A Wandering Yoga Girl

As fabulous as all the bendy, twisty and inverted yoga pictures look, I can guarantee it took ridiculous amount of practice to get there. It's always worth it. Dedication and discipline does reward you, not just physically but mentally as well. I always encourage my students to add another day or two of self practice besides the once a week yoga class. Okay, I'm steering off topic. Let me tell you about my struggles with backbends. Not that I want to rant, but those crazy poses are so hard that I avoid it.  My upper back is as tight as a jam jar. Haha! 6 weeks ago I signed up for a yoga workshop called the 'Hatha Awakening Series' by Yogatara . I highly recommend it. Being a student after a long time has really changed my outlook on yoga pratice. I really owe it to the teacher. She is so grounded and inspirational. With her guidance, I am practicing more frequently and here begins my journey to discover those tough backbends. This picture shows my first attempt to

In recent times, my practice is revealing new perspectives. After July 2015, I would say my growth hit a plateau. I was struggling to keep a focused mind and my body was no longer cooperating with me. I was slacking in strength and I was distracted. Trying to teach amidst this was chaos was too difficult and I made many mistakes. I would say, you have to hit rock bottom to rise. The past two years was a real eye opening phase of my life and I believe it was to teach me or rather show me what are my REAL priorities as an individual. I also had some teachers, books and many spiritual videos that lead me to discover a new self and purpose.  Now, these are my life mantra.  1) Health over physical appearance should be your real goal.   2) I choose yoga as a lifestyle and not an exercise regime. Move and move more.  3) The kind of food you consume determines your physique, energy level, productivity, mental and emotional well being. 4) Water and rest! 5) Listen to the voice.

Well, let's talk about the rainy season again. Apples are abundant around this time of the year. I give a lot of importance to my breakfast. I like it wholesome and variety is key. This was an experimental oatmeal with ingredients lying around my kitchen. I presume a little bit of nut milk would have made it creamier but I didn't have any in hand. Overall, it was an interesting experience. Ingredients: Rolled oats - 1 cup Apples - 2 Cinnamon powder- 2 generous pinch Brown sugar - 1 tablespoon Honey - 1 tablespoon Salt - a pinch Let's make oatmeal. It's so easy peasy. Add the oats, chopped apples, cinnamon, brown sugar, honey, salt and water in a pan and let it bubble away on a medium flame. Let is cook for 20 to 25 minutes and voila! Your breakfast is ready. Top it with more honey, almonds, flax seeds and chia seeds. More fresh apple slices! Why not? Bon appetite!

There's nothing more comforting than a warm bowl of soup during this cold season. These rainy days have got me craving for all kinds of vegetable soup. Oh! Binge watching and lazing on bed too. I have always loved a good bowl of pumpkin soup and I think it's ridiculously overpriced at restaurants. So, I did some online research and created my own version of vegan pumpkin soup with the ingredients I had at home. My version has no cream, cheese or vegetable stock but doesn't lack love and pleasure. I got a big pot of soup that could have fed my entire family and I had leftovers. More comforting soup the next day! Ingredients: Medium sized onion - 2 Garlic - 4 cloves Pumpkin - 400g Carrots - 3 medium sized Turmeric - A pinch Ground pepper - 1 tablespoon Paprika - 1 tablespoon Mixed herbs - 1 teaspoon Salt - According to your desire Water/Vegetable stock Olive oil Let's make soup! 1) Roughly chop onions, carrots and pumpkin. 2) In a large pot, brow

No matter what happens, my inversion practice never fails to perk me up. It uplifts my mood and definitely shuts down every other unnecessary worries or thoughts. I try to look for inspirations on Instagram to try out new poses and challenge my body a little bit. Oh well, I'm pretty impressed with my achievement and trust em, this becomes an addiction. After nailing one after the other, you will be driven to push yourself further. Think it's impossible, not at all. I came across a quote recently that said "I want to see what happens if I don't give up" . This really sparked my thoughts and made me re-evaluate my feelings, my emotions and my outlook toward my job, yoga practice, eating habits, lifestyle and day-to day mental activity. It's a baby step for sure and what's working for me will certainly not work for everyone. Do what you feel the most good about. Whatever, yes, whatever that gives you contentment and makes your brim with a smile, do it.

Photo credits: http://danetomas.com/the-path/ I haven't posted anything for over a year and a half. I had to take a minute to pause and process that thought. Here I am, a little over 21 months later, lost my voice, sick for over 6 days and feeling really beaten up by everything life throws at me. Trying this one more time. I am not fond of looking back in time unless it is a happy memory. I realized people forget and they forget to tell the truth. Oh well, late 20s kinda sucks. It literally sucks everything out of you and nobody warned me about this. Although, I haven't figured out a solution for all my crisis, I believe good things are yet to unfold. I did discover my strengths and weaknesses during this course. I had to experiment various techniques to find temporary fixes. Ermm, my yoga practices were kind of choppy. To my surprise, I can effortlessly do a handstand now compared to 3 years ago. I had to take up a job and change a several and settle at one place where