Finding Sanctuary amidst the chaos

Today is a good day.

Unlike other mornings recently I managed to get up with Alan and walk with him to the British Embassy..why? Well, that's another story and not for today...but I walked with him from Wanchai to Admiralty at which point we went our separate ways for the day. After a quick stop off at Starbucks for a necessary morning perk-me-up I wandered back out and soon found myself in Hong Kong Park, just steps away from all the hubbub of city life.

I can't say that is was like stepping into a sanctuary of peace and quiet...it was pretty busy even at 10am but it was rather wonderful to find this beautifully landscaped park among the high rise buildings that surround it. I love the contrast of nature and oh-so-modern buildings. It fascinates me.

There were school parties..young children sitting down in a very orderly fashion having an art lesson - at least that is what it looked like to me. All pointing in one direction with their white pads of paper, every so often looking up from their paper towards the same view of trees and skyscrapers. Lovely.

Then there were the weddings. Or rather the wedding photographs. In the short time I was in the park I saw 2 different parties trailing around with photographer close by.

Then of course there were plenty of people just like me. Tourists. Taking photos.

Finally though, near the end of my exploration I found a dead-end...a secluded corner hidden by trees and flanked by waterfalls. The sound of water falling into the pool below drowned out all the other noises. The traffic, the voices. This was my little slice of Sanctuary - and I sat there for quite some time, just letting the sound of the waterfalls work their magic for me. Nice.. I will return....

Yoga

I have been debating the whole new yoga centre thing for the last couple of weeks and today I finally went to try out a class at what I believe will probably be my yoga centre for the coming year. It is a beautiful centre, in a high-rise block, like most other yoga centres in Hong Kong, spread over 2 floors. The staff are friendly and polite and everyone removes their shoes before entering. Pretty much what I'm used to so far.

It has I think 3 studios, again, given my experience with yoga centres in Ottawa, sounds about right and a bonus for me, there is no hot studio :-) I don't have to feel like I "should" do a hot class every so often, just because it's there...just because I don't really want to but surely it's good for me, so I should...there's that word again... Anyway...no hot studio and I'm happy with that, I don't feel like I am losing out at all.

The changing facilities are just beautiful. Nicer than we have in our apartment. OK so there are more people queuing up to use them but really, very nice and clean and a pleasure to use. They even provide towels for your personal use so you don't have to remember to take one and neither do you have to lug it home and wash it afterwards. They have hairdryers, lots of them. Wow. Now I am really impressed. To be fair, I know that other centres here do all this stuff too...it seems to be the norm and I like it. Having said all that, of course these things are great but the most important thing(s) in any yoga centre, are of course the teachers. Are their classes empowering, compassionate, safe but challenging and do they leave you feeling relaxed and open? At least these are the things I ask of a yoga class, other people may have other criteria, but for me these are the most important things.

So I am led to my complimentary class. I chose a Hatha Yoga class and the receptionist insisted that I try a Beginner class the first time. Fine with me...it's been a while since I attended an actual yoga class with all the travelling and disruption to my lifestyle recently. A beginners class actually sounds perfect.

They ask that you don't take your own mat as they provide them for you and when you enter the immaculate, mirrored room their black mats are all perfectly positioned and almost gleaming with cleanliness! Another pleasant surprise. The mats are staggered so that when we stretch we don't have to hold hands with our neighbours and everyone gets a decent view of the teacher. They have beautifully rolled hand towels placed in little pigeon holes, bit like mail slots for each student to claim and take back to their mat, in case they should perspire during their practice. It's all terribly organised. Yogically, I'm not used to this but again, I like it.

Before we begin our teacher asks if anyone is pregnant. There are a few girlish giggles but nobody owns up. He asks again - apparently he was told there was a pregnant lady in the room...nope, nobody confesses. We are about to begin when another student enters..a woman..immediately he asks her if she is pregnant...she looks a bit shocked but yes..finally, he has found his special student and I have to say, she did get a lot of attention. And I know this because she was directly in front of me. I'm not sure she wanted quite that much attention but the teacher was quite adamant about what she should and should not do. There was more hands-on assisting and adjusting in that classroom than I'd experienced in any other class. Ever. It was quite an experience.

