Get That Natural Glowing Skin with Yoga
The two main things we often notice when we see a yogi is that they are usually physically strong and very flexible. They often give off a calm, relaxed and positive vibe. However, if you notice close enough, most yogis pretty much have radiant and glowing complexion. Good news for beginner yogi is that you do not need to spend on pricey beauty products and expose your skin to chemicals because observation has shown that yoga can improve our skin complexion. Firstly, we need to understand what causes skin problems before getting into the solutions. Due to unhealthy lifestyle such as smoking, alcohol, and wrong food habits, young women these days start to have premature wrinkles on their skin. Besides that, hormonal imbalance and improper digestion due to unhealthy or imbalance food intake could lead to pimple breakout which is very common among women of all age groups. In yoga practice, the pranayamas (breathing techniques), allows oxygen to flow into our blood system and then into the whole body. With the sunny and humid weather in Singapore, it is preferable to practice cooling pranayamas such as Sheetali which requires you to roll your tongue and inhale, hold the breath and exhale through the nose. Holding the breath in between allows oxygen to flow into the blood. The oxygenated blood will then be transported to the whole part of the body allowing fresh blood to so-called replace the old blood. As for asanas, you may concentrate on inversions, forward bending and twisting poses. Inversions and forward bending poses increase blood circulation to the head and face area. Examples of asanas you can perform would be all inversions (Headstand, Handstand, Shoulder stand), Fish Pose, Wheel Pose and Plough Pose and as for forward bending would be Standing Forward Bend and any poses that require your head and face to go reverse gravity. Twisting poses can do wonders for your skin as they improve the digestive system which aids in detoxifying of the body. Examples of twisting poses would be Revolved Side Angle Pose, Seated Half Bound Lotus Pose and so on. Yoga can help you to get that natural glowing skin provided you practice yoga regularly. [Vivien Phang of 200 Hr Hatha Vinyasa YTTC]
Questions before Doing Yoga
Every yoga practitioner was once a beginner. Over the past few years, yoga has been grouped as one of the hottest sports and it is no doubt that the types of classes are getting much more diverse, ranging from the traditional Ashtanga to sweaty Bikram. As a newbie, you should first pick a type of class that suits and interests you before you embark on any yoga regiment which does not come cheap. It is highly recommended that you do your own research to know which yoga style suits you best. However, if you are considering between a few styles, you can look up for trial classes offered by some yoga centers or studios. Otherwise, you may opt for online promotions via GroupOn, MyDeal, and so on. This will give you an exposure on what the yoga style you picked feels like which you may or may not get from watching YouTube. Next, you should find a class be it in the gym, studios or even going for yoga retreats, based on what you are looking for. Gym centers would be essential for those who wants to get in shape only whereas if you want an in-depth training that includes spiritual element, opt for yoga studio or yoga retreats. You may also want to check the timings available at the gym, yoga centers or studios. Depending on you expect out of a class, whether is it to build strength, relaxation, or to improve flexibility, check if the timings for the classes you are interested are suitable for you. For working adults, suitable timings are usually before and after work, during lunch or weekends. It is also important to bring what you need during your class. Check if the yoga center or studio provides yoga mats, towels, lockers, and water. Otherwise, prepare these things before attending the class. Also, to be on the safe side, it is fine for beginners not to invest in an utterly expensive yoga mat because you would not know if you will be doing yoga for the long haul. Thus, getting a yoga mat from departmental stores is perfectly fine as yoga mats generally serve the same purpose. Lastly, always be reminded not to have heavy meals prior to any classes as it may cause you to feel nauseous. If you are on an empty stomach, you may munch on few pieces of biscuits at most. I hope this article will help you in finding the suitable yoga style. [Vivien Phang of 200 Hr Hatha Vinyasa YTTC]
Benefits of Practicing Yoga
