Dear Friends,
Here is the Ashtanga Yoga Jiva Newsletter for May 2011.
Practice at 6am!
If you so wish, on week-days, you may start practicing at the studio as early as 6am. Although please note, I don’t actually start teaching until 7am.
Facebook Event Page Visitors Book
If you are joining the class or have joined or are intending to join - if you have not done so already - please add your name to the list of those attending the class. And by all means leave any comment on the page. I would like to see the page become a kind of on-line visitors book. Here’s the link Mysore Classes Facebook Thanks!
Three Month Mysore Classes Package
Three months of unlimited Mysore classes : Baht 12,000 cash only. But please hurry - this offer will not be available forever!
Ashtanga Yoga Koh Phangan Dot Com
Still no definite dates for my stint of teaching in Koh Phangan. However, the website is up and running and more or less finished. Please check it out @ ashtangayogakohphangan
May Dates For Your Diary
A lot of dates to note in May. Pilatestudio is hosting a training course. Because of this, there is a shortage of rooms. So there needs to be some compromise from us, and for a few days class will finish earlier. Please see effected days below*. If any student who has purchased a package is unhappy about the situation and cannot work with the time changes, please get in touch and we will work something out.
Monday 2nd : No Class (Studio closed, Thai Holiday & New Moon Day)
Thursday 5th : Class is 8:00 - 11:00 (Thai holiday)
Wednesday 11th* : Finish in Yoga Room 8:55
Thursday 12th* : Finish in Yoga Room 8:25
Tuesday 17th : No Class (Full Moon Day)
Wednesday 18th* : Finish in Yoga Room 8:55
Thursday 19th* : Finish in Yoga Room 8:25
*On the course days, a few students may relocate to the small room next door to finish if necessary. And students may start practice from 6am of course.
Bangkok Bad
As I write, the floor shakes beneath me and the entire apartment is filled with the deafening roar of machinery and foul engine fumes. It's as if I were sharing the room with an archaic and ruined washing machine, pounding out its furious spin cycle, hour after hour.
Until a few months ago, from our balcony, the scene was idyllic by Bangkok standards. A couple of small neat houses, a lawn and plenty of trees. Birds were heard singing in the morning and in the evening, there was almost silence. And in place of that we now have, you guessed it, a construction site.
I am very often wondering about matters of health. Questions pop up and and if they persist, in the end I start researching, looking for answers. One recurring theme is how to be healthy whilst living in Bangkok.
I have been living here since 2008 and have been concerned about the state of my health and that of others around me during this time. I have often wondered about the environmental damage to health from living in this city. And I wanted to find out just how unhealthy the environment here really is, and how it compares to other cities around the World. So I did a little investigating.
Obviously, there is a vast amount of information out there on this subject, but hey, we don't want to be here all day, so...
Mercer, international financial services group have published a very useful list
A list of major World cities which considers the following criteria: Water Availability, Water Potability, Waste Removal, Sewage, Air Pollution and Traffic Congestion. Two hundred and twenty one cities are ranked from best to worst. Top of the list, in the number one position as the healthiest major city in the World is
Calgary in Canada, with an Eco-City Index (ECI) score of 145.7.
At the bottom of the list, in last place, at number two hundred and twenty one, is Port-au-Prince, capital city of Haiti, with an ECI of just 27.8.
But what about Bangkok, I hear you asking. Yeah yeah, we will get to that in a minute. First let's look at some of our Asian neighbors.
Singapore comes out very high on the list, top Asian city at number 22, with an ECI score of 132.4. Then
Kuala Lumpur is at 96,
Vientiane, capital of Laos, at 119,
Taipei at 124,
Hanoi at 137,
Phnom Penh at 158,
Manilla at 172,
Jakarta at 173,
Beijing at 181.
And finally, dwelling near the bottom of the list, keeping close company with, San Salvador, Bangalore, Beirut, is...
Bangkok at, cough-cough, 191, with the asthma-inducing Eco-City Index a mere 57.8.
Worse than I expected for sure. So, what can we do to ease the damage caused by living in such a toxic environment? Did someone say Air Conditioning? Grrr, don't get me started on that...
A strong yoga practice is very helpful - exhaling and stretching and sweating out some of the toxicity that might otherwise be trapped in the body.
Also within our sphere of influence is the choice of food that we eat, the products that we put on our skins, the type and the place of many of our activities, etc. Compared to other major World cities, Bangkok is definitely not over-endowed with choices for the discerning health conscious person. However, there are a few pockets of resistance. And with that in mind, I am compiling a totally subjective guide
Bangkok Bounty
Healthy restaurants and cafes, grocery stores, health giving Thai products and services, and much more. Hopefully an ever-expanding on-line beacon of Bangkok well-being. So if you have any suggestions for inclusion, please let me know anytime. Ill try to get the thing started and on-line in time for the next newsletter.
See you in class!
Namaste
... an aspiring pianist can never learn except little by little. If you wish to play melodies without first practicing, you can never play real melodies. The melodies you will play will be cacophonous and will make people suffer and hate you. It is the same with psychological ideas: to gain anything, long practice is necessary.
Try to accomplish very small things first. If at first you aim at big things you will never be anything. And your manifestations will act like cacophonous melodies and cause people to hate you.
G. I. Gurdjieff
Views from the Real World
