Jump start my yoga practice with Neeta Dutta's workshop

Sometimes when a car has not been driven (or battery continually charged with a drip, as I do to my two seater) the battery goes cold. My yoga practice went cold for nearly 8 weeks as the work, travel and stresses of life took over. One would think a committed yogi like myself would remain consistent and true to his practice. Nada.. I let it slip....the vegan approach didn't work for me, loss of energy combined with all the balls we juggle to survive results in exactly the opposite of what you want to do. The learning (its a re-learning for me) is that we are just not in control of ourselves, and we gravitate towards our habits of extremes. It also affirms that we never were in control and never will. So why fight it. There is a more powerful force that exists beyond us, in every sense, physical and spiritual that we must surrender to and live in the moment and be cognizant of the moment, so when the opportunity presents we reset to become calm, and understand how to get re centered and try to achieve what Patanjali describes in his yoga sutras. By giving up control, The Effort becomes effortless. That is what I learned (or relearned) last night from a two hour forward bending Iyengar yoga session with Neeta Dutta at Sunset Yoga. It was the jump start my cold battery badly needed after two months of winter hibernation. The new studio is awesome, full of light and energy. There is more (re) learning all day today and part of tomorrow. I expect to be physically worn out by then, but I am certain my mind will be refreshed...Thank you Neeta! Namaste

Exhale out your stress in Ujai 2 - Begining of Pranayama

Finally, a formal 8 week pranayama class arrived at Sunset Yoga Center to be taught by Jen! I have been waiting for such a class and I wouldn't miss it for the world. The catch, no make ups or walk-ins. That will break my walk-in mode of attending yoga classes in Portland. I had become a walk-in drone for the last two years. Everything is sporadic when it comes to yoga, except when I am in Pune, when I can get to yoga for 2 hours a day.

I arrived to the class promptly, right from the gym and to my surprise found a small group with none of the regulars (those who attended level 3) around. Jen started with a great intro and some supine poses as preparation for pranayama and then in the last 20 mins of the class we practiced Ujai breathing - 1, 2, 3.

I found Ujai 2 the most relaxing and meditative, as those deep exhalations lead you to that empty space between the exhalation and the next inhalation. Its the nothing space, where you have let go for a moment every thought, desire and distraction and your mind is at peace and calm with yourself. I practiced it again last night before I went to bed and slept well.

A quote from Lord Krishna to Arjuna from the book "The Yoga of Bhagvad Gita"" perhaps best describes the feeling of Ujai 2: "O Partha, (Arjuna)! when a man completely relinquishes all desires of the the mind, and is entirely contended in the Self, by the Self, he is then considered to be one settled in wisdom".

There was great wisdom of being content for those few moments in Ujai 2 on Thursday night. I look forward to many more. Thank you Jen for a great class.

Namaste

Light on your feet with Iyengar yoga props

One of these days I have to post some pictures of props that are now in place at Sunset yoga center. Yesterday evening a level 3 with Nuvana was an amazing class. She subbed for Nina and since this was the last day of the session, a request was made of poses people liked and didn't like. I gasped when someone asked for Parivrata Trikonasana (revolved triangle) and Parivrata Ardha Chandrasana (Revolved Half Moon) and Vrksasana (Tree pose). All of the three I am unable to do well, ever since I discovered my lower back issues. But Nuvana made an amazing experience out of it by using props and spending nearly half of the class time in doing the first two revolved poses, using the stressler (horse), chair(s), blocks with wall support and the front desk table with the chair for support. Each time you had a different experience and it became challenging and exhausting (in a refreshing way). I felt like I had run a mile....

This was followed by the Vrkasana. I immediately went into it with my left leg standing and could feel the strength in my upper inner thighs to hold the right foot and balance. An attempt to do the same with the right leg standing didnt work, my left hip is tighter I said, but Nuvana had other thoughts. She asked me to turn around so my right side was along the wall and viola up went the left leg and I was in the pose. The unconscious mind is afraid of falling on the side with the leg is raised she exclaimed..made sense!

And finally a Tadasana where you could really feel "light on your feet" with energy in your thighs and hips to lift you up.. I felt like I could fly.... no back ache, no sciatica, I felt refreshed and energized - so much so that I woke up this morning at 6 am and went for an hour of walking up and down the gorgeous hills. Its been a while since I have experienced what I experienced this morning - perhaps the 25 pounds will finally get a chance to peel off once again and perhaps I will be able to fly once again.