My own practice has changed recently. Not least because a lot of things in my life have changed and my practice has adapted but also because I did some training with Paul Grilley. I am going to go "all out" and say that this was for me, the best training I have ever taken. I learned lots. The teaching was compassionate but fun. A lot of fun...lots of laughs, laughing that helped lift us up from the intensity of learning and remind us that we are all human. It was a fabulous 2 weeks and instrumental to how I now practice yoga. To be honest, it's not that I do it completely differently now...I was always leaning towards this style but now I understand why I prefer to practice this way and I've become somewhat reluctant to practice it any other way.

Then came my class today. I expected it to challenge my own beliefs about yoga teaching and it did. I respect that there are many different styles and ways of teaching yoga out there. There are so many teachers with different bodies, and different backgrounds, it is only natural. What I'm looking for is a Paul Grilley yoga centre in Hong Kong but I'm not sure there is such a thing. Yet. Or maybe there is and I haven't found it yet! For now though, my internal debate goes on.

Is my personal practice too compassionate?

It certainly became more compassionate over the summer with the onset of a couple of different injuries and aches and pains. To practice yoga at all for a while I had to take it extremely easily. For a while I stuck purely with restorative yoga and gradually progressed back to hatha and yin - my preferred styles but the pace was slower and gentler than it had been before the injuries. I was worried I would injure myself again if I did too much too soon. Then came the Grilley training, right on the back of my recovery. I eased back into my yin (and yang) practice over those 2 weeks and it felt wonderful. It felt safe. It felt like MY yoga, for MY body. I returned to Canada, feeling New and Healed, it was fabulous.

Now though, I'm not in Canada...I'm in Hong Kong. Life is different. The culture is different. My days are wide open, waiting to be filled. I'm free like I have never been free before. To try something new. To do nothing. It's my choice. Seems ironic in a country where nobody seems to have free time, where they are always dashing to the next appointment.

Of course, I want to try something new, I'm just not sure what yet.

While I wait for this decision to evolve, I do know that I want to practice yoga, with a teacher, in a studio. It's been a while since I had any regular guidance on my own practice. However, finding a teacher who truly resonates for me these days is not as easy as it used to be. How do you know you can trust them with your body? My body is not as young as it used to be and needs more care than it used to. I've learned how to care for it over the years I've been practicing yoga but I also have an insight into how easily we can harm ourselves, even through our own yoga practice if we are not truly present within that practice. I've also heard horror stories about teachers who try and force their students into postures that their bodies are just not built to accommodate. I guess like anyone else in any other country, I go to class, I evaluate my experience and decide whether that teacher is for me or not. It's that simple.

They say that the teacher shows up when you're ready...nobody ever said you'd seek that teacher out and love them to bits for eternity...learning can be challenging in many ways. Perhaps it is time for me to allow another teacher to take me to my edge. It's probably about time. 2009 has been quite tough, personally, and my refuge has often been yoga. Gentle yoga. Compassionate yoga. More compassionate than ever. Perhaps in order to make the most of this year ahead, I need to be taken to my edge on a more regular basis...stepping away from the comfortable poses of old and just see where I end up.

The View

So although we don't yet have our furniture from home, we do now have a few essentials items - thankfully amongst these a brand new (very comfy) bed. And...this is my favourite thing about the apartment..the view from the bedroom. The windows are dual aspect and if you look in the other direction the view is quite different...high rise buildings and a distant harbour view but if you sit in bed with the curtains pulled back, this is what you get. Not bad.

The first morning I spent alone in the apartment, I pulled out my yoga mat and pulled back the curtains and enjoyed an amazing yoga practice overlooking the mountainside, watching little fluffy white clouds pass over the top of The Peak, glimpsing little bits of blue sky. Unfortunately I didn't take this photo that day but this is a more common view - a bit hazy and grey but still beautiful in it's own way.

Our Apartment

So this is our apartment building. Bamboo Grove. It is 35 floors high and consists of 6 towers comprising 345 apartments. We are on the 22nd floor - a good way up and the view is good. In one direction we overlook the green mountain side and on the other an array of high rise buildings and if we squint a little then we can see the Harbour through the skyscrapers. In fact from Alan's study there is a pretty good view of the evening Light Show which performs every single day from around 6.30pm.

This of course is Alan..outside the entrance to Bamboo Grove where one just has to stand for usually less than 30 seconds before a taxi drives by ready to take you

wherever you want to go...it's not so bad not having a car here with a taxi service this good!

Our first Meal in The Apartment

Since we moved into the Apartment we have never appreciated tables and chairs quite so much. It is a treat and a luxury to eat at a restaurant...at a table - wow..how decadent! :-)

This was taken almost 2 weeks ago. The good news is that we do now have a proper chair each and a 2 trays so we no longer have to sit on the floor but we are still longing to see our furniture again...ETA in to HK port is 21 November.

