Hot and Humid in Kuala Lumpur

These past few days in Kuala Lumpur have been HOT! With its humidity, practicing this morning was like practicing in a sauna. By the end of the third sun salutation A, sweat puddles were forming where my palms meet the mat. It is fortunate indeed for the yoga community in Kuala Lumpur that I was practicing by myself. There was real fear that if I did not use a cotton rug over my mat, my palms will slip from under me and my face will be flattened (some would speculate improved).

Anyway I was prepared for an easy practice, it being the first day after a moon day. However, with the heat, I found I was going quite deep (for my standards). Marichyasana D is coming along. I could bend my left arm around my right knee and the right hand could find my left thigh (or maybe it was the left side of my shorts). Left side is still faraway but my right arm could bend a bit and can reach my left foot so that's encouraging.

At this stage of my practice, I'm also trying to focus on my back bends. Normally I would just do 3 back bends. These days I'm adding one more after taking a breather. For this last one I would try to walk the hands in. Haven't succeeded yet. All I managed was to lift my hands a centimeter off the mat and come back down.

By the way, is the dristhi for upward dog the nose tip or the third eye space? I was searching Yoga Mala but could not find the answer.

Making Patanjali Palatable

That's the title of the book, launched by my teacher last Sunday. Manoj has always said yoga is more than asanas and is constantly making an effort to make us students more in touch with the yoga sutras. I've attended his workshop on the sutras once. Although I enjoyed it, laziness has now erased what knowledge I learned then. Sorry, Manoj!! Now, with this new book there can be no excuses...



I've also noticed, at the back of the book, endorsements from Lino Miele and Richard Rosen (editor of Yoga Journal)! Wow. How cool is that?! (Sorry - I'm easily impressed by famous names.)

Testing Video Upload

Sorry. Just got to try uploading a video - to make the blogging experience complete. Also chance for me to see myself in action. Haha - now I can see how stiff I am - my version of upward dog is basically a plank with my head tilted back!