wrote in my previous blog will cheer you up.

“Every aspects of life are a series of ups and downs. You have summer and winter, day and night, work and play.

You might feel sad at this moment and feel happy at the other moment. You get a job and you may lose it. You fall in love and then back out of love. One day maybe full with energy, the other day maybe full of challenge just to get out from your bed.

Life has never been stagnant. It’s contained a mixture of ups and downs and we learn from both perspectives. It is in experiencing the downs of life that we gained greater enjoyment from the ups of life.

During the challenging times, just bear in mind “This too shall pass.” Well this is as appropriate when the wonderful things of life come as I believed that everything goes ups must comes downs. Life has ebb and flow with it. It is never static.

If you are in one of the up times, enjoy it, absorb it and learn from it. It is never too good to be true as you truly deserve it. Definitely be aware of the surroundings but looking for demons when they are not around are a waste of time and energy.

Remember that experiencing a down time in your life does in no way mean that you are living in a bad life. You are not a victim nor do you have a black cloud over your head. Just take a deep breath, cheer up and move on…as good time is just waiting for u ahead.”

Namaste.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Kids Yoga

Childhood is a vibrant time when natural energy and creativity are high, also when minds are open and learning is fun. This makes it the perfect time for children to explore and enjoy their bodies, be active physically and mentally.

However, nowadays, kids are always busy with school works, extra co-curriculums activities, tuition classes or other self-improvement classes. Their schedule is always packed with activities. During their free times, they will rather sit on a sofa watching TV, playing video games or online. Their minds are always bombarded with so much information which makes them hard to focus. Also due to their inactive lifestyles, many of them have developed a bad body postures (e.g. hunchback).

Kids imitating elephants walking

As a yoga teacher for kids, I always love to see the natural expressions of the kids. Yoga is expressive, and this makes it so appealing to kids. The kids will have chance to bring out their own creativity during the practice by imitating an animal or object. This may help them to develop their inner self and it also gave me a great satisfaction to see the creativities of the kids and the great smile on their faces.

Butterfly pose to stretchs


Actually, there are countless benefits of practicing kids yoga such as building up a better body postures while enhancing their growing up process, getting a calm and contented mind and a sense of inner peace. After a period of times, I’ll always notice an improvement in the kids as their mind and body are strengthen. They grow in self esteem as well as muscle development.

Imitating a cobra


My greatest joy of teaching kids yoga was during the demonstration of the postures. When I demonstrate the yoga postures to kids, I’ll be rekindling my own sense of fun and this will put me in touch with my inner child. This was the most enjoying parts. Its always reminds me of my childhood and its keep my mind refreshed with the old memories.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Perfect Partner

Often in our life we dream about the perfect partner. Some says God created humans in a pair, therefore, in order to complete our life, we have to find our significant others (Mr. / Mrs. Right).

Throughout the process of looking for our Mr. / Mrs. Right, we will always set-up a checklist of expectations. Some will go for the looks, some will go for the internal beauty and some will go for both. If we are lucky enough, we’ll have found our Mr. / Mrs. Right, if we are the unlucky ones, maybe we’ll have to work harder and keep searching.

Do I have a checklist? Hmmm…I think I have a checklist too…6Cs…No, no…you’re wrong. I’m not talking about cash, career, car, credit card and condo. These are my 6Cs:

Caring – someone who really care about me.
Comfortable – someone who can let me be myself.
Compatible – someone whom I can really talk to.
Career – someone who will strive hard for success.
Cash – someone who can provide me a simple life.
Condo – someone who can let me feel secure.

I guess it is not too much to ask, though. I only wish to have a simple life. Nothing much, but it’s always easier to be said than done. ‘What about looks?’, one of my friends asked. In my point of view, only people who had great personalities will seem attractive. It’s always our inner beauty that makes us glow. To me, beauty seems to be fragile, it’s just like a beautiful wrappers, what’s really counts is still the fillings. A beautiful girl or a handsome guy perhaps, will only catch our eyes at the first sight. For this, I’ve to admit that humans are always attracted to beautiful things. However, after some times, the speciality on their look will be gone, what’s keep them shining is still their inner beauty.

