Mercy, mercy with me

I dawdled. But not only. I did yoga, I chatted with friends. But this was it. It's the last day in November. It shall be OK for me that it was another lazy day. It cannot go on like this, this is crystal clear......
I'm going to make a plan for tomorrow.
Up at 10 to 6...........

The yoga week has begun

I focused on the breath this morning during the Mysore class. Yes I felt stiff, but it went better with the practice. I was attentive. This was important. That's what it is, I thought, then yoga becomes meditation. I had to be attentive because I didn't like to injure myself. I worked on back bending. M: "Simply do it, don't thing so much of the result." I know that this advice is good.

We (M, C, and me) had lunch afterwards in an Indian restaurant. It's 3:30 p.m. now. It seemed to be a long lunch. I need this, too, to meet friends and to chat a bit.

Tomorrow I will practice alone without the energy of my yoginis around me and without the support of M.. Mysore class and home practice complement each other.

What to do now? I don't know........

Picture: Munich in the morning.

Morning practice

To practice in the morning and to practice at once after getting up makes a difference.
took shower, I walked around, I had a little breakfast already. All these activities wake my body up and I feel already more flexible than an hour ago. That makes me optimistic. Perhaps my yoga practice will be not that awfully painful, but perhaps average? I shall see.

Up

Oh, this is very good that I'm up that early. My challenge nowadays is to structure my day by myself. Less is default. When I want to have a prolific day, it's good advice to get up early. I prefer this challenge than to go to a company. I don't want to go back to that 9 to 5 activities!

At 9 I'll have a Mysore class (second series). I'm looking forward to it, even though I know it will be painful and I will be stiff. I felt both already when I walked around here. My practices in Dubai were not so intensive as I wished they were and I had some extra moon days. But now I'm back. (Break: I need another cup of coffee.) (Coffee is in preparation.) I will focus on the breath today. This helps to stand the stretching pain. I know that it is also helpful not to have expectations. With this in mind I will have fun and an enjoyable practice.

And afterwards C and I will have lunch together: She was in Sri Lanka, me in Dubai, there is a lot to talk about.

What else:
- laundry
- 2 hours I want to work on my book

PS: I do not publish comments anymore with links to a website that sells things. For a while anonymous post are no more allowed, too. I'm fed up with comments that lead to websites that offer Russian girls and Viagra. This is perhaps part of the game that spam is coming in. It was simply too much lately.

Ah, I was not so lazy

I did the laundry, my suitcase is unpacked and and and......

Lazy

I am lazy, even though there is enough to do. I just prepared another cup of coffee for myself. It's cold here. I realize: I arrived at home.....

I don't want to hear anything about crisis

I slowly become allergic when I only hear the word crisis.

It's freezing cold outside

Brrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhh.Cold and dry.
Brrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhh.

(Blogger removed the spelling check in the new version. They must learn to understand their bloggers. Damned. Many write in English as their second language and also the rest of the world needs it. I don't want to switch to the old version each and every time I want to publish anything. At least the spelling should be correct.)

NOW, the great confusion

Now is what is, nothing else. There is no past and now future. To exercise to be in the now is redundant as there is only now. We can exercise to be mindful. When I cut my vegetables with my sharp Japanese knife I have to be mindful if I don't like to risk to cut my finger.
Also dreaming of a bright future or worrying about the future or thinking of the past happens now and not tomorrow or yesterday. And these sort of thinking (dreaming) will always happen. Ramesh Balsekar distinguishes between the thinking mind and the working mind. But whatever the mind does it is in the now.

It's nothing else but judging when authors recommend to focus only on what the senses feel, see, hear, taste, smell now. Why not think about my grandma from time to time. She passed away a few years ago. To think of my grandma also happens in the here and now.
To be mindful is really an exercise that can enrich life (like yoga or meditation), but it has nothing to do with learning to be in the now, because nothing else exists. (To exercise to be in the here and now (nothing else is possible) is insofar not possible. To exercise to be mindful has nothing to do with enlightenment. Enlightenment is the understanding that we are not the doer, that life happens.)

So, no worrying is necessary. Interesting is the relation between thinking mind and working mind. Only dreaming might mean that one avoids to live. But also this happens in the here and now.

