Day 227 : Chakrasana - Check!

What a happy, happy day!

For the longest time now (maybe for 4 years or more) I had not been able to do chakrasana (wheel pose) on my own. I always could hold it once I was up, but never seemed to be able to hoist myself up on my own. So whenever chakrasana came in a yoga video, I would simply do a bridge pose instead. However, today as I was following one of Lesley Fightmaster's yoga videos, on a whim, I decided to try out the chakrasana together with her. I prepared myself for it with zero expectations and pushed away at the mat. Lo and behold, there I was...hoisted well about the ground, in a full chakrasana, much to my own surprise!

I couldnt believe what happened, so I was convinced that this was just fluke. So I tried again, and could do it again. Oh my dear God.

Chakrasana - CHECK! The joy!

273 more to go. 

Days 123 - 130 : 8 days, 8 pointers.

I am taking the lazy way out and combining posts for a few days. For a week, to be precise. Which is really awful but that's what am doing. Mainly because, after I got back from Phuket, everything has been a whirlwind. I no longer remember what I did every day. Plus of course, I procrastinated the blogging every day that now things have become old enough for my memory to start failing.

BUT...  I can find 7 things to be happy about. Or in other words, there are 7 things that I can remember that am allocatingfor each day.

So here we go.

1) I got back to dancing and practiced the Thilllana and Bho Shambho again.

2) I got back to Fitness Blender after a really long gap. It used to be one of my often visited channel for workout videos but recently I had been more into yoga and dance. But somehow I felt like some strength & cardio training were calling out to me, so am back at Fitness Blender. So far, am enjoying it.

3) I met a friend from school - "friend since 1991" to be precise - who was visiting with his family. I took them to National Gallery where his adorable daughter and my own Madam had a whale of a time. They were true blue foodies, so my treat to them was at my favourite restaurant Saha and they loved it! The fish curry, the chettinaad chicken curry, the hyderabadi biriyani, the mini uthappams, the dessert with nitrogen (as we called it), were all terrific!

4) I had my mid year performance review and I was told by my manager that he has nominated me for a "Emerging Leader Program" at work, which I think is his way of saying that I have done well so far. So, pretty happy about that.

5) Madam came up with a few more gems, Sample this :

Me : Don't be naughty, I'll give you one "adi"! (adi = whack)
Madam : You can't give me "adi". Because you are my buddy.

(Yup, now she rhymes when she talks back).

6) The husband and I had a date night after ages! I don't even remember the last time just the two of us stepped out. We went to Club Street and got ourselves some Italian food and wine. Felt good!

7 ) When Qlab started to work on the film, they noticed some serious quality issues with the dubbing in certain scenes. That's not surprising because the "dubbing studio" till now has been a random room in the actress' house. So they requested for some redub and since we are so close to completing the film, I didn't wanna mess up the redub of these last bits. So we dubbed in a real studio which was a very cool experience!

8) Last but not the least - I read three books. All three I loved! I wrote a little review on Facebook which am shamelessly borrowing and putting here.
In order of how much I loved each...
#3 - "Hector finds time" by Francois Lelord. While not as awesome as "Hector and his search for happiness" mainly due to many unnecessary strained attempts at humour, it was still a fun read and many a time, an eye opening one too.
#2 - "The Rosie Project" by Graeme Simsion. An absolutely delightful find - especially thanks to the incredibly adorable character of Prof Don Tillman. Had real fun reading this very fresh romantic comedy!
#1 - "My Grandmother sends her regards and apologies" by Fredrik Backman, the same genius who wrote "A man called Ove". These two now are my most favourite books of all time. Incredibly imaginative, "My Grandmother...." makes one laugh, cry and think - all in a sentence. Not once, but many many times. Narrated through the eyes of a quirky seven year old, this precious little book combines fantasy, wonder, magic, joy, dreams, hope, love, life and much more! Mr Backman has a fan for life!

So there. 8 days squeezed into 8 pointers. Lazy post, alright.

370 more to go.

Day 102 : Reclined Supta Padangustasana!

Yup - that's the pose I realized that I can do now. Ok fine. Only on one side. Still, it is pretty cool.

So there - Reclined Supta Padangustasana - Check!

398 more to go. 

Days 85 - 86 : My Mission!

Seems like am on a mission.

It is to get people around me practice more of yoga, correctly.

So first I started with the husband. He always liked yoga but isn't motivated enough to do it at home frequently. So I nagged him enough that he joined me at home, not once but two days in a row.

The Husband, Madam & I 

Then I moved on to the dad in law. He actually does some form of yoga every day, but I wanted him to try the joy of a proper class from an expert - so he can make sure the alignments are correct. So we played Nikki Doan's beginner's ashtanga yoga video and did that for an hour.

Dad in Law & I (Madam left her mat midway)

Then I bugged my film's editor - a complete novice who has been procrastinating for way too long - over WhatsApp sufficiently enough, sent him a short 12-minute video on Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation) meant for beginners, and told him he may no longer edit any of my films if he doesn't get moving. So he did. And thanked me for it.

Smugness.

Needless to say, Madam joined every session at home too.

And let me wrap up with my show off shot for the day. That's (Parivrtta Surya Yantrasana) Compass pose! OK fine, I can't do it as well on my left side, but let's not get into technicalities, shall we? It took me years to get here, so am over the moon!

Parivrtta Surya Yantrasana

414 more to go. 

Day 81 : Baby Grasshopper Pose!

I think my flexibility is at an all time high!

First, I could notice that even though am getting back to dance after several years, I am able to do a lot of the kicks much more easily than I could ever do.

Today, after the dance practice, I realized that I can do the Baby Grasshopper Pose - a pose that I had discovered in one of the yoga classes a few weeks ago, but couldn't do then. Well, I still can do it only on one side and can't hold it for too long either, but any progress is good and I feel awesome!