Namaste

Yogi

The balance is back - 7 days of yoga and counting

It was imminent that I would wake up one day and realize that I had gone astray. I had let myself go again! Over the last six months I had become complacent and let the stress consume me inside. Outwardly, I was starting to eat my stress out and had let my physical practice or yoga and walking slip to the sidelines. I was starting to balloon.

I had the usual excuses - too busy, too much work, travel, bad food. It all hit me at once, when I hit 210 pounds in June 2009 and then by June end I was 214 pounds. I couldn't fit in my pants, my asthma returned, and I was starting to slip into the hole of depression.

Finally there is a realization and eureka moment! "Just take care of yourself first"! In that awareness I made a pact with myself. I had planned Munoso's intense one week workshop in the first week of July in San Franciso at Abode of Yoga. I couldn't attend it as one of the days was a day with my children. That was more important that any yoga in the world. So I made a promise to myself - I would practice yoga every day I was denied time with my children starting July 1. That was a 14 day stretch. Not only would I practice yoga, but I would restart my walking, watch my food intake and let the stress go away from within.

It has been 9 days. I have taken a yoga class for the last 7 days. I have walked 2-3 miles every other day and I have restarted the healing of my mind, body and soul. I went on the scale today. I am down to 210 pounds. The soreness from the first few days has dissipated. I have gone back to the path of centering myself. It has been a re-learning of what I learnt for the last 3 years - how to calm your mind and how to connect to your mind and soul through your body.

Everything I learnt is steadily coming back. There is no more sadness as much as there is no more happiness . There is no more an expectation of where I "should" be in my life right now. I am where I am, and I couldn't be at any other place. So I accept where I am, and I just go with the flow of life, with the only one end goal and that is to remain in my neutral space. Everything else including the weight will simply melt away. The balance is slowly returning and I felt it in my sirsasana yesterday. I can really balance on my head now, better than I had ever before.

That was my realization today and with it melted away my writing block......I am back to blogging.. slowly but surely!

Namaste

The Yogi

Monday Night Advanced Class with Nina - Intense groin opening pose to make you sweat and relieve back pain!

Yesterday night's class finally made me sweat. The theme of this class was "groin opening poses". Read "intense poses that generate heat and really make you sweat". So all of you who think yoga doesn't give you an intense workout - eat your heart out! This was hard, intense and sweaty.

The class was estrogen majority. I was the only male (what happened to the other two) in class and probably most "pose challenged". With tight hamstrings, I couldn't dare stretch the back leg in "Hanuman Asana". We did a number of groin openers and supporting poses to allow the groins to really open. Supta Virasana, variations of Adho Mukha Svanasana, Raj kapot Asana (Pigeon Pose).

Nina borrowed some inspiration from Nuvana's back-care class. Its strap trick. A small strap tight around your lower waist. The belt is wrapped around your sacrum, and high part of the gluteus muscles real tight. I use this trick when I have lower back ache or when I am long flights to India. Then you add a wider belt at your sacrum in loop around the tight belt. You then pull down the wider belt with your feet. It pushes your buttock muscles down, releasing the back. This provides amazing relief to your back.

This trick was taught to me by Nuvana early on in my training with her. Back and shoulder ache were to most persistent problems I encountered - both of which are now much better since I started yoga. There are so many benefits to yoga, but I must say I use this Nuvana trick all the time to relieve lower back pain. If you are in metro Portland or visiting try the saturday morning back care class at Sunset Yoga. You will be amazed!

Namaste

The Yogi

Avoiding Pain - Nina's mantra in class today

I took Nina Pileggi's level 2 class today - so many make ups to do. Nina suggested I donate them to friends and employees. Any takers?

Today was all about twists and pulling back and twisting around from the navel. That is hard work - I was sweating and my shoulders have become tight with lack of practice so they hurt when I do twists in standing poses, especially Uthita Trikonasa which is exceptionally painful. She transitioned from that to Uthita Parsva Trikonasa, a trikonasana with a twist.

And then there are those tough variations. She asked us to move the raised hand back, , lift the sternum and pull it back from the navel and raise and turn the head back, then bend the arm to touch the head so the elbow was not visible to the eyes. Easier said than done - she does these poses with such perfection.