Only now exist. We cannot be not in the here and now. But we can dream now, or work now and it would be good if I stepped on my mat now to do yoga. And wishing this also happens now. Nothing else is possible but being in the here and now.

(This might be a slight difference, but it is a difference in seeing things.)

Yoga can build strength (and flexibility)

Yoga can build strength and in order to do jumping through strength is needed. The picture shows an exercise how to exercise uddyjana bandha. Without strong uddyjana bandha for me jumping through is not possible. 

The picture is taken in 2007 on Gran Canary, Spain.

My black coffee is the best

I'm up and it is still early in the morning. I'm enjoing my morning routine which starts with preparing  a cup of coffee for myself and checking my emails and facebook side.
It's nice to be at home again.
There is still one month left in 2009. This is something. I'm reminded of some soccer games. Sometimes in the last minute a team scores a goal, which can change the result. My book must be written. Now I have the time. One month is a long time there is time to do something prolific.
My yoga week starts on Sunday, this is today. I will do primary. I will focus on jumping backwards and forwards. Yesterday I read in the book by Gregor Maehle. In order to learn this vinyasa he recommends to do lolasana first and to hold it. The next step is to swing gently forwards and backwards. This is what I will try today.

Back in my ground station

I am not a gipsy. I love to have a ground station. From that ground station I fly away from time to time, but I always return like a peace dove.
I'm back in my villa motley. Yoga is on my mind. I just watched a few asanas practiced by Sharath. I shouldn't be so severe with myself, I thought. Perfection does not exist.
My movies that I made in Dubai shocked me, but I'm learning through them. One thing I've already changed. To go into upward facing dog is also a slow even movement. Most people go too fast into this pose.
I want to focus on the vinyasas. This shall be my focus for the next week. This implies exercising jumping through (forward and backward), but it also means the correct counting. Enough.

At the airport

We have to wait another 30 min till we can get on board. The flight will last more than 6 hours. I will try to sleep.

A last picture from the desert

Dinner in the desert

All the tourists sat down on cushions and had Arabic food before the belly dance. Without doubt it was a nice atmosphere.

At the camp in the desert

The men were smoking schischa. The women could get a henna painting on their hands. I did neither of it, but I watched the people.

Time to go to bed

Tomorrow at 4 a.m. we must get up. At 8 a.m. we fly back to good cold Germany. I come back, Dubai is a beautiful country.

Tourists in the desert

Belly dance of course

This was belly dance for the tourists. At the end 20 or more people were dancing on the stage.

The desert with its calm beauty

The dunes

There were a lot of such cars in the dunes. Up and down it went. It was something for the tourists, no doubt. The desert is beautiful after sunrise and before sunset, because then the light makes shadows. During the day the sand is boring as there is no structure. Aha.

Barfoot in the desert

I love to be barfoot. The sable was warm and soft. We weren't the only people there. It's a bit of an adventure to drive the dunes up and down.

Sunset in the desert

Needs no comment.

What can still be seen in the city Dubai

must wait till next time.

We decided....

..to stay in the garden close to the beach till lunch and till our trip starts.......

This is our last day here

The morning we'll spend in the garden of the hotel. I'll have time to do yoga. I have already admirers here. One man had watched me on one of the last days with his dark sunglasses. The next day he approached me and told me that he had try some of my poses and he fell over. It's obviously more demanding than it looks like.

And in the evening we have booked a trip to the desert with dinner and belly dance.
On Saturday early in the morning we'll fly back to Germany..........
But I'm still in Dubai and I will soon enjoy this most delicious breakfast downstairs.

Ah, black and gold and a mirror

It was our last dinner here. And it was again delicious. We sat outside today.

As it is Thanksgiving today they (the hotel) had invited a belly dancer. The highlight was that she held her breasts with one hand and threw her long brown hair forwards and backwards. Wilder and wilder she became till she continued circling her hips.a

Tomorrow we'll have dinner in the desert. We'll see a belly dance again. Ohhhhh.

Ah the yoga pose on the table: It is a fish pose, matsyasana.

A yoga practice happened

The secret is simply to go on. It's difficult and not possible to see a daily progress. I practised, not all asanas, but I practiced till I sweated. The body was not so flexible, I am on vacation, I like to play. I can be ambitious in Munich again. I arched back, that's something.
Lately I realized that my feet are too far apart when they are supposed to be hip width apart. This is the case in downdog. Hip width apart is not a huge distance usually. This is something I change.