My conclusion:
Just be thankful if you are born with a decent looks but don’t be sad if you are not because the inner beauty you have will always makes you glow and overcome others. It’s not how you look that counts but is how you bring yourself. A person may not be beautiful/handsome but if they carried themselves with confident, they may catch your eyes too.

"BELIEVE IN YOURSELF, THERE IS SOMETHING SPECIAL THAT LIES IN YOU…"

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Fate or Faith…

Definition of:
Fate - something that unavoidably befalls a person; fortune
Faith - confidence or trust in a person or thing

To believes in fates and let the fates control you or to believes in faiths and overcome the fates? A very confusing yet complicated question… I always believed in fate but I’ll never let fate control me. That’s my answer.

Fifty percents in our life are depends on the fates but the remaining fifty percents are still in our hands. Sounds interesting now! Let me show you an example here:

Fates say, ‘You are going to be a millionaire’. There is a math here:

a) Lazy + Wait for the money to fall from the skies = Penniless
b) Hard work + Strive for success = Millionaire

Fates say, ‘You are not going to be successful’.

a) No contribution + Lack of confident = Not Successful
b) Hard work + Confident = Successful

By now, you should have seen a clearer picture. If we believe in fates, but we never work hard for it, our fate will change. If we have faith in ourselves and work hard to overcome the fate, again, our fate will change.

Everything seems to have pros and cons in our life. Nothing is perfect. Quote for today, “Never regret for what you’ve done, only regret for what you’ve not done”. Our future is still in our hands.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

A smile a day will keep the doctor away…

“As I walk along the street, I saw a kid smiling happily holding her mum’s hand, walking passed a candy shop. The smile on her face was as sweet as a lollipop. I was smitten by the smile and so, I smiled.”

Have you ever counts how many times you smile a day? Is it a hard thing for you to smile? Do you know what’s the benefits of smiling? If your answer is ‘NO’, I’ve found 10 reasons for you to start smiling today.

Smiling makes us attractive.
There is an attraction factor when you smile. We are drawn to people who smile because when ones smile, its give a warm welcome to everyone.

Smiling changes our mood.
By putting on a smile, there’s a good chance to change for a better mood. Smiling can trick your body by sending a signal to your brain telling yourself that you are happy.

Smiling is contagious.
When someone is smiling they lighten up the room, change the moods of others and make things happier. A smiling person brings happiness with them.

Smiling relieves stress.
Stress can really show up in our faces. Simply by smiling, it prevents us from looking tired, worn down and overwhelmed. Put a smile on your face and the stress will goes away.

Smiling boost your immune system.
When you smile, your immune system improves because you are more relaxed. Its help prevents the flu and cold.

Smiling lowers your blood pressure.
When you smile, there is a measureable reduction in your blood pressure. This is simply because you are more relaxed and the bloods are flowing smoothly in your body.

Smiling releases endorphins and serotonins.
Study shown that smiling releases endorphins and serotonins which is a hormones that makes us feel happy. Hence, smiling is a natural drug.

Smiling lift the faces and makes us feel younger.
The muscles we use to smile lift the face and make us appear younger. Smiling is the natural botox to our faces!

Smiling makes us seems successful.
Smiling people appear more confident and more approachable. Therefore, they tend to get more chances of being promoted or getting successful.

Smiling helps us to stay positive.
When we smile, a message of ‘life is good’ will be send to our body.

Put a SMILE on your face today, and make the world looks HAPPIER.
Suddenly, a song keep humming in my mind...and I smiled..you'll know this song if you had watched Hellboy II..this is the song lyrics.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

As a yoga teacher,I always come across a question from my beginner practitioners,very often they asked me 'What kind of yoga should I start with if my aim is so...,so...,and so...'.Continued with, ‘I saw the magazines or I heard from my friends that yoga will help me lose weights,tone-up and bla..bla..bla..’ and end with ‘I’m just a beginner and I’m not flexible,I’m worried that I can’t twist and bend like the poses I saw in the medias’.