I have been practicing yoga for about 9 months now and I started taking yoga seriously when I enrolled for Yoga Teacher Training Course which took place in March. Ever since my constant practice of yoga, I have realized my life has improved mentally, physically and emotionally. Yoga indeed has tonnes of benefits and that is just what I am going to tell you about. First and foremost, it aids our stressful life especially in a bustling city like Singapore where individuals are rushing from one destination to another. Yoga helps to clear the mind as it allows us to focus on the present moment. When one feels stressed or worried, yoga helps to combat stress by teaching us how to let go of negativities. Besides that, it boosts our endurance level when we are in the midst of holding a difficult asana during class. I am sure we are all eager to learn new and tricky poses but sometimes our body is restricting us from doing so. With this, yoga teaches us to be patient as body transformation takes time. This teaches us mentally that we cannot force things to happen as soon as we want them to. Some things will take a little time and good things are worth the wait. Furthermore, ever since I practice yoga, my digestive system has improved a lot! Thanks to all the twisting asanas which stimulates the internal organs and knowledge of the 3 Gunas (Sattvic, Rajasic, and Tamasic) food which helps me to make healthier choices of food. Besides that, by practicing balancing asanas during yoga session has improved my concentration not just at work but also helps to improve me in holding asanas specifically in arm balances and inversions. Yoga minimizes risk of physical injury as well as it increases our flexibility for instance in Yin Yoga. Lastly, yoga is non-competitive by nature, so the only opponent you have is yourself. It tests our own body limits, letting us know what we are really capable of and watch ourselves progress and transform over time. Yoga is definitely a confidence-booster and seeing improvements in ourselves is one of keys to happiness and success. [Vivien Phang of 200 Hr Hatha Vinyasa YTTC]
First Breakthrough!
I find myself pretty shy when it comes to interacting with strangers and people whom I am not familiar with. This has easily become one of my weaknesses and it has always been a constant battle between my inner thoughts and what I really want to do. So, I had no idea that in my Yoga Teacher Training Course, we are supposed to bring in our friends to come for our so-called trial class where we will be assessed by our instructor. I was pretty worried and stressed on several stuff such as not being able to remember my sequences, asanas, important key points, alignments, timing, and so much more! I knew I had to do something about it so I sorted out my sequences many times and have them printed out. It was my first class on my own and I really did not want to screw it up. The day has finally came and gone. It started off pretty well I would say, except that I had several nervous moments but I reminded myself to keep calm and smile no matter how nerve-wrecking I am feeling on the inside. It is okay to make mistakes now and learn from it rather than not knowing where you could go wrong. In the midst of teaching, I slowly find myself being able to engage with the students (the other YTTC mates and my friend) and it actually felt quite comfortable. My friend and I after my first class! 😀 I would not have been able to experience this feeling of not just speaking but teaching and instructing in front of a small crowd of six people, if I had not decided to enroll for this course. There is plenty of room for improvement and I am very open to constructive criticism which could help me improve my teaching skills. [Vivien Phang of 200 Hr Hatha Vinyasa YTTC]
Practice Santosha
“Santosha” is the second Niyamas of Patanjali’s Eight Limbs of Yoga. It teaches us on how to seek contentment within you before you can form any relationship with others. As the saying goes, love yourself before you love others, simply because it is impossible to provide love to someone else if you do not have it within you. As a yoga-practitioner, you need to find santosha on mat when practicing yoga asanas. Normally in a yoga studio, how often do you peek on others in a midst of a pose, whether their asana position is worse or better than ours? I am pretty sure you all have been there and done that. It is neither surprising nor wrong if you put the energy to good use. However, it is the latter situation that got us pumped up a little and if it makes you feel challenged, take it in the good way and take this energy to further improve yourselves. Practice yoga to go further but at the same time, go by your own pace. Do not force yourself till you get hurt physically as yoga is not all about getting into the final pose as quickly as possible but yoga is more of the journey towards performing the pose with right alignments. Also, it is the journey that makes each pose worthwhile. Thus, as a yogi, avoid comparing yourself with others. This applies as well to material things on the outside world. If you constantly feel you are never good enough, you will always end up feeling as if you are lacking of something, (ie: not skinny enough, not tall enough, not attractive enough and so on). Taking a breather and transforming the negative energy can change how you feel about yourself. If you can learn to love yourself and all the flaws, you can love other people so much better. It is when you free yourself from desires; you will know serenity and freedom which leads to contentment. [Vivien Phang of 200 Hr Hatha Vinyasa YTTC]