I tried, many tried and you could hear the grunt and sigh of pain. She immediately recited a yoga sutra in Sanskrit and I believe it was: "Heyam dukham anagatam". She explained that it meant that we should plan for avoiding pain. In the pose she demonstrated we had to make sure the blocks were lined up correctly and in advance to avoid the pain. How true!

I was immediately drawn to her words, and it got me completely off balance and my mind recoiled back into the pain I have been suffering for many months. How can you plan to avoid pain when you have no control over the pain? I could see the physical manifestations of it with my tight shoulders and my lack of practice lately.

I was completely disheveled at that point and the pain in my mind subsumed me. My sugar levels dropped and I felt shaky. I had to take a short break to drink several cups of water. I have been avoiding pain I have been experiencing by blocking it out. I struggled through the other poses - shavasana didn't seem as relaxing. It took tremendous strength and effort to finish the class.

It occurred to me that there seems to no end to my mental pain despite all the attempts I take to deal with it. So when I came home, I decided to look up this sutra and really understand what Patanjali was talking about. So here are some excerpts from Guruji's book Light on Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

Heyam Dukkham Anagatam

The pain which are yet to come can be and are to be avoided.

Past pain is finished. Pain that we are in the process of experiencing cannot be avoided, but can be reduced to some extent through yogic practice and discriminative knowledge. Unknown future pains can be prevented now by adhering to yogic discipline.

Patanjali says that yoga is a preventative healing art, science and philosophy by which we build up defenses in our body and mind to counteract painful afflictions that are yet to attack us. It will help us to face the spiritual bliss if and when thanks to our good actions in former lives, the spiritual gate is open.

I am immediately reminded of Gehlek Rimpoche's philosophy of maintaining positive emotions and actions and how they carry through our incarnation and I see the connection with this sutra. Patanjali says that spiritual light can be shattering, so we should stabilize our body and mind with yoga to help with our spiritual growth.

Reading this sutra brought me some peace of mind, a little less pain and realization that I cannot afford to get off the path of yoga no matter how much pain and obstacles come my way. It is yoga that has helped me navigate through painful times in the last many months. I must be true to this path, no matter what!

Thank you Nina for enlightening me today and helping me bring some relief to the pain I deal with every day. I am looking forward to creating a video blog with you so you can enlighten us more with your knowledge and understanding of yoga and these wonderful sutras of patanjali.

Namaste

The Yogi.

The Inconsistent Yogi - I need more practice!

I missed yoga all last week. I blogged, reflected and enjoyed every moment I had with the kids, but physcially there was no yoga, not even a short walk or stretch. So today was the day to get back into the yoga class. Monday nights is advanced class with Nina at Sunset. But today it was Terry Peterson substituting. Its been a while since I attended his class, so it was a pleasant surprise. Terry has a very unique style - gentle but firm, with lots of Iyengarisms blended in. His demonstrations are Nuvaneseque - highly precise and you can see it all in the book "Cool Yoga Tricks" that both he and Nuvana have been photographed in as models.

Today's class was mostly forward bends, but with a twist - they were longer and supported with props like blankets and chairs. My favorite was the supported Uttanasana. I immediately went into calm mode and it is excellent for my high blood pressure. His words "let go of your thoughts and simply observe yourself in the pose" helped me be calm and perform the poses without feeling like I had to bend more than I should. I simply enjoyed what I could do given the tightness I have developed over the last two weeks. I balanced on my head for the longest I can remember - a good 2 minutes off the 5 minutes.

On the way out Terry and I chatted briefly about my time with Nina and Manu Shahani in Pune. Terry had stayed in their holistic heaven twice before I did. I found out about this place next to the RIMYI center through Terry last summer. He asked if I enjoyed the food. "Enjoyed" was an under statement. I simply loved it I said! I can't thank enough the old lady who so humbly made the daily meals and walked up a flight of stairs to serve it to me on a tray or in a container called tiffin. She would also make a bowl of fresh yogurt every morning and remind me to finish it or it would become sour! Its the best yogurt I have ever tasted.

I came out of the class feeling like I had a new family - familiar faces, with greetings and hellos. I felt a sense of calm and relief from the turmoil I face every day - at least temporarily. I savored every moment of that calmness as I drove home. I was really enjoying the moment and truly in it. I am not sure what tomorrow holds. Whatever it is I hope to handle it with a calm, thoughtful and pleasant disposition. There is no other way. I need to practice my yoga every day so I can get better at being more observant of my life, so I can accept what it has to offer with calmness and contentment. I hope you will too.

