Yoga: My Style

The highlight of my week is every Tuesday and Friday evening.



No, it’s not my date night, it’s not my girl’s night out and it’s certainly not the happy hour sessions, though they all come pretty close. Tuesdays and Fridays, come hell or high water, I head off to my gym to partake in my Yoga classes.



I was enlightened on yoga about two years ago, while I was still a member of Quantum but did not start practicing regularly till I joined the Four Seasons last year, where it offers convenient evening classes with a particularly excellent and knowledgeable instructor. The fact that the classes are held at the Four Seasons Spa, also makes the whole experience both quite stylish and refreshing. The second you enter the spa, already you are indulged with elegant surroundings, subtle scent of aromatherapy and serenity.



What is such the big deal, you might think, yoga class is just a room full of people mostly women who stretches and do weird poses? Well, indeed, by doing this and a couple of other things like synchronized deep breathing, I have rediscovered my body. I now know how far my body can go and that I am progressing at each and every session. Every practice brings a unique experience about rediscovering myself. The whole objective of yoga is about mastering yourself and liberating yourself from the limitation of your mind. Apparently you can do more than you think.



By practicing yoga, our body exercises its all three aspects: physical, astral and mind; thereby releasing any blockages and stress, and inducing itself to produce a sense of stillness and ultimately contentment. As an added bonus, it builds lean muscles, develop strength and enhance flexibility.



One of yoga’s core poses is the sun salutation sequence, which is composed of:



Standing
Bending forward (strengthens the abdomen and reproduction organs)
Downward dog (stretches your calf muscles and hamstrings)
Push up position or Stick pose
Upward dog (strengthens lower abdomen and calf muscles)


At every session, we do 6-7 sequences of the sun salutation which can be quite exhausting and certainly sweating. The sun salutation has a complete and total effect on the entire body. All the plexus of the body are stimulated. Circulatory system is activated and the cells are rejuvenated. The pulmonary, nervous systems, digestive organs and the large muscle groups are all affected. It affects each vertebra of the spine and all the other joints of the body. It is used in Hatha Yoga as a warm up exercise and for enhancing the cardiovascular system. For all you sceptics out there, this legitimately makes yoga a sport for me.



Other poses, such as the warrior pose (stretches and strengthens your arms and legs) , the wheel pose (stretches the solar plexis where all your nerves congregate, opens your stress center and release accumulated tension), the fish pose (opens your chest, throat, arching the spine and the parathyroid gland) and the shoulder stand (stimulates the endocrine, nervous, and circulatory systems, also benefits the thyroid gland in the throat area as well as the whole nervous system), each have benefits to specific muscles, organs and glands. These poses are typically part of any Hatha yoga session for beginners or intermediate students.



But the master pose of all, or the king of all poses is the headstand which does a complete reversal of the gravity effect in your body and induces the pineal gland, the true master gland which controls all the glands in our body (located below the brain) to be rejuvenated. Other glands include the pitituary (the true gland, just one notch below the pineal), parathyroid and thyroid (which regulates your metabolism), thymus, langerhans (which produces insulin), superaneal (which produces adrenaline) and gonad.



By just doing the headstand, you have commanded your true master gland and ultimately all your body glands to be maintained in good condition. I am happy to report that I am in the process of mastering my body and gradually releasing my fear and finally did my first headstand. A feat I am quite proud of. An inspiring moment for the next journey.



Yes, I still go to the gym, push weights and do the treadmill, I still play my squash game with my coach and do my ten laps at the pool every week. But nothing beats yoga for its sheer personal gratification, satisfaction and contentment. It is the only sport I know that the competition is effectively your own mind and body. Only you can make your body and mind to extend its limit to beyond and only you can make your body to attain a more perfect pose.



My routine for yoga evenings are kept generally similar. I arrive at the Spa around one hour before the session. I go to the Gym, located next to the Spa and hit the treadmill for 30 minutes and then take a shower before yoga. This will help you feel fresh and invigorated during the class. After the one hour session and a short meditation, I will have a cup of ginger tea with my classmates. Then we would head and hang out at the whirlpool with idle gossip and banter. After a quick spray of shower and change, the ladies and I would either head to a restaurant for a nice dinner or at least have a drink on the premises.



That my friends, is why I always try to keep my Tuesday and Friday evenings free. But as can you can guess, I am quite more successful for Tuesdays than Fridays. Hehehe, life’s never perfect, but on the road to enlightenment once a week is better than none and the way I'm doing it is by: Yoga, my style… Howzat!?!



Namaste.


Hatha Yoga Classes

Instructor: Arif Sentosa

The Spa at Four Seasons

For more info:

+62 21 252 3456