Reasons Why I Took Up Yoga Teacher Training Course (YTTC)
We have all heard this from most non-yoga practitioners; “I’m too stiff to do yoga!” and I am guilty of that as well. I remembered when I was first introduced into yoga back in 2013. The class package lasted for a month and I am on yoga hiatus since then. Fast forward a year later when I started to join the corporate world, I began to realize my daily life has been almost like a typical “9am-5pm” routine and I needed to do something about it. Soon enough, I began practicing yoga through YouTube and doing simple High-intensity interval training (HIIT) workout at home, but the urge and motivation to exercise slowly wears off after a month or two. By the third month, I have stopped watching tutorials via YouTube and my HIIT workout has come to a halt. By the end of the year, I have finally signed up with one of the yoga centers because I was so eager to give Hot Yoga a try. Hot Yoga to me was like “killing two birds with one stone” because you get to sweat buckets and tone your body up at the same time. However, I do not see much progression in terms of flexibility and exploring new yoga poses from the past 6 months of practice considering the fact that I attended classes for about 3 times a week. I was not told if my alignments were right or wrong as the classes were usually of a bigger crowd. But because yoga really made a difference to my stressful working-life, I guess this is more than just a mere hobby. Hence, I have decided to take up the YTT course to learn and improve on my alignments, to have a deeper understanding of yoga not just in exploring the yoga asanas but mentally but spiritually as well, and most importantly, to be able to teach and have interpersonal relationship with the students at the same time because I personally feel quality is far more important than quantity when it comes to the practitioner’s physical, mental and spiritual. [Vivien Phang of 200 Hr Hatha Vinyasa YTTC]
What Can A Fresh Yoga Teacher Training Graduate Do
The demand for yoga teacher training has grown exponentially in recent years. Generally, every yoga teacher who has graduated from the YTT course would have the intention to turn their yoga passion into a successful and sustainable yoga career. Passion for yoga is a lifestyle but if we are able to turn it into an active income at the same time, then it is phenomenal. But here’s the honest reality check that many people seem to completely forget when it comes to making a living as a yogipreneur – you have to create your own opportunities. A yoga business has the same inherent risks of any other business. It takes time, sometimes years, to really develop your yoga skill set and become an amazing teacher. For starters, a fresh graduated yoga teacher can teach private yoga lessons. There is a real art behind teaching private yoga lessons. It takes skills that you simply do not get straight out of teacher training. But a handful of long-term private yoga students you can meet with regularly can be a solid foundation for your yoga business as you develop additional yoga offerings. Teach at a local school or university. Most universities require students to have a physical education class to get their degree. You might also be able to teach at the student recreation center or work with the trainers in the athletic departments. Host a local retreat. It can be a 2 days 1 night event. Seek out a smaller scale retreat location at a sub-urban location or even at the local beach side – with just a handful of students to test the waters. It can be a themed retreat like weight loss retreat or beautiful skin retreat or it can just be a general relaxation retreat. The activities will be practicals combined with theory. Host an international retreat. This can be done at a longer duration, such as a 4 days 3 nights event. You may partner up with 1 or 2 other yoga teachers and host the international retreat which can be amazingly fun. The numbers has to be run through again and again before committing to anything and give yourself lots of time to not only plan, but give your students a chance to save up. Create a unique niche offering. There are so many niche yoga opportunities to be presented to the market. Detox Yoga, Advanced Core Yoga, Broga. Yoga for runners and etc. There is certainly one that the market has demand for, depending on the Client’s profile and background. Manage a yoga studio or fitness center. Depending on the size of the yoga studio or fitness center, the manager position could actually be a full time gig on its own. Even if it’s not, many yoga studios owners find themselves spread super-thin across managing the day to day, teaching classes themselves, and planning out the coming months. If your studio doesn’t have someone managing teacher schedules, organizing events, and running the daily studio operations, you may be able to create a job for yourself. All in all, each Yoga Teacher Training Graduate will have to see which route they are more suitable for and comfortable with. It takes hard work, dedication, determination and perseverance to succeed as a profound Yoga Teacher. Remember what brought you to this path in the first place. Hold onto it closely. Keep the love. [Sharon Phang; 200 Hr YTT Hatha Vinyasa]
