Yoga

To Understand

/ Sloan / 2 Comments

Soon soon hok. 007. Even in Thai his name is Bond, James Bond. Friday night my director invited me to dinner with her and her friends and after we finished an amazing meal we went and saw the new Bond movie, Skyfall. Even though the movie was dubbed over in Thai the action spoke for itself—there was a bad guy, there was a couple beautiful women, lots of guns and things exploded. I got the basic plot and understood the movie. Spoiler alert: He gets the bad guy and all is well at MI6.

007

007

Last week was our first full week in Kamphaeng Phet. I’m trying to establish some sort of routine, develop healthy habits and feel a sense of community. Again, my director invited my roommate and I to attend yoga class with her. Being familiar with yoga I wasn’t nervous about not getting the poses. Neung, song, sam…kaow. One, two, three…breathe in. It’s not difficult to understand if you are looking and listening.

Running the Historical Park each day I have been able to see and recognize (and surely they recognize the White Lady) many men who also enjoy a hot, sweaty run. Some smile. Some wave. Some nod their heads. Some don’t acknowledge the fellow runner, just like in the states it’s all about what you feel like doing. All this in recognition of us all being runners and enjoying the same high—no matter what side of the planet we’re on, it’s the same. We understand.

To understand another culture is one thing. To accept the fact that I am probably not going to learn Thai to fluency, I’m not going to be able to order a meal with out a crazy game of charades, I’m not going to learn all the vocabulary to get through an entire yoga class with out bending when I’m supposed to stand or breathing out when I’m supposed to breathe in—I know these facts. But the ability to understand is coming, it’s developing.

With that said, that doesn’t mean that this isn’t hard. It doesn’t mean that every day isn’t going to be a struggle, because it is. What it does mean is that I’m learning to grow. I’m learning to communicate in different ways. A simple attempt at the language brings a smile to the old ladies face who sold me some weird fruit I hadn’t seen before. Kahb kuhn, kaah. Thank you very much.

 

A smile is the best reaction. A smile is universally understood. In all the confusion, frustration and difficulties I find myself smiling. A smile of gratitude, a smile of uncertainty, and a smile a joy. Because you know what? I’m in THAILAND. How could I not smile at that fact?

Focus baby, just focus.

/ Sloan / Leave a comment

Typical conversation amongst friends:

“What do you want to do tonight?”

“Oooh, I dunno, grab a drink [at a loud bar with TVs], catch up [get drunk]?”

“Sounds good.”

 

Right? We’ve all had this conversation when trying to make time to meet up with people that we don’t see too often. It’s easy, convenient, and who doesn’t like a drink at happy hour?

 

Well, if you’re reading this you are either my friend and are just being nice (you know who you are!) or you are an active person and I bombard your Facebook or Twitter page every time I post—but somehow you get sucked back into reading this. (Thanks by the way!) We’re active people and most likely we surround ourselves with other active people.

 

I just had an extended trip back to where I lived, worked and went to school last week, I spread myself thin between Grand Rapids, Holland and St. Joe Michigan. My old roommate and I decided that instead of meeting up at dinnertime and drinking a few too many beers, we wanted to catch up over a morning coffee and then hit the matt. The yoga matt I mean! Emily has been going to Satya Yoga in Saugatuck, MI for a while and knew I’d love a class. This was the best way to begin the day and begin our day of catching up and making plans for future visits.

 

After my trip, I made plans to visit a friend in Pittsburgh, (about halfway home! Perfect!) Mid drive he texted and asked if I was into going to a Hot Yoga class that evening (heck yes! I screamed, and then promptly texted the same response back to him.) While the yoga in Saugatuck was more restorative this class at Amazing Yoga was not only amazing but was one hell of a work out! The instructor forced us to focus. Focus on our breathing, focus on our bellies, focus on the muscles we were using and focus on making sure we were using them correctly.

 

This is a new concept for me. Focus. Focus. Focus. It’s a great word. Not only am I focusing on using my muscles while I’m using them, I’m trying to focus on them to work harder and make sure I am using the correct ones to get the full effect of a run, cycle, yoga class, boxing work out…

 

Focus is a theme I’m trying to thread into the rest of my life as well. Each conversation we have is important, catching up over a beer is great, but focusing on what your friend is saying is what is going to be what’s important. These conversations we have everyday make us better friends, better companions and better people.

 

As you catch up with friends in life, move forward in your own life or make changes to, well, change, I urge you to remember to focus on what you’re doing in that moment. Work on one project at a time. Just be for a moment.

 

Whether catching up is over a beer, coffee, before you prepare to work your body. focus on what you are doing. It is so easy to be distracted by our phone, (which are now virtually computers in our pockets,) by television or by anything else that is around you.

 

I’m finding that the relationships I have are worth building and worth keeping, and the only way to accomplish both is to focus that energy to work the muscles, work the brain, and work the heart.