Everything is Different

So it sounds like an obvious statement and perhaps your first impression of this is that it's rather inconsequential. And to an extent I believe it is. We can all adapt if we want to, as challenging as it can feel at times. But "Different" does takes some getting used to, and the more things that are different, the more challenging Different can feel.

Those who know me will know that I'm quite particular about food, about what I eat..what's good for me...what I like the taste of, the texture of etc. Yesterday I tried dim sum for the first time. No big deal really...we went, we ate, we left. The whole experience was over in a hour. Before we got to the restaurant, which by the way, was reminiscent of a room used to host a very large, impersonal wedding reception, with lots and lots of round tables and a vast array of waiting staff milling about with trolleys of food, I adjusted my "normal" attitude to food as much as I could and tried to be open to the food that was about to be placed in front of me, reminding myself that millions of people eat it all time...how bad can it be? As it happens, it was all fine...our hostess thought to ask about any dietary preferences before the food arrived so that meant I wasn't presented with anything too outlandish, which helped :-) By my standards, I did pretty well but yesterday afternoon was not so good for me. I felt nauseous and my belly hurt. Yes I had surrendered my boundaries to accommodate something new but my body was letting me know that maybe, just maybe...that wasn't the best thing, for me.

So now I'm caught in a place I keep finding myself lately and it's interesting to observe. The question is, how much should we adapt to our surroundings to fit in to a new culture, to belong and most importantly to try new things and gain new experiences and how much should we just trust our own instincts about what is good for us? Actually, when I see it written like that, for me there is no deliberation...Trust your instincts and your body! However, I sometimes have trouble distinguishing between Instinct and Fear and herein lies my problem. Instinct, we need to learn to trust. Fear, we need to learn to overcome.

There are I believe, many people out there who have no trouble trying new stuff, whether it be food or something else. I admire these people and often wish I could be more like them. So I try...but often it backfires. Sometimes I will have a wonderful experience and wonder what all the fuss was about...but other times, there is something deeper within me that continues to shake it's head and say...Hmm...see...told you so...it's not for you!

Of course all this soul-searching is nothing much to do with whether I like dim sum or not but yesterday dim sum for me was a trigger that set me thinking and this is how it goes for me, in a new country. In fact, these days, in any country! I continue to question my reactions to things over and over and that question is...Fear...or Instinct?

My First Blog

Welcome to my first ever Blog!

I thought about writing a Blog or something similar when we first moved from the UK to Ottawa, to record the experience and to keep friends and family at home up to date with our new life, but due the the very Real Experience taking over that new life, it never actually happened. A few entries made it to my personal journal, and to be honest, it's maybe better that they remain there as it was a somewhat emotional journey for me, especially for the first year. I would say it takes this long to truly find your feet in a new city.

I made a point of re-reading my little green journal, which has captured some wonderfully emotional moments over the last 3 years, on the plane ride from Toronto to Hong Kong, a long 16 hour flight, just to remind myself what I was letting myself in for, all over again. Parts of it were definitely entertaining, some bits made me laugh out loud, other bits made me wonder why on earth I wanted to move from a country I had just got to grips with and start afresh in another totally foreign land! More than anything though, I was left with the desire not to miss the opportunity to record my thoughts and feelings on this Part II of the Big Adventure. So, here I am...attempting my first Blog just 3 weeks in to The Asian Chapter.

My main intention, in blogging, is to record the ups and downs of our year in Hong Kong. To capture on paper the highs and the lows, because there will be both. Life is about balance...yin and yang...I fully believe that and I have no problem with a few life lessons along the way. That is after all, how we learn and get stronger and ready to face yet more of life's challenges!

In addition to my own need to capture this part of our life..mine and Alan's...I confess my desire to keep in touch with family and friends around the world and by sharing snippets of our life on a regular basis, I will feel closer to them and I hope, they will in turn feel a bit closer to me, despite the physical distance. After all, simply in time zone terms we are a whole 12 hrs away from our Home and friends in Canada and 8 hours from our family and friends in the UK. It's hard to keep in touch with this additional complication - I know..I've been practicing for the last 3.5 yrs!

As I begin to write, I have no idea in reality, how many people will read this and neither do I care.... but if you are reading, it would be nice to know, so do not be shy about adding your own comments or simply letting me know you're there....