Yoga time

I'm not so00000000 lazy. It's yoga time now. Why not practice in the late afternoon. The weather is ideal for a practice, not too hot, not too cold.

Currently reading

A lazy person's guide to success........:)

A relaxing day on the deck chair

That's it and I love it.

Today is a relaxing day in the garden close to the beach

The picture shows another beach here in that beautiful country.
Time to go to the deck chair (with my yoga mat).

Out of Dubai

Yes, this picture must be published, too.

...but I always look around

...and I find other motives that pleases me alike.
My impression so far from the Emirates: Outside the big cities is desert. It's interesting, but not so amazing. Amazing is what people have made out of such a place. The highrises in Dubai are so unique, so beautiful, shiny, symbolic.
People from all over the world live here, most of them love the international atmosphere. Only 20% of the inhabitants are locals. 20 % are from other Arabic countries, the rest of the people comes from elsewhere. Our guide was from Maroc.

A fort

The bus stopped for a 10 min picture session. This fort was built by the Portuguese.

One of the oldest mosques

We couldn't enter this old mosque, but we could climb up to that little mountain and tower.

To be on the road

To be on the road in Dubai is like in most cities nowadays, there is too much traffic everywhere and traffic jams every day.

Some more impressions of the Emirates

A market hall

A market hall in one of the Emirates.
It was funny, as soon as E and I were on the bus, we started sleeping again. We must have been tired. I am amazed how many pictures I made despite this fact. But from time to time we left the bus to take some pictures. On the bus again, I slept again. :)

There is beauty in everything

So it is there, outside of luxury Dubai.

I buy nothing.....

....oh, we had a coconut and these mini-bananas. But I don't need a carpet......

Out of the blue

Out of the blue I had this terrible headache yesterday. I was glad that E has always medcine with himself. At night I woke up and the headache started again, I took another pain killer. Now I feel better, but tired.

Dubai is a country with no poverty and no unemployment I learned yesterday. It's amazing to see what people have made out of a desert like above.

Another picture from the day trip

Yes, and now I must go to bed again, I need a few hours of sleep......

The Arabs in black and white

It's dry and warm in the desert

Everything must be watered.......

The desert

That's how the desert is, interesting, but not spectecular.

Me, me, me

The sea again on the other side

It's a place where people bath and relax.

On the road in oe of the 7 Emirates

The desert

Me in the desert

Soon my second Aspirin must help, then I go to bed again. Buh, this headache drives me crazy.

Friday market

Friday market is open every day. I was happy to show E also something new. He drank his first coconut there.

On the day trip

It' desert outside the city Dubai.

Migraine

I have migraine, I must go to bed.
It was an interesting day, a nice day trip.
But my migraine is so strong, I have to go to bed. Aua, aua, aua........
Please I want to sleep.

Friday market

This is the Friday market.......
We are at home again from our day trip and I have an awful headache.

Up at 6

"After Wednesday the vaccation stress is over", E told me. Today is the only time that we have to get up that early for the desert and East Coast tour. It was not easy to get up, but now I am up and I need a breakfast.
It's my moon day today. No yoga, just exploring this beautiful luxury country here is on the schedule.

Yesterday in the shuttle to the boat we talked with a couple from Florida. The man has been living here in Dubai for 4 years already and he meant that the Arabic women who are dressed in black from head to toe, so that one can see only the eyes are not always doing this for religious reason, but to protect the skin. It's tradition from the time when they used to live in the desert. However. I prefer clothes à la Western style.

Oh, E is up, too. Then we'll have breakfast on time......

Ah the table......

A quick pose on the table is a must. The table is so high that I cannot climb it alone. E has to lift me. It has to be. A good night pose, a back bending asana on the table in one of the aisles of that hotel is my last yoga action.

Ah, it is late,

and I'm tired. The boat tour was OK, but not so special. Best part was to get to the boat and to get back to the hotel, because I could see the highrises during that time. The food on the boat was average, perhaps below average. It doesn't matter.

The highest building of the world by now

Yeah, it is on the left side of this picture. All the lights belong to highrises. These buildings are amazing.