Namaste

The Yogi

Getting back to Sunset Yoga - Yoga with Nina Pileggi level 2

I attended my first class at Sunset Yoga after being gone for 3 weeks. Level 2 with Nina. She was happy to see the ropes I brought back that will be hung soon on the wall. The class almost seemed like a continuance from Nuvana's class yesterday. A lot of shoulder work with Adho Mukha Svanasana, Chaturanga Dandasana, and then on to Adho Mukha Vriksasana (Hand Stand). I completely bombed on the hand stand, as I did in Pune. The 2 months of sciatic pain and scant attendance and practice is the culprit. I was just too tired. We then started on some quad work and gently back bends mostly geared towards getting into Setu Bandh Sarvgasana by the wall. That was hard. I was sweating and so was most of the class. It was a good work out and I got some baby steps before I get back to the Level 3 class. Nina also gave me a book on Medicine and Yoga, which I forgot at the center despite her reminder to not. My absent mind! There is a whole section on my recently discovered lumbar spondilysis. Forward Bends , but no back bends. I need to read it and will report back here on what they have to say.

Coming back to classes at home, I realized how much I missed the tranquility of the classes at Sunset Yoga and Nina's gentle and demonstrative style of teaching as compared to rampant instructions at Pune. They are all different shades of grey. I have learn't to appreciate the beauty in all these styles and diversity in teaching of yoga. If we could only appreciate such diversity in life. Have tranquility, peace, patience and a smile in our lives, by letting go of our ego and anger. This world would be a much peaceful and happier place to live.

Namaste

The Yogi

Yoga and Men

I have been taking yoga classes regularly at Sunset Yoga and my gym and I have found that nearly 70% of the students are women. Men are far and few. When I was in Pune last year and took classes at Guruji's institute, I found that there were a lot more Indian men in the class. There seemed to be more international students who were women as well. I wonder why in the western society acceptance of yoga is so low amongst men. I know we men are not as flexible and working out at the gym and doing cardio, pumping weight is more masculine, jockish. Its what men are meant to do. Trying to do some of the poses with our tight hamstrings is obviously harder, more painful and we look like wimps while the fairer sex nail these difficult poses with perfection. It hurts our ego.

EGO! Thats it! Its the male ego that comes in the way of us men accepting yoga in higher numbers than women in our society. So I wonder if we can let go of our ego so more of us can benefit from yoga. I know my teacher Terry Peterson would love to have more men in his class. I am one of his two male students in his advanced class at Sunset Yoga and I am not a regular. He is always happy to see me in his class to add some additional testosterone to the mix. Maybe its time to find a class called "Yoga for men" or how about watching Tara Stiles' video appropriately called "Yoga for Jocks" for some inspiration.

Advanced Yoga with Nina Pileggi at Sunset Yoga Center

With much courage I attended the level 3 class this evening. Tonight I was as humble as I could be. I was rusty and apprehensive. The class is nearly full and I am at the back rather than the front at my usual spot. I am nervous. We go through the usual call and response invocation of OMs and Patanjali prayer. We start with adhomukha virasana and then to adho mukha svanasana (dog pose). My left leg hurts, I still can't fully stretch it. Then to chaturanga dandasana. I can't do it well at all, but I have to keep going. We are preparing for back bends, so Nina gets us to do the back pack pose with a belt. This is where you wrap the straps around your shoulders and upper back. You then pull the straps down as if you have a back pack. Your shoulder blades are pulled down, the trapezium muscle is pulled down and your shoulders naturally roll back. It gives the actions that are needed for many poses including back bends and you get a perfect upper body Tadasana. It is also an amazing therapy exercise for stiff neck and shoulder pain. One of the first therapy exercises I did with Nuvana. Yes I have seen many sorts of pain - shoulder, back, hip, sciatic, butt.

I can never get the straps to wrap correctly so Nina helps. Then we try the hand stand - adho mukha vrikshasana. My favorite. But I bomb. Nina has to spot me. I am tired already. Where is my ego when I need it !!! We then do the head stand. I did it longer than I ever had. We then transitioned to back bends on the chair. And this was the highlight of the entire class - Dwi Pada Viparita Dandasana or Upward Facing Two-Foot Staff Pose.