What Has Yoga Taught Me About Life
Beyond the yoga asanas and all the philosophical underpinnings, there are various life lessons that I have learned from yoga practice. 1) Do not create unnecessary tension When I get into challenging poses, usually the first thing that I would do is clench my teeth and tense my shoulders. This does not help me to achieve the final pose much easier and even made me lost focus on my breathing. Instead, keep the mind calm, peaceful and yet focus, and unknowingly, I am already in the position. In reality, when I am faced with obstacles and challenges, I tend to get stressed out, maybe panic and sometimes over-react. This does not help me to achieve what I want from life, in fact it hinders. Thus, just take things easy but be alert and focus to solve any obstacles. 2) If something is not working, you have the power to change it Coming into yoga postures again, sometimes we hurt parts of our body and even bruise and scrape our skin while trying to achieve certain poses. Perhaps it’s not the right way or method to come into that pose and we should change the way we are practicing it. In reality, if your co-worker is bringing you down with her/his constant negativity, you have the power to change the way you relate to that co-worker. 3) You can achieve more than you think Before starting my 200Hr YTT Hatha Vinyasa Course, I was inspired by the inversions and some arm balances and backbending poses. I never attempted to perform them as they seemed real tough and challenging and I do not want to get any body injuries. However, surprisingly, with much perseverance and practice, I am now able to perform some of these poses, even for a brief moment, because I kept practicing, gaining strength and learning the technique little by little each day. Thus, nothing is impossible and we can accomplish things in life if we approach them with determination, hard work and persistence. 4) Honour your body and be patient We can never force our body to open into a pose before it is ready. If you do, you will either fail miserably or you will hurt yourself while trying. You will have to work up to poses through warming up each practice session to cultivate your strength and increase flexibility, and some poses might even take a lifetime. Life is the same way. Do not rush things and let things go with the flow. Consistency, determination and perseverance will eventually reward you when the time comes. 5) Only you can make sound decisions for yourself In a regular yoga class, my teacher will always be there to guide me and offer suggestions. But no matter how experienced and how good she is, she does not live in my body and she does not feel what I feel. For this reason, I am the only one who can make sound decision for myself. Trust your judgement, do what feels right to your body and mind, and you can never go wrong. [Sharon Phang; 200 Hr YTT Hatha Vinyasa]
The Hidden Benefits of Yoga
Generally, yoga practice, through breathing (pranayama), postures (asanas) and body locks (bandhas), is nature’s way of healing our body or boost our immune system by increasing overall health without the need of any consumed medicines or tonic. As you breathe better, move better and circulate better, all the other organs function better. Many have known that yoga helps to tone up the body and firm up parts of the body such as the arms, thigh, shin, abdomen, depending on the poses that we do. It also helps to improve our skin complexion due to our constant breathing while we perform our asanas, which leads to a regulated blood flow in our body. It also improves the health of our eyes and improves our posture as well. It also relieves indigestion and orders of the bowel. Apart from that, not only does yoga increases our flexibility and reduces stress and hypertension, but the practice can do more than help you twist your body into pretzel shapes and find inner peace. There are also some hidden benefits that will help us in our daily life. Yoga aids in relieving menstrual cramps and pain. Speaking from my own experience, after practicing yoga on a regular basis since 2 months ago, my menstrual cramp has been better and more bearable and the associated headache from the pain does not surface any more. The flow of my menstrual has been very constant and smooth as well. I also do not need to consume pain meds any longer. Yoga also