Save it for a rainy day

So my catching up on things, my getting back to work attitude, took a little longer than I imagined.

Sorry that I've been abit absent of late, I just didn't realise the weeks go by.

But I have managed to make head way in a few areas of my life.

As I said before I am a student, a Ph.D. student in fact. A scary idea, one thing I never imagined I would be doing. I have always had a natural love for learning and the human body. I am amazed at how it works and functions and have complete admiration for these wonderful beings that we are.

My other love is how to maintain this body to as close to perfect as can be. This being makes us who we are and creates everything we do. I want to help and work with my body, the way it was designed to do, to nourish and feed it what it needs and to be able to push it to its limits and strengthen every part to be better.

This is a tough task...

But actually only recently, and even writing this now I realise that the body is the centre of my interests and daily life. Not in a narcissistic kind of way, but in a sense that my body does everything for me, if I want to life my life, go out there and do the things I want to do, I need my body to be able to do this.

This brings together the key elements of my daily life, my job as such is for now being a student, studying about the body and what happens in disease. I practice Ashtanga yoga, a complete system for giving your body everything it could ever need, a way to purify and strengthen beyond any limit you ever imagined. This is my grounding and my way of taking care of my body, like giving my body a hug and saying I'm here, I'm looking after you and I believe you can do this. And then there is food.. this wonderful way of nourishing and providing your body with what it needs to keep going and to recover. This is giving your body a kiss, a treat and rewards for its work.

Wedding Love

Last weekend i went to the wedding of a very special friend of mine.

The place was beautiful, a chic, nature inspired hotel by the beach, in the mid-north of Portugal, Santa Cruz.

Ashtanga Yoga

I began practicing yoga when i was studying for my GCSE exams in secondary school. I told myself it was a way to calm my nerves, but really it was something that i had been interested in for a long time. I was always fascinated by the odd picture or text you saw in the papers, celebrating this wonderful practice for all its merits and healthy looking lifestyle.

I wanted that.

I  know i was only like 16, but i wanted to find something to challenge me, physically and in the end now i understand also mentally.

So i went to my local library and found a book called something like, Introduction to Yoga, a basic, teach yourself book.
So that's how i started. I slowly read the book, studying the pictures and trying to twist and sit into all the positions. I liked my (grown-up) regime of getting up early, practicing and trying to feel the benefits of it. Of course at this young and naive age, i think what i was after was the toned and flexible body from these pictures.

So each month i'd keep renewing my library book, lock myself away in my mum and dad's sitting room and practice this 'yoga'.
After a while i was eager to speak to other people who practiced, wondered what they did, i was also very interested in the whole lifestyle choices of a yogi too, the hippy-esque foods and healthy glow.

So i went to my first class, and it was everything that anyone who doesn't do yoga, thinks yoga is all about...

... Lots of women (a few brave men), in a after school hall room, slowly arriving and laying out their mats, and basically looking like they were having their weekly catch up.

Not the dynamic, sweat dripping experience i was craving for.

But i stuck it out, and i enjoyed it. Sure it wasn't that challenging, it was more typically sitting cross legged, looking at a candle kind of thing. But i was introduced to breathing techniques and it was a glimpse into a lifestyle i secretly felt at home in.

When i moved away to university i found a local class near my halls of residence. And this was getting there.. it was more challenging, but it didnt have the discipline that i now realise is what i enjoy most from Ashtanga yoga.