We used a chair by the wall (with a mat and blanket on the seat), back of the chair facing the way. Sitting in the reverse form (chest facing the back of the chair), I lowered myself on the seat with shoulders slightly over the edge of the seat and then pushed myself away from the wall. You get the coil in your back and look at the world turned upside down and faces panting on the other end of the studio. I wish I could have video taped this moment. Your world upside down in a back bend kind of way! Carolyn you are right - this is why we yogis don't get sick. It is the inversions and back bends.

This was the first variation. We attempted the shoulder action, learn't in the strap based Dandasana. That helps get the coil. Then came the harder variation. Blankets were placed on the floor and then you had to lower yourself till your head touched the blanket. Then the hands came down into the headstand. I couldn't do it. I felt I was choking and the reaction was to come right back up.

Nina says "stay in the previous pose - you haven't been attending classes for a while". Ah! there goes my ego again. I am tired and back bends open up my heart chakra. I hold back my tears. She asks if I was OK. The ego comes back and I say "yes I am OK". Another student also felt the same as I did. She felt like she couldn't breathe. So I am not alone in this. The fear had set in but my inner voice said "let go of your fear and just observe, breathe and have patience. Let it come slowly". I was reminded of the progression I experienced when I first accomplished the hand stand on my own. Its progression stupid!
Then the belts come to the chair legs to help you pull down. I put three blankets and could lower my self. My head touched - Bingo! The confidence was back and the ego was still in check. I cannot over-extend and kill my right glute this time. The short girls on both sides are completely down on the floor with their heads and hands around the heads. They did it, despite their very tight shoulders and height. Everyone is crowded over them watching Nina help one of them through the progression.

It motivated me to let go of the fear and try again. I go down again as I push my shoulder blades down (or up as I am upside down) and my back coiling as I push down further. I shove the blankets out of the way and there goes my head all the way down to the floor and the arms come down and the hands cup around the head. I DID IT! While everyone momentarily watches my moment of accomplishment - I am humbled but fearless at the same time. All the pain and discomfort was worth the moment in which my arms, head and hands touched the floor and the back coiled. I was in Dwi Pada Viparita Dandansana heaven - even if it only lasted a few seconds. There was a surge of energy in my body - i am back in the groove of yoga. Bud, a teacher at the center and a student of Nina commented "it was great to see you progress into the complete pose!". Go away Ego but thanks Bud for the compliment - it made my evening. Thanks Nina for a wonderful class! I have the badly needed energy and fearless mind for a very hectic day tomorrow.

Here is Guruji practicing the same pose and additional back bends reminiscent of today's class! I spent hours sitting on the stairs next to this hall this summer watching him and others - awestruck and inspired. Enjoy this beautiful moment of yoga with guruji and memorable sounds of India.

Namaste!

Restart of yoga - pain relief

I went back to class at sunset yoga on Wednesday. It was a level 1 class with Julie Burris. She is an excellent teacher, very calm, pleasant and has that wonderful texan twang. I like her style. Its very relaxed. She spends a great deal of time teaching you how to do sitting postures correctly at the start of the class. She will stop and correct you and modify poses for you if you have pain. I had announced up-front about my sciatica. There is still some pain when I stretch my left hamstring especially in Uttanasana, Dog pose, or Halasana. It was a basic class, but it was a good way to ease myself back to my class practice. Julie spent a month at the Pune center last year.

Last evening on a whim I attended the level 3 class taught by Terri Peterson. But he was not there. It was being taught by Marianne as a substitute. Wonderful! Marrianne is a great teacher and her style is very therapeutic and she is very attentive to each student. Its always a fun and relaxed class. She spent a fair amount of time on Suptapadangusthasana using belts for support, and I got to show her the Nuvana approach of pushing the belt down on the hip, to relieve the sciatic pain.

She talked about the similarities between sitting, standing poses, how each pose is related and linked to another pose. She calls it "science" - there is a lot of science behind these poses, for instance she mentioned that before you enter into a complete Sarvangasan, you fold your legs down - that action and posture is similar to Virasana. Marriane spent time at the Iyengar center in Pune many years ago. She speaks fluent Japanese and is a writer. Her passion, writing and yoga. Another very attentive, skilled and dedicated student and teacher of Iyengar yoga at Sunset Yoga Center.

My yoga guru is back!