419 more to go. 

Day 71 - 72 : Maxing it Out!

It was the weekend after the "D-Day" and I was feeling on top of the world from the good news we received yesterday - We can go back to a normal life, at least for six months! That was awesome!


So I did what I usually do best. I decided to max it out.


I went to the temple to say big round of thank you.


I booked two holidays - one to Phuket in July and one to Bali in August.


I spent some good time catching up with friends, in laws and of course, the husband.


I took Madam on many outings - to the temple, to United Square for her favourite ride followed by Japanese food at Ichiban Boshi, to get her favourite Thai food from E-Sarn (the only place where she heartily gulps down vegetables!), to play with her best friend K at the Singapore Cricket Club.


I ate a lot - Japanese, Thai, Indian and an overload of home cooked food.  


I read a lot - current it is Anita Nair's "Mistress" (once again, such beautiful language but terrible plot!)


I did a lot of yoga - so much so that I realized I can now do Heron pose (Krounchasana) and Compass pose (Parivritta Surya Yantrasana)!


Yes, I maxed it out and man, did it feel good!


428 more to go.

Day 43: Breathe in, Breathe out!

The day started off with me dropping a humongous metallic plate on to my toes.

I had wanted the husband to practice yoga with me, and to make space for the both of us in the study room, I lifted up a chair and shifted it outside. In the process, the base of the chair which was a huge and heavy metallic plate, unexpectedly came off and unceremoniously dropped on to my toes.

For a few moments I saw all kinds of stars. The pain was incredible and I could see my big toe transform into an unhealthy shade of purplish blue. 

I wanted to scream and cry from the throbbing pain but instead, I breathed through it. 

One of the things you learn in yoga is the art of breathing in and out through muscles, limbs, tendons that are tight and uncomfortable. So I used the same technique - and took long, full breaths and imagined them to move on to that poor smashed toe, to rejuvenate them. 

After a while, even though the pain continued to throb and the purplish hue of the toe looked just as ugly, I no longer wanted to shout to cry out. The breathing technique seemed to have worked and I told myself that I will follow this technique to get myself out of all sorts of painful situations from now on. 

I proceeded to practice yoga - even though making variations to the routine to ensure I do not put unnecessary strain on the damaged toe. Later, I went for dubbing where I had a good catch up conversation with the cast and a bit of dub work done. Then it was time for one last family outing before my trip to London tomorrow - so the husband, my dad, Madam and I went off to Marina Bay Sands for dinner. We ate at TWG which served surprisingly good food for just a tea place. 

A day that started off with a painful morning, ended up being a rather fulfilling one by the end of it. I continued to breathe deeply in and out, and sent out a little prayer of gratitude. 

457 more to go. 

Day 34: All the Baddhas!

Thanks to an online yoga class by Candace, I just discovered that I can do a few yoga poses involving "Baddhas" or "Binds".

The first one is Baddha Parsvakonasana or the Side Angle Bound Pose - I had tried this before and had just about managed to do it. I was stiff especially on the right side. But today I realized that this is coming a lot easier than before! So that's a check!

The second one is Baddha Ardha Matsyendrasana or the Bound Half Lord of the Fish (I just LOVE that name! I makes me feel all Lord-y!) - I had done various versions of Matyendrasana before as this is a pretty common pose in the classes, and probably had attempted the "bound" version as well but this is the first time I felt completely at ease with it. 

So there, yet another great day with Yoga! 

466 more to go. 

Day 12: The Yoga Week!

For all my love for yoga, I realized that I had never practiced it for 7 days in a row (except when I was away on the retreat in Rishikesh last year, but that's different). Every time something or the other comes up after the 3rd or 4th day - and that "something" can very well be a sore muscle or simply lazines - and I end up taking a break.

But as of today, I can happily say that, I have finally completed an entire week of Yoga - all the beautiful 7 days in a row!

I did a combination of videos from Lesley Fightmaster's 90 Day Yoga Fix series, videos by Brett Larkin and Yogi Nora who are my latest discoveries on YouTube (I like some of their very different flow sequences) and just rounds of Surya Namaskar when I didn't feel like following any video on a particular day.

I wonder how many days in a row this would go, but am not going to burden myself with targets of any sort. Which is really what yoga is about anyway.

So for today, I will just mentally celebrate this special milestone and my love for yoga and what it does to my body and mind! Namaste!

488 more to go. 

Day 10: Vasisthasana - Check!

.... and we are back to yoga!

I was wondering how long it would take before I start filling the blog with my yoga stories.

Of course, as everyone knows, I was always interested in yoga. In fact, last year during our hectic shooting schedule in Abu Dhabi,  I even did quick 20 minute yoga sessions every day without fail, much to the amusement of my cast and crew who kept teasing me about it.

My precious exercise log tells me that I exercised an average of 4 times a week last year and at least half of it was yoga - i.e. about 2 times per week.

This year, I seem to have taken to it more than ever because now am averaging about 3x a week of yoga!

And it seems to be working well, because as I was following yet another YouTube yoga flow video, I realized that I can finally do Vasisthasana or the Side Plank Pose! Phew!

In all this time, the side plank was never within reach for me, thanks to my absolute lack of upper body strength. The other pose that is a far cry right now, due to this lack of upper body strength, is Chaturanga Dandasana or the Four Limbed Staff Pose, but let us focus on the good news here.

So yes, the good news is that I could finally do the Vasisthasana and even hold it until the lady in the video asked it to be held - I could finally stack the hips and the legs, I could stretch out the arms and I could balance. My left side Vasisthasana was a bit wobbly but I could still hold on to it. In a nutshell, it was a pretty awesome yoga practice! Totally made my day !

490 more to go.