helps to ease migraines. More than often, at the office, we hunch over a computer or cell phone with your shoulders up and head forward, causing overlifting of our trapezius and tightening of the neck. This pulls the head forward and creates muscle imbalances that can contribute to headaches and migraines. Besides that, yoga can improve our sexual desire, arousal, performance, confidence, orgasm and satisfaction for both men and women. Physically, yoga increases blood flow into the genital area, which is important for arousal and erections, and strengthens the “moola bandha,” or pelvic floor muscles. Mentally, the breathing and mind control involved with the practice can also improve performance. Daily yoga is also able to significantly improve sleep quality for people with insomnia. This is because breathing and meditations allow the mind to slow down. Studies have found that by doing yoga sessions twice a week, it has helped cancer survivors sleep better and feel less fatigued. This can be attributed to yoga’s ability to help people deal with stress Regular yoga practice is associated with mindful eating, an awareness of physical and emotional sensations associated with eating. By causing breath awareness, regular yoga practice strengthens the mind-body connection. The awareness can help you tune in to emotions involved with certain cravings, and yoga breathing exercises can help you slow down and make better choices when cravings strike. [Sharon Phang; 200 Hr YTT Hatha Vinyasa]
A Yogi’s Diet : The 3 Gunas
The three Gunas are classifications of quality of energy in all things used in Yoga Science and Ayurvedic medicine. A Guna is one of three “tendencies” of the mind, body and consciousness. The three gunas are called rajas, tamas and sattva. These categories describe our behavior, thinking, health and diet. Sattvic Diet is the purest diet, the most suitable one for any serious student of Yoga. It nourishes the body and maintains it in a peaceful state. And it calms and purifies the mind, enabling it to function at its maximum potential. These foods will also raise our consciousness, inspire us to positive action, deeper meditation and unleash our hidden potential and creativity. A Sattvic diet thus leads to true health; a peaceful mind in control of a fit body, with a balanced flow of energy between them. Sattvic foods include cereals, wholemeal bread, fresh fruits and vegetables, pure fruit juices, milk, butter and cheese, nuts, seeds, honey and herb teas. Rajasic Diet consists of foods that are very hot, bitter, sour, dry or salty. They destroy the mind-body equilibrium, feeding the body at the expense of the mind. Too much Rajasic food will over-stimulate the body and excite the passions, making the mind restless and uncontrollable. Rajasic foods include overly spicy or hot substances, such as sharp spices or strong herbs, onions and garlic, stimulants such as coffee and teas, fish, poultry, eggs, salt and chocolate. Eating in a hurry is also considered rajastic. A rajasic person will eat on the run, rush food and experience poor digestion and health as a result. A Tamasic diet benefits neither the mind nor the body. Prana, or energy is withdrawn, powers of reasoning become clouded and a sense of inertia sets in. The body’s resistance to disease is destroyed and the mind filled with dark emotions, such as anger and greed Tamasic food includes overnight food, meat, alchohol, tobacco, fermented foods such as vinegar and stale overripe substances. Overeating is also considered tamastic. In each of us there is a proportion of each Guna. Without Tamas, we could not sleep and without Rajas, we would lack dynamism and without Sattva, life would be uninspiring and without the higher human qualities. A yogi is aiming to increase sattva to raise consciousness through a healthy body and a peaceful mind. Personally, after I have started yoga, I am more conscious of my daily dietary plan now. I tend to eat healthier based on the 3 gunas – sattvic, rajasic and tamasic. I incorporate these 3 gunas daily to get a balanced diet without torturing the body by starving and refraining from my cravings, which will lead to ahimsa. I avoid high carbohydrate and high glucose food such as white rice, white bread, instant noodles, pizzas and burgers and take more high fibre and wholemeal products such as red rice, wholemeal bread and fresh blended juice. I also take lesser fatty food such as tuna, fried food and heavy gravy food. Not only that, I have also refrained myself from taking alcoholic beverages. There is a state of contentment knowing that my body is transforming to be healthier and stronger, which is santosha. Thus, it’s important to recognize where we are right now, know that we have the tools to get where we want to be, and medicate appropriately with the correct doses of sattva, rajas, and tamas. Food can be that medicine, and now you know a little more about how to use it. [Sharon Phang; 200 Hr YTT Hatha Vinyasa]