Since mid November last year, Nuvana Zarthoshtimanesh (http://sunsetyoga.com/teachers.php) my yoga guru has been in India and with the holidays in December my yoga routine was turned upside down. I first took her class in January 2006, upon my return from from a business trip to Pune, when I was inspired to take a yoga class. It was at Hawthorne Athletic Club (http://www.hfac.com/) and hers was the only class on a Sunday morning. I just about died in that class. It was hard. Imagine 250 pounds of inflexible and atrophied human waste, with an ever expanding 42 inch waist. I could barely touch my knees and I was at my worst lung capacity. I could barely breathe and my asthma had come back with a vengeance.

I had done yoga as a child, and all I recalled was padmasana (which I no longer can do), dhanurasana, and sarvangasana. I even wrote a play on yoga when I was 13 in 1977, a knock off the only yoga show on Indian TV then by Swami Dhiren Brahmachari, who never performed any asanas, and I doubt if he ever did, he was more known for his friendship with the Mrs Indira Gandhi and his private jets. He later died in a plane crash. So I digress....

Back to the point, so this first ever yoga class at my home base was one rough class. I just about collapsed trying to do the downward dog pose, but it felt good. I felt like I had run a marathon and done weights at the same time. I had no clue Nuvana was teaching "Iyengar yoga", it just felt good but very difficult at the same time. I then took an evening class with a lady named Muir, who had spent 2 months in India at Sivananda in Kerala. She was teaching it differently. There was music and she used no sanskrit names. I couldnt keep up with her, it was Vinyasa, flow yoga. Wow, pretty cool I figured. After the first session I was in a lot of pain and hurt my back. But I persisted and went to both Nuvana and Muir's classes. The Vinyasa class became wierder and wierder. She was doing partner yoga all of a sudden and that felt a bit strange. She coupled me with a guy and I had to grab on to these ugly feet to strech my arms out for the child pose. That pretty much did it for me. I decided to just stick with Nuvana, but an hour class in the gym was not enough. I asked Nuvana if she would give me private lessons and she accomodated. So once a week I would go to her house for a yoga lesson. It changed my life forever. It became a family affair and my kids started to join me. We all did yoga together.

Nuvana had taught Iyengar Yoga in Mumbai, India before she moved to Oregon.
She came from a family of serious yoga practitioners. Her grandmother, uncle and cousins were all serious Iyengar Yoga practitioners. Her cousin Zubin is an accomplished yoga teacher and runs one of the best yoga studios in Mumbai and is one of Guruji's most senior students. He travelled with Guruji around the world in the early to mid 1990s. Fate brought me to Nuvana and Iyengar yoga and that led to a series of coincidencesand connections, that included introduction of Iyengar Yoga to my employees in Pune India.

My connection with Pune started in 1997 when I hired my first employee from Pune and then again in 2001 when I started a company in Pune. Little did I know that right accross the street from the hotel I stayed at when I visited Pune, was the heart and soul of yoga and a yoga guru whose style would completely change my life. Looking back it all makes sense now. It makes sense that of all places in India I would choose Pune. Add all the connections -- from Nuvana, to others who inspired me to bring yoga back into my life and it all makes complete sense. It was bound to happen because it was meant to be and there was a cosmic connection to Guruji. Awareness of such connections are important and they are inspiring to one's soul.

I was very fortunate to find Nuvana and be trained by her. I feel that one on one teaching I received from her propelled me in a short period of 18 months from a novice to someone who could take an advanced yoga class and not be intimidated. It awakened my body and mind, and within a year I had lost nearly 6 inches off my waist and 60 pounds of weight. She inspired me to teach yoga to my kids and bring them into yoga at such a young age.

She also inspired me to join Sunset Yoga Center as a student and experience other great teachers like Nina Pillegi, Julie Burtis and Terry Peterson. By experiencing different teachers I built more confidence which in turn increased the awareness of myself and encouraged me to try harder. I may not be the most flexible, but I am not afraid to try a new pose, or a new way to do the same pose or attend an advanced class, even though I maybe the rookie in the class. Every pose I do, I do it with all my heart and soul and all the pain I can bear and my painful grunts and heavy breath when I am in agony during class are a testament to that. I am truly inspired by these awesome teachers who have such commitment, love and passion for yoga and they have really inspired to keep on the path. They have made a huge impact on my life and I salute and thank them.

So with Nuvana's return I am inspired to get back on my yoga path 4 consecutive days a week.

Namaste.