Actually,practicing yoga is all about the feeling of serenity,harmony and a quiet state of mind.Yoga will not only beneficial to your physical body but also mentally.A good practice will give you a feeling of the unity of the mind and body through out the flowing from asanas(pose) to asanas in a yoga practice while a 'not so good' practice which I used to described,will make you feel short of breathes as well as having discomfort on your body.



After a period of times practicing yoga,normally ones will start to notices the changes physically.An obvious changes will be a more tone-up body,better posture,better stamina and a healthier skin tones.As for the problematic practitioners (e.g.:those who have backpains,kneepains,high blood pressures,low blood pressures,constipations and indigestions problems) will realizes that their conditions is slowly improving.



With the yoga posters and photos seen in the medias,yoga always give people a wrong impression that we have to twist and turn ourselves like a pretzel.As I always mentioned to my practitioners,those photos are for promotional purposes and to create awareness from publics,hence,a more advance poses were used for the photo shootings.During a yoga session,options will always be given to the practitioners based on their flexibility to ensures everyone getting the same benefits.Therefore,it shouldn’t be a barrier for anyone to start practicing yoga.



Focusing on alignment in a yoga pratice are important,however,forcing yourself to get the best alignment was a TOTALLY WRONG PERCEPTION as it will not only make you feel terrible but also harm your body.Always bear in mind,be patient,when the right time comes,you'll be able to reach the perfect poses.


Few years back,when I first started my yoga practice,chasing for advance poses and getting the best alignment was my first priority.I’m a great fans of vigorous yoga practices as it gave me a greater sense of achievement and egoism.I felt proud of myself showing off the advance poses and perfect alignments.I’m in love with yoga simply because I was amazed with the poses.
During my teacher training course,I begin to realize the true meaning of yoga.I begin to see and understand the body structural limitations.Yoga practice can always be mild.With the great co-ordination between our breaths and movements which can easily be obtain by just doing some basic asanas,we’ll find a peace of mind,we will find a calmness in our body and we will find the true beauty of yoga.This will not only beneficial to your body but also to your mind.This experience had really change my mind.



If you ever ask me to tell you the best styles of yoga,I’ll have said the answer lies in you,YOUR BODY AND YOUR MIND.Every single days our body and mind changes,we need to find a balance in our life.When you find the equilibrium in your life,you will find yourself living life to the fullest…

Friday, August 8, 2008

Another Day...

A day full with inspirations,
A day full with challenges,
And a day full with memories.

Just be grateful that we are still here,breathing silently in this space.





Wake up early in the morning,in a beautiful day,
As usual going to my studio and have a coffee break in the office while checking on my mails and facebook.Sounds relaxing,huh…I used to be feeling insecure when I was in the Zone.Wondering when my next payment coming,wondering when I’ll be kick out because someone backstabbed me,wondering who is the potential backstabbers and wondering when the company will ever collapse because of the mismanagement.

Couldn’t be deny that I’m still feeling insecure.It’s just a new beginning of my studio,still I’ve to worry about my current sales,cash flows and plans but I’m just glad that everything are still in control.

Like everyone else,I’m still a human who have to face the obstacles.Yet,I try to keep myself calm everyday because I always bear in mind what’s my Mum reminds me ‘when the right time comes,problems will be solve’,so,it’ll just be a matter of times.As long as we are still breathing here and our body are still moving,we will find a way to overcome every obstacles that arrives.




I don’t know what will happen next but I’ll just be thankful because YOU are here.Because of you,I no longer feel lonely,I no longer feel tired and I no longer feel scare.You give me strength to move on and you make me felt that I’m the luckiest person in the world.All I can say to you is just a simple ‘Thank you’ that truly comes from my heart.



Thanks GOD for sending me a guardian angel,
Thanks GOD for always fulfilling my dreams,
Thanks GOD for always listening to my whispers,
Thanks GOD for always showing me the right path to go,
Thanks GOD for guiding me to become a person,

And a millions more thank you for just being here when I need you.

No matter we are experiencing a good or a bad times now,life still goes on.
Life has ebb and flow with it.It is never static.
Everything that appears in our life has a lesson to teach us.Enjoy it,absorb it,and learn from it.There is nothing called an accident in this intelligent universe.

And this